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Homily – May 27, 2018

Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity. This is a mystery basic to our faith as Christians – this is the mystery that separates us from the great faiths of Judaism and Islam. They too believe in the one God, the Father of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But we believe that the “ God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob loved us so much He sent His Son to the world – not to condemn the world – but in order that the world, that we might be saved thru him.

We call the Trinity a mystery – a mystery is not something of which we can know nothing – a mystery is something of which we cannot know everything. Even when we see God face to face we will not, we cannot completely comprehend the wonder of God – for God is beyond the limited capabilities of our human minds.

This really shouldn’t come as a surprise – there are many times we are a mystery to ourselves – why did I do this – why did I say that – we are mysteries.

What this mystery teaches us in that the inner life of God is a life of relationships – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We pray in the Mass – all life, all holiness comes from you Father, thru your son Jesus Christ our Lord, by the workings of the Holy Spirit. And thru God’s goodness we are invited into those relationships when we were baptized God’s Holy Spirit was poured into our very being and gives us the boldness to call God – Father/Mother – God’s Holy Spirit permeates our very being, molding and fashioning us into the image of God’s Son Jesus Christ. St. Paul tells us ‘The Spirit bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God.’

The creative, life giving, love giving relationship of the Trinity is to be the model of all our relationships. Our very existence springs from the creative love relationship of our mother and father. Our whole lives are lived in relationships – the life and death of each of us has its influence on others. We do not go thru life untouched or un-touching.

Instead of trying to sort out the mystery of the Trinity we can use this feast to sort out the mystery of ourselves. We can use this feast to look at the health of our personal relationships. How creative, how life giving, how healing we are in our relationships – husband/ wife – mother/ father – brother/ sister / friend or lover / neighbour/stranger.

On this feast of the Trinity we can ask the question – in my relationships am I a source of life, love, growth, healing, forgiving. Do I enrich the lives of others by my friendship – are people better people thru their friendship with me? Do I encourage, foster the gifts and abilities of others. Do I give my spouse, my sons or daughters, my friends, the freedom to be themselves, to find their own way? Is my friendship strong enough that I am willing to confront or face up to issues that are not healthy, that can weaken my relationship? In any and all of my relationships am I dependable, trustworthy, and faithful?

Forming and maintaining good healthy relationships is not easy. Friends ‘fall out ‘husbands and wives split, parents and children are alienated. That’s why it’s important to question ourselves – am I a control freak – am I a demanding person, a needy person, do I try to manipulate, dominate family or friends. Does everything have to center of me? Living in healthy, life giving relationships is a life time task. When all is said and done – our whole lives will be judged on how we lived our many relationships – with family, friends or strangers – These are the facts by which our lives will be judged – I was hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned – and you were there for me – welcome into the eternal life giving relationship of Father, Son and Spirit – for as often as you did these things to one of these, the least of mine, you did it to me.

This past year Pope Francis issued a letter to the world on the the environmental crises facing us all but denied by many. We really have messed up our relationships with the rest of Earth’s life systems, systems that support and sustain our lives. To satisfy our need for more and more we have polluted Earth’s lakes and rivers with our wastes from pulp mills and mines. We’ve polluted Earth’s air with toxic fumes and the soil with pesticides. We’ve ignored the fact that we are not lords of creation; we are kin, we are family with all other life forms on our common home, Mother Earth. You’ve heard me say this many times, ‘the earth does not belong to us, we belong to the earth and what we do to the earth we do to ourselves. We did not weave the web of life; we are a strand in the web and what we do to the web we do to ourselves. We humans have placed a great strain on our relationships with the rest of God’s good creation. The church, even common sense, calls us to live simply that others may simply live and to see that Earth’s bounty is shared equally by whole human family.

As we continue to celebrate this feast of the Blessed Trinity, this feast of relationships we pray for the ability to always live in holy, life giving, life sustaining, life healing relationships with all those who come into our lives.

This Homily entry was posted on Sunday, May 27th, 2018.