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homily – June 3

Trinity Sunday

Today we celebrate the feast and mystery of the Holy Trinity. As I’ve said before, a mystery is not something of which we can know nothing; a mystery is something of which we cannot know everything. We are given a glimpse into the mystery of God through the teachings of Jesus. Through the scriptures we’ve come to know that the inner life of God is a life of relationships.

In John’s first letter to the church he teaches us what is the most important thing we should know about God. God is love and whoever abides, lives and acts in love, abides, lives in God and God lives, and is seen in such a person.

John also writes,” Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love. God’s love for us was revealed when God sent His Son into the world so that we could have life through Him. This is the love I mean, not our love for God but God’s love for us when God sent His Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away. My dear people, since God has loved us so much we too should love one another.”

Remember the conversation Jesus has with his friends the night before He was to die? He told His disciples, “By this will all know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for the other.”

The love Jesus and John are talking about is a self giving love, God so loved the world God gave what was most precious to Himself, He gave His Son to the world and the Son so loved us, He gave us what was most precious to Himself, His very life. As St. Paul tells us, “what proves God loves us is that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

A theologian described the mystery of the Trinity, the mystery of God in these terms – “the lover, the beloved and the love between.”

The mystery of the Trinity is not some kind of brainy speculation by scholars. It is the way we experience and mirror God in our world. The way we live our lives as Christians is the Trinity in action.

When we think of God the Father we think of creator of heaven and earth, the life giver. So in our lives when, through encouraging words and actions we help others grow in any way, when, through our presence, we help a person through a crisis or some rough spot in their live, when we recognize and encourage a young person’s abilities and talents, when we rise above a temptation to racism or bigotry and try to respect men and women of other faiths, cultures, life styles, when we do what we can to heal our wounded earth, and especially in all your efforts at parenting and guiding your sons and daughters – in all these things we share in the life giving action of God the Father, creator, Who loving created and sustains all things.

Whenever and however we try to heal broken relationships, when we seek reconciliation or offer forgiveness to others, when we try to make things right between ourselves and others we are sharing in the redeeming work of Jesus, the Son of God Who lovingly sacrificed His life for us and reconciled us to God, making peace by His blood on the cross.

When in the living of our lives we are inspired and fired by positive ideas, when we have the courage to follow a new, fresh, creative insight into how to better our lives or the lives of others, when we are open enough to appreciate the goodness of other people, when we are moved by the beauty of creation to praise and thank God we are sharing in the life giving and life enriching work of the Holy Spirit.

As we continue to celebrate this Mass and this feast we can pray for ourselves and for each other that, as always, in the ordinary living of our ordinary lives each of us will experience and mirror the loving and life giving activity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. May every aspect of our lives as Christians really be the Trinity in action.

This Homily entry was posted on Sunday, June 3rd, 2007.