Homily: Most Holy Trinity – Cycle A
My name is Fr. Dominic Petan, and I am the Vicar for Clergy and Director of Seminarian Formation for our Diocese. Many of you already know me and I am so grateful to be here with you all to share in this First Mass of Thanksgiving for Fr. Jacob Miller. I have to say that, having gotten to know many of you in this pastorate, I am both proud for you and proud with you: proud for you, that a son of your pastorate has been ordained to the priesthood, and proud with you, because I myself count him as a brother and so join you in acknowledging how happy we are to see him ordained. And that we are also celebrating Fr. Marty’s 40th anniversary of priesthood today should just add to our joy and the pride we all should feel for the ways that God has poured out his blessings on us here.
I would also like to note the presence of someone else who I know had a big impact on Fr. Miller–someone who is here spiritually, not physically–and that is Fr. Christopher Roberts. Yesterday, at the Mass of Ordination, I watched as Fr. Logsdon came to lay hands on (then still Deacon) Jacob and I was immediately brought to tears as I thought both of his current pastor, and how proud he must be to lay hands on him at his ordination, but also of his previous pastor, and how proud he would have been to have done the same. And I thought about how sad it is for us all that he is not with us now physically to celebrate. I was consoled, however, by the thought that he was surely with us spiritually at the Mass yesterday, and am consoled now by the belief that he is with us here at this Mass in the same way.
Perhaps that is enough of my emotional musings for this homily (though, they are likely to resurface at some point along the way). Let us turn now to the celebration at hand. I am never one to dismiss the coincidence of events as being merely coincidence, and so I find it meaningful that we celebrate this Mass of Thanksgiving for the ordination of Fr. Miller to the priesthood on this first Sunday after returning to Ordinary Time. This Mass of Thanksgiving naturally invites us to look back at all of the gifts and blessings that God has poured out on Fr. Miller over these last years, leading to this day, while also this return to Ordinary Time invites us to look back on all the gifts and blessings that God has poured out on all of us during the Lent and Easter seasons that we have just completed. In both, we are invited to celebrate all that God has done and to give thanks.
The way that the Church invites us to celebrate all that he done for us during the Lent and Easter seasons is by inviting us to celebrate who God is in himself–that is, the Most Holy Trinity: the eternal, all-powerful being—who is being itself—who has revealed himself to us as three distinct persons, yet one being. We celebrate this because, in revealing himself to us, God reveals also that he wants to be in relationship with us, his creation, who, although participating in the one being that he is in himself, are distinct creatures, nonetheless.
Perhaps the question might come to us, “Is this really a big deal?” In other words, “Does it really matter for us to know these details about who God is?” This is a good question to ask because it gets at the heart of what religion is about. Many people believe that religion is just a way to define morality. In other words, many people believe that religion is just a way to explain why we must follow certain rules about our behavior that seem to be common for everyone. (For example, “Thou shall not kill.” Everyone kind of knows this, instinctively, and religion, many say, is just a way of giving a “mythical origin” to this behavior we commonly observe.) Friends, if this is the case, then knowing the details about who God is doesn’t really matter and celebrating God as a Trinity of Divine Persons isn’t important. That is to say: if God is just the rule giver, then it’s not terribly important that we know him personally.
Thankfully, religion is not about defining the rules for our behavior, but rather it is about the invitation that God makes to us to be in relationship with him and, therefore, about understanding how we can be in relationship with him. [REPEAT] In this light, then, it is very important that we understand the details about who God is. Therefore, it is a big deal that God has revealed himself as a Trinity of Divine Persons, since it helps us to enter more deeply into a relationship with him (which, ultimately, we do by ordering our behaviors rightly: that is, by “following the rules”).
