Most Holy Trinity

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/061514.cfm

          In preparing for this homily, I took some time to consider the reflection that we find on the front cover of our bulletin this weekend.  The reflection is by an author and theologian named Mary Katharine Deeley.  In short, she talks about how we have many different ways in which we try to explain how God can be three persons in one God.  We can try to use images of three-leaf clovers or a loving family as ways to explain it, but words can only explain things so far before they reach their limits.  “God simply is”, she tells us, and we can only truly begin to understand that when we finally enter into relationship with God.

          Think of this relationship with God like coming to know a friend better.  Or perhaps moving to a new neighborhood or a new town and meeting the new neighbors.  There is also the old phrase, “know thy enemies”.   There is a story about St. Pope John Paul II that when he was at the conclave in Rome that would eventually elect him as Pope, he brought along the writings of Karl Marx to read during breaks in the conclave.  He later told a friend, “if you want to understand the enemy, you have to know what he has written.”   He knew that whether he would be elected Pope or whether he would continue to be the Archbishop of Krakow in Poland, he would be fighting the communists.  If it's important to know our enemies and their thoughts and writings, how much more would it be to know the one who created us, redeemed us, and sanctified us? 

          The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity is really a celebration of relationships:  It is about the relationship between the three people of the Trinity, but also about our relationship with Him.  So we want to know more about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and why is it that we can say that each of those persons is entirely God and yet why we never say that the Father is the Son or the Son is the Spirit or the Spirit is the Father.  But, as I have been saying, we need to work on our own relationship with Him, before we can hope to understand all of that.  It means allowing God to come into our lives.  This isn't so that God can know us better, He already knows all there is to know, it's about allowing God in without trying to fight it; it's about allowing God to guide us in our lives and we actually listening and trying our best to respond.

          Each of the readings today speak about our relationship with God.  In the first reading from Exodus, Moses is on Mt. Sinai with God to receive a second copy of the tablets with the Ten Commandments on them.  This is after Moses had receive the tablets before, but broke them at the base of the mountain (picture Charlton Heston in the robes and big gray beard).  Now he has to get them again.  God comes down in a cloud and speaks His name to Moses.  Please note: God doesn't do these things all that often; this coming to someone on a mountain and telling people His name.  This is a significant event.  God says, “The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.”  Notice that these words are relational.  He is merciful and gracious to us.  The Old Testament can sometimes appear to make God seem like an angry and vengeful God, but when you study it closer we can see that He give everyone multiple chances and is really kind rather than angry.

          In St. Paul Second Letter to the Corinthians, we hear the very familiar greeting, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you”. Again this is all about relationships.

         Finally, the Gospel of John has a very famous line that we see at many sporting events, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life” John 3:16. This is not about sports, but about our relationship with God. He does this not to condemn (as we might suppose at times) but to save us and bring us to Heaven. 

         So do not be afraid, brothers and sisters of whether we know all there is to know about God or not. That is all a part of the mystery, not a mystery that we can never know, but one that we will slowly but surely come to know better. We will know it by being with Him. Let us continue in that relationship.