Homily Trinity B: The Trinity at the Centre of our faith and life

 Homily for Trinity Sunday Year B 2021

Deuteronomy 4:32-34,39-40, Romans 8:14-17 · Matthew 28:16-20

Introduction

Imagine someone asked you: “What is the central mystery of the Christian faith and life?  Perhaps you would point to the resurrection, that great event that save us; or for those who like Christmas very much, it would be the birth of Our Lord.  Others might look at the Eucharist, and others still the Blessed Mother, through whom the Saviour came into the world.

But these answers, while not wrong, would not be entirely correct.  For the Catechism 234 tells us that “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life.”  This is because, the mystery of the Holy Trinity, “is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the ‘hierarchy of the truths of faith’”.  In fact, “The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men ‘and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin.’"  Today’s feast, even though it is not as glamourous as Christmas or Easter or even Pentecost, celebrates the most central mystery of our faith and life as Christians. 

But the mystery of the Trinity, that God is One, and yet three persons, is neither easy to understand nor easy to explain.  That is why theologians throughout history have tried to use various analogies to explain how there can be three persons in one God: St. Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock, St. Ignatius used the musical chord which has three notes, and modern theologians use the image of water, which can assume the three states of steam, ice and liquid.

But all these images fall short; they don't really leave us understanding the Trinity any better.  For God is a mystery whom the human mind can never fully grasp. That is why in some Eastern religions, before people pray in front of a statue representing God, they apologise for having to pray to him in that form, when in fact he is formless and he is everywhere.  They understand that the human mind is limited in its ability to grasp God completely.

Scripture and Theology and Christian Life

And so, we too have to humble ourselves before God and admit that our knowledge of him has limits.  And yet we don't give up on the Holy Trinity.  And so, I would like to offer three ways we can relate with the Holy Trinity: knowledge, prayer and action.

First, we must attempt to know our God as much as he has revealed himself to us, as much as we are able.  Perhaps the best way to understand the Trinity is to reflect on the Scriptures, on what he himself has told us.

Although the mystery of the Trinity was only fully revealed in the New Testament, scattered in the Old Testament are hints of this mystery.  Of course, the focus of the Old Testament is on monotheism, belief in One God, given the presence many nations at the time that believed in many gods.  And so, for example, in today’s first reading, Moses reminds the people of Israel to believe in this one God and Lord of theirs and no other.  And yet during creation, this one God who creates the world says, “let us make man in our own image,” speaking in the plural and so hinting at a God with more than one person.  And the name by which he is addressed, Elohim, is not in the singular, but in the plural, as other Hebrew plural words like anawim (God’s poor people), goyim (the Gentiles).  It is this God, whom Jesus comes to reveal as Father, and Son and Holy Spirit.

Perhaps the clearest indication of the Trinity are the words of Jesus as he commissions his disciples in today’s gospel telling them, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Notice that Jesus indicates the Christians are to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, clearly naming the three persons of the Trinity.  But he also doesn’t say, baptize them in the names (plural) of but in the name (singular) of because the three persons are One God.

Our Second Reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans also screams the Trinity.  Without even directly naming the three persons, Paul is simply assuming that the God he is preaching is a Triune God.  In that short paragraph he reminds us that when we pray, we pray to an “Abba Father,” a God who is Father.  He says we are able to do that only because we have received the Spirit of adoption, adoption as sons and daughters of God; thereby testifying to faith in God the Spirit.  And the only reason we are adopted sons and daughters of God is because of the Son, Jesus Christ, with whom we are joint heirs of the Kingdom; because God the Son has conquered death and brought about glory, he has shared that inheritance with his followers, who will now be gloried with him.  For St. Paul, therefore, there is no doubt that our God, is one God in three persons.

And so, perhaps instead of looking for helpful analogies of what the Trinity is, let us just listen to the words of God himself.  He is God the Father who creates and provides for us.  He is God the Son who gives his life for the world.  And he is God the Spirit that continues to inspire and guide us today.

Second, after knowing that our God is a Trinity then we pray to him as such.  In the Creed we are about to recite, in the sign of the Cross with which we begin every prayer, in the formula of with which our children are baptized and our sins forgiven in confession, and in the formula by which we are blessed by the deacon or priest, we acknowledge the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Even the basic prayer, the Our Father, reminds us of the Trinity; for it in we address God the Father, using the words taught us by the Son, inspired to do so by the Spirit.

Thirdly, after knowing and praying to this Trinity, we must put this knowledge and prayer into action.  Let the Trinity be a model of our own Christian lives.  Pope Benedict XVI suggests that we look at the Trinity as a family in love.  Such a family is a community of love where differences, such as being a father or mother, a parent or child, male or female, contribute to forming a communion, a life of love.  Similarly, the distinctions of Father, Son and Holy Spirit are ways of loving within the Trinity.  In fact, only the Christian God is a God who does not just love but is love itself.  Our God is love.  His very being is an eternal love shared by Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  In the Trinity we see a union, a working together of three persons for the same end of loving us.  At one moment the Father takes centre stage, at another, the Son, at another the Spirit; but they always work together and nobody hogs the credit.

And so, this shared love of the Trinity should inspire our own lives.  We should see the human community as one, and yet as diverse in the same way the Trinity is One and yet threefold.  Like the Trinity, let us live out the motto of this country e pluribus unum (out of many one), building a diverse but united community.

Yesterday morning I attended the priestly and diaconate ordinations in the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux.  In his homily Bishop Fabre decried the contemporary temptation and tendency to individualism, which expresses itself in many ways.  One of these is the mistaken belief that “I am able to accomplish many things solely on my own efforts, because I am totally self-sufficient.  I don’t need anybody and other people’s involvement is more of a hindrance rather than a blessing.”  The bishop warned the newly ordained to avoid this temptation.  We would also do well do heed the bishop’s warning and instead turn to the love and union of the Trinity, which works as one, even if they are distinct individuals.  There should be no lone rangers among Christians.  On our journey to heaven, we need the help of others, who are often diverse from us.  But we act as one, just as the Son and the Father are one, in unity with the Holy Spirit.

Conclusion

And so, let our celebration of the Most Holy Trinity inspire us not just to live in love with each other so as to get along here on earth, but let it be a preparation for life on the other side.  There, we shall live in love and union, not only with each other, but especially with the Father and the Son, in fellowship with the Holy Spirit.  That should be our hope and inspiration; let the love of the Trinity draw us into itself, so that one day we shall share that love for eternity.