Homily:
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity – Cycle C
When
I was a kid, I was fascinated by mechanical things. (Well, to be honest, I still am.) One of my favorite toys were the “Transformers”,
which was a toy that transformed from a vehicle of some sort (a car, truck, or
an airplane) into a robot. I loved them
because I could play with them and figure out how they transformed from the
vehicle to the robot and back again.
These toys always came with instructions on how to transform them, but I
almost never looked at them; I was so fascinated by figuring it out on my own.
There
were times, however, when I had to consult the instructions. Often, what I found out was that, aside from
discovering how to correctly transform the toy, there was some other feature about
the toy that I didn’t know about (a secret compartment or something) and so my
enjoyment was enhanced. What I
discovered was that my own fascination and ability to figure things out only
went so far. At some point, I needed
something from outside of me to help me know everything there was to know about
the toy.
Now,
we all have this inherent ability to figure things out (although some of us
have a greater interest in doing it than others). Thus the created universe is open to us. We have proven to ourselves that all that is
needed to unlock the secrets of the universe is our time, effort, and
commitment to discovering them; and our incredible technological advances are
proving this very fact. Believe it or
not, this also applies to God. Let me
explain.
I
dare to say that most of us learned about God by what has been handed down to
us from parents, grandparents, our priests and religious education
catechists. This, however, is not the
only way to know that God exists. The
fact of the matter is the existence of God is a conclusion to which we can come
solely using our reason alone. It’s not
easy, of course, but much like my figuring out how to transform my toys and
much like we are figuring out the deep mysteries of the universe, with enough
time and effort, we can conclude—from reason alone—that God exists.
Saint
Thomas Aquinas, in fact, gave us five ways to prove God’s existence that come
from reasonably thinking about creation itself.
For example: we all know that nothing moves without being moved by some
impulse: either from inside of itself or outside of itself. (The rock doesn’t turn over on its own,
right?) Well, the sequence of motion had
to start somewhere, right? I mean there
had to be something that was before all things that started the first thing in
motion, right? Otherwise we couldn’t
explain why there is motion at all. This
first “unmoved mover”, Saint Thomas has said, “is what we call ‘God’”.
You
can see, of course, that this only tells us that the one that we call “God”
exists, but that it doesn’t tell us much about who God is, in himself. In other words, we can know that there is a “supreme
being” who existed before all things and thus is the source of the existence of
all things, but we cannot know that he is three persons in the one
Godhead. To know who God is in himself
requires something beyond what we can reason: an instruction manual from the creator
of it all. In other words, that God
reveal himself to us.
What
a blessing it is, then, that God has revealed himself to us as a communion of three
persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—who are all of the same substance—the eternal,
all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present God.
It is for this reason that we celebrate this particular feast, the
solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity: to honor God in who he is in himself and to
give thanks to him for revealing himself to us and for what who he is means for
us. In fact, our readings today point to
how who God is in himself—this plurality of persons—has benefitted us.
In
the first reading from the book of Proverbs, we hear how wisdom was with God before
all things were and how wisdom was the “craftsman” at the side of God, the
Father, as he created the world. This
reveals not only that God, the Father, is the author of life, but that he
created all life in wisdom, giving order and wise sense to the world so that it
could be a place of beauty and harmony.
In
the second reading from Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans, we hear how we have
regained “peace” with God through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is the
Second Person of the Trinity. For this
reason we have true hope (that is assurance of things not yet achieved),
because it is not through our (always faulty) efforts that we hope to achieved
this peace, but rather through the perfect effort of God who become man for us.
Finally,
in the Gospel reading, we read that Jesus would send us the Holy Spirit as the
gift of his enduring presence that will remind us of all that he taught us and
reveal to us the fullness of truth as we become capable of receiving it. It is this revelation of the Holy Spirit—and Jesus’
revelation that he, the Father, and the Spirit are one—that completes the
revelation of who God is, so that we may not be afraid of his power, but rather
that we might approach him, because we know him.
Nonetheless,
the problem of “how” God can be three persons yet only one being remains
unresolved. In fact, no “taking it apart”
by our own efforts will ever reveal enough about the Holy Trinity for us to
ever understand it fully. That’s okay,
however, because this truth is not like the truths of physics or chemistry:
they aren’t truths that, once understood, are then for us to use and
manipulate. Rather, it is a truth to be admired;
a truth that should lead us to adoration because of its sublime beauty.
Knowing,
however, that we are destined to live in communion with the Divine Trinity, we
can live in this world of suffering and never despair; because, as Saint Paul
said in today’s second reading “affliction produces endurance, and endurance,
proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint…” This, my brothers and sisters, is what we must
proclaim to the world—and what we are especially trying to proclaim in this
Year of Mercy—that the suffering of this world is not all there is, but that
real hope for a life of peace exists and can be ours when we have faith in
Jesus, the Divine Son of God who became incarnate for us.
Let
us, then, allow ourselves to be animated by this celebration today—especially by
the communion with God that we share at this table—to go forth and proclaim
this truth with our lives and thus give hope to all those in despair, so that
all might know the joy that faith in God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
brings to those who put their trust in him.
Given
at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – May 21st & 22nd,
2016
No comments:
Post a Comment