Homily: Solemnity of the Holy Trinity (Year C)

I have added a video of this homily below. The text follows.

Readings: Prv 8:22-31; Ps 8; Rom 5:1-5; Jn 16:12-15 
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22 years ago I was ordained a deacon on the Saturday before Trinity Sunday, and that happens to be today. 

During our little celebration following the ordination, my pastor said, "You know, deacon, since you and I minister at Holy Trinity Parish, I think you should preach at the 9 o'clock Mass tomorrow. After all it's Trinity Sunday."

I was actually hoping for maybe a few days to prepare my first homily, but no, it would be the very next morning. Actually, I think it was a pretty good homily, and I wish I'd saved a copy so I could use it again today. But it's gone and I can't recall a word of it. Sadly, I suspect this homily won't be nearly as good.

Yes, indeed, today is Trinity Sunday, or as it's officially called, "The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity." It's the day we celebrate what must be considered the key tenet of our faith as Christians: the Trinity

Interestingly, though, the word, Trinity, cannot be found anywhere in Sacred Scripture. But the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, points to the Trinity on many different occasions.

The Trinity is perhaps most evident in the very last words of Matthew's Gospel when the risen Jesus gives His great commission to the disciples:

"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" [Mt 28:19-20].

We encounter the Trinity, too, in those opening verses of Genesis:

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth...and the Spirit of God was moving..." [Gn 1:1-2].

...and the opening words of John's Gospel:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" [Jn 1:1].

Yes, Father, Son, and Spirit present from eternity.

The Trinity at Creation

We encounter another example in today's Gospel passage from John [Jn 16:12-13], where Jesus speaks of Himself, the Holy Spirit, and the Father as three distinct Persons. And so It's here and elsewhere that we find the Trinity embedded in Scripture: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - Creator, Savior, and Sanctifier.

You and I call on the Trinity whenever we make the Sign of the Cross and lift up our prayer in the name of this Blessed Trinity. And yet how many of us really understand this divine relationship, this dogma that in one God there are three divine persons? 

St. Augustine

Over 1,500 years ago St. Augustine answered this question with one of his own: 

"Who can understand the Trinity? ...Who, when they speak of it, also know of what they speak?"

The answer, of course, is: nobody. For the Trinity is perhaps the mystery of mysteries. And yet, we strive to understand at least something of this divine relationship as it's been revealed to us. But we have to be careful. Our theology can sometimes blind us to the simpler truths that God reveals. Let me give you an example.

I'm sure you all remember the scene in which Jesus asks the disciples [Mt 16:13-16]:

"Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"

They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"

Now just image Simon Peter, speaking as a modern theologian and responding like this:

"You are the Logos, one of three co-eternal, consubstantial divine persons, the hypostases of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Although the three are distinct, you are one substance, essence, and nature, always distinct and yet working inseparably, and interpenetrating each other and causing no division."

And hearing that, Jesus might well have said, "What?"

Jesus and Peter at Caesarea Philippi

You see, sometimes our theology can get in the way of our faith. In truth Simon Peter replied with these glorious words:

"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

And like Peter, you and I hear those words, and in faith, we understand. Like Peter we know that Jesus is a distinct person and we believe, too, what Jesus reveals about His relationship with Father and the Holy Spirit. It's a relationship in which neither Father, nor Son, nor Holy Spirit exists in separation or acts in isolation. The Three are always as One.

This, brothers and sisters, is enough for me.

You see, if we really want to define the Trinity, we can define it with one four-letter word. The Trinity is Love. In the Trinity we see the same kind of love that God demands of us; for we are called to love God and love each other.

Our personal experiences of love, the deep love between husband and wife, the love of strong, long-held friendships, the sacrificial love of a mother for her child - all of these give us a glimpse, if only a glimpse, into the love that is the Trinity.

That's right, echoing St. John we proclaim that "God is Love" [1 Jn 4:8], the Trinity is Love. In loving one another we can experience the delight and beauty of close human relationships, of being there for each other. This is something enriching and satisfying - indeed, mutually life-giving!

If the very essence of the Trinity is constant, enduring love, then the mother of a newborn infant must grasp something of the doctrine of the Trinity as she lies awake in a darkened room and listens to the sound of her baby's breathing. Yes, the love of the Trinity is a vigilant love.

If the essence of the Trinity is ever-giving love, then the care-giving spouse of an Alzheimer's patient or the parent of a special needs child experiences the fury with which God protects, nurtures, and holds the most vulnerable close to His heart.  

Yes, our intellectual, theological descriptions of the Holy Trinity so often fail to convey the true nature of the love that flows from the very inner life of God.

About 25 or 30 years ago I was waiting to board a plane at Dulles International Airport outside Washington. This was back in the day when family and friends could actually meet you at the gate. Remember those days?

Anyway, as I waited, an El Al flight from Tel Aviv landed and the passengers began to file into the terminal. One young man, in his thirties and wearing a yarmulke, stepped from the jet-way and looked anxiously around the waiting room.

Just then a small boy broke away from his mother, ran to the man and jumped into his arms, all the while shouting, "Abba! Abba!" The love on the man's face was something very special indeed.

If our souls call out to the Father, "Abba! Abba!" --"Daddy! Daddy!" -- can you imagine the look of delight on the face of God? Would that we could see it! But this demonstration of love and all other expressions of human love are mere shadows of God's enduring love. 

Yes, the Trinity exists in a communion of love. And as the Trinity reaches outside itself into our world, a world that it created and sustains, there's a divine collaboration among the Three.

The Father loved us so much as to give us his Only Begotten Son. Through this love, the Son gave up his life for our sake. And through the Holy Spirit we can accept within us and extend to others the same love with which God loves us.  It's through the Spirit that we are enabled to mirror God's love on earth, to love each other as we are loved.

And so we pray in the liturgy to our Heavenly Father, "through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever."