Trinity Sunday - Year C - 2019

Introduction

I have been praying for you all this week and have been wrestling with what to share with you.

The Trinity is the greatest mystery of our Faith, and we Christians should never be satisfied with overly simplistic explanations in life. Yes, we should have a humility to us, and a recognition of our human limitations, but, at the same time, our God has given us a mind for understanding and a sense of wonder. God gave us hearts that question, constantly moving us outside of our self. Think about a young child, when they are first engaging with the world, they ask why? Why is the sky blue? Why do we need to sleep? Why is the moon called the moon?

Good questions, right?

So, what can we say about the Holy Trinity? How can we explain the Trinity? It would be easy to say, hmmm, it’s a mystery. But that’s not very thoughtful. Or helpful. Or convincing to someone outside of Christianity. What do we do with mystery?

In Catholicism, a mystery is a reality that cannot be exhausted. Think about it - a mystery is a reality that cannot be exhausted. A mystery is not something vague or shadowy, but rather a reality, that is so full and rich that we can never exhaust it. We can spend a lifetime in love, thinking about, and experiencing our God who is Trinity. But, for this homily, perhaps I’ll just spend a few minutes exploring this.

There are three things about the Trinity, from my prayer and study this week, that I want to share with you. 1) What is God? 2) God is Love. And, 3) Love is Playful

What is God?

God is not a being in the world. God is not one thing among many. Rather, we know that God is the very source of all existence. God is the very condition for the possibility of anything existing at all. In , when Moses asks God for his name, he replied, “אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה.”

‘I AM.’ I am the very act of to be, existence itself. Jesus referred to himself as this in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

If God is this fullness of being itself, then this makes sense how we can know God in a very real way, but also continue to know Him more and more, and fall increasingly in love with Him. God is realness itself, but as humans with limited minds this means that we’ll never experience the totality of God. There is more of God than we could ever love. But we’ll be perfectly joyful if we love him with our whole heart.

This is what Saint Augustine meant when he wrote his Confessions around 400 AD, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Our hearts desire the infinite. God is the only one who can satisfy our longings.

God is Fullness of Being

When I’m empty and insecure, who can satisfy me but God?

God is not only a what, but a who.

God is Love

Now, we have One God whose nature is ‘to exist itself.’ Our Faith teaches us that this One God exists in a relationship between three persons: The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father loves the Son perfectly. The Son loves the Father perfectly. The Holy Spirit is the love that proceeds from the Father and the Son. As our reading from Romans told us, “Hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

God is Love because love gives itself out perfectly and freely to others. The very life of God is to share this love between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if we are created in God’s image and likeness, we are called to imitate this love towards one another: to our spouse, our children, our parish, our community.

God as Trinity teaches us absolute self-gift in our relationships. To live like God is to give yourself away in love, and the amazing paradox that we find, is that when we give our life away in love, we experience the deep joy that we so desire. We’re never happy when we’re spiteful, jealous, and taking advantage of others. We’re most happy when we’re serving others. We’re most happy when we can look at somebody and say, “I love you.” Deep joy is found in love.

God is a Trinity - One God in Three Persons

God is Absolute Self-Gift in Relationship

Love is Playful

Often times, I take myself way too seriously. I get focused on unimportant things that distract me from just purely enjoying life. An authentic Christian life is a joyful one, even amidst the struggles that we face. Jesus said that we must become like children to enter the Kingdom of God. We need to learn from children how to simply enjoy and be playful. Pope Francis, in his papacy, has focused on the Joy of the Gospel as one of his major themes. Do we have good news or not?

Our reading from proverbs speaks about wisdom being daily God’s delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the sons of men. God rejoices in your life. God is playful. Love, and let yourself be loved.

We don’t need any more sad saints

We will find happiness in self-gift

Conclusion

A mystery is a reality that can never be exhausted.

Today we celebrate the Holy Trinity, a mystery that can never be exhausted. The Father is the Lover. Jesus, the Beloved. The Holy Spirit, is the love they share, poured out into our hearts. Do I know the fullness of the love Jesus has for me? Do I love with the fullness of my heart? Can I smile, be playful, and grateful for the presence of God in our midst?

To know God? Reason to Faith to Prayer to Love which means doing his will and obeying his commandments

Relationship Perfect Outpouring Love of Trinity

Catholic Christianity: A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs Based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church 7. The Nature of God

And more, always more, infinitely more, “what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived” (1 Cor 2:9).

Primacy of Relationship - how do we belong and care for each other - right and responsibility

Love of the Father - Peace through the Son - Poured out for us in a Life in the Spirit

(RSVCE)

Do we boast in our trials? What is the confidence that we have? In what Jesus has done in our life?

Need for Faith - what is it? Virtue. Loyalty to God.

(RSVCE)

1 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain apart. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light. 3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is well that we are here; if you wish, I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 5 He was still speaking, when lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

(RSVCE)

16 And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.

(RSVCE)

6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

9 For in him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily,

(RSVCE)

4 But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

: - Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

When human beings enjoy a correct relationship with God, their condition may be one of inner calm and quiet composure, of undisturbed conscience, but the essential thing is the experience of God-given salvation and the hope of glory.

(RSVCE)

18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Suffering to endurance, endurance to character, character to hope, hope does not disappoint because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

(RSVCE)

2 Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

38 For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land,

and streams on the dry ground;

I will pour my Spirit upon your descendants,

and my blessing on your offspring.

Romans: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary Notes

The perf. ekkechytai, “has been poured out,” expresses the perduring condition of what has been achieved by Christ Jesus.

Romans: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary Notes

The perf. ekkechytai, “has been poured out,” expresses the perduring condition of what has been achieved by Christ Jesus. The

(RSVCE)

23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

(RSVCE)

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

Dictionary of Bible Themes 1045 God, glory of

God, glory of

The revelation of God’s power and characteristics, sometimes accompanied by visible phenomena.

The Gospel according to John (XIII–XXI): Introduction, Translation and Notes Verses 12–15: The Paraclete, Guide of the Disciples in the Things of Jesus

But more to the point, the Paraclete’s guidance along the way of all truth involves more than a deeper intellectual understanding of what Jesus has said—it involves a way of life in conformity with Jesus’ teaching

Romans: A Commentary on the Book of Romans 5:1–11; Introduction: Righteousness in Christ Requires a New System of Boasting

Two verbs are employed here in the perfect tense, “we have gained” (ἐσχήκαμεν) and “we have stood” (ἑστήκαμεν), to reflect a status gained by believers in the past and continued to the present.

Need for Faith - what is it? Virtue. Loyalty to God.

Spirit of Truth comes...