And so, how do I know this? Well, in part, it’s by the scriptures that we have heard proclaimed today. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life.” God literally loved all creation into being. In other words, out of a desire that beings other than himself might delight in the love that he is in himself, he fashioned the whole created universe and placed us, the human race, made in his image and likeness, in it so that we might share in his love. When the human race fell from this grace through sin, God didn’t stop loving us, but rather set into motion the plan to restore us to his grace and, thus, to share fully in his love again. He did this by revealing himself to the human race over the centuries: all the way from Abraham and his descendants—namely, Moses and the Israelite people—up to the time when God himself took on our human nature in Christ Jesus, and, ultimately, by dwelling in believers through the Holy Spirit. In all this, he showed over and over again the truth that Saint John reveals to us: namely, that “God so loved the world…”
This invitation to know him and to be in relationship with him continues to be extended to us today. Because when we, by the light of grace, come to understand who we are (that is, creatures loved into being by our Creator), as well as when we come to understand for what we were made (that is, to partake in the supreme happiness of love that God is in himself), then we come to understand how it is that we should order our lives (that is, by what rules we should live in order to realize the purpose for our existence). I can assure you that Fr. Miller did not pursue ordination in order to be an arbiter of the rules. Rather, as he came to understand who he is–a son deeply loved by God–and as he came to understand for what he was made–to be happy with God for eternity–then he came to understand how he needed to order his life in order to achieve that end; and, in doing so, he discovered God’s loving call to the priesthood. This is the purpose of religion not only for those called to religious vocations, but rather for each and every one of us.
Knowing who God is in himself, therefore—a Trinity of Divine Persons, perfectly united as One, who created us to be united to him in his uncreated Unity—helps each of us to turn away from the things of this world that keep us from that Unity so that we might receive from God the life of eternal bliss for which we were made. Thus, we spend an entire Sabbath Day celebrating God for who he is in himself and honoring him for revealing the truth about himself to us. (No big deal, right?) ///
Beyond celebration and honor, however, what should our response be to this great truth? In other words, knowing what we know because of God’s self-revelation, what should our attitude to God be? The answer is: trust. Aside from being a Trinity of Divine Persons, God has revealed himself to be all-powerful and all-knowing. This, of course, means that he knows everything (even our most-hidden secrets) and that nothing that we can do (individually or collectively) can stop him if he decides to do something. Nevertheless, he has also revealed himself to be good: which means that he will never use his power or his knowledge against us. This he revealed when he spoke to Moses (which we heard in our first reading) and said: “The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” My friends, because God is Good, we can trust in his revelation that he “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life.”
And so, if any of you is here at this Mass and find yourself struggling to trust God for whatever reason, please know that God is inviting you to see anew the truth about who he is: that is, “a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity”; a God who “did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him”. He is inviting you to know him personally as Father, Son, and Spirit and so to enter deeply into the love that he is himself: a love for which your heart longs. He knows you deeply—better than you know yourself—and he has the power to transform your life for the good, because he is Good. Therefore, I urge you to take courage and to place your trust in him again (or, perhaps, for the first time). When you do, he will make himself known to you even more intimately and strengthen you to overcome any difficulty.
And how do I know this? Because he continues to do what he has already done: namely, he calls men to the priesthood in order to endow them with the power that his Son first gave to his Apostles and, through them, he continues to send his Son to this altar in the appearance of bread and wine so that we might receive him and be strengthened in courage to trust him ever more. What an amazing sign of how merciful and gracious God is that, in one vocation, he provides not only the way that a man can fulfill the deepest longing in his heart, which God himself placed there (as he has done with Jacob), but also the means by which all his children can continually receive the sign of his love and fidelity (which we will receive from Jacob’s hands when we receive Holy Communion consecrated by him today)! And so, as we offer our thanksgiving today for the priesthood of Fr. Miller, and for the great gift of knowing God as he truly is, let us open our hearts to him and praise him: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a merciful and gracious God, rich in kindness and fidelity, who loved us into being and who sent (and continues to send) his only Son so that all who believe in him might not perish, who calls us each to a vocation by which he draws us deeply to himself and fulfills our deepest desires while serving the good of others, and who never ceases to love us and desire us no matter how far we stray from him… the God who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
Given at St. Mary Parish: Union City, IN – May 31st, 2026
First Mass of Thanksgiving - Fr. Jacob Miller
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