Deut 4:32-34, 39-40 + Psalm 33:4-6,9,18-22 + Rom 8:14-17 + Matt 28: 16-20
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Delivered at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Mustang, Oklahoma
When Christians think about the Trinity and how to understand the Trinity, many often think about St. Patrick’s example of a shamrock---three leaves in one plant. Though that image may have helped the pagans in Ireland grasp the nature of the Triune God, it does not go deep enough. Why? The image of a shamrock is impersonal. What Christians believe in are 3 persons united by the same divine substance. Father, Son, and Spirit in a communion of light and love, life given and received.Thus, St. Augustine’s image of the Trinity as lover, beloved, and love plumbs more deeply the reality of God: the Father as the lover, the Son as the beloved Son, and the love flowing eternally between them as the ever-living, ever creative Spirit.
The real truth about who God is and what Divine Life is all about can only be discovered in relationship, a relationship of love. The Trinity is not a puzzling theological concept nor a complex philosophical discussion. It is a lived experience of our relationship with God. The first time you said, “Our Father” and truly meant it, you did so by the power of the Holy Spirit, says St. Paul today in his letter to the Romans. That Spirit enables us to understand that we are children of God. The Spirit draws us deeper into friendship with the Son of God who calls us “friends.” By that Spirit we are drawn into this intimacy with God and discover that God is not off in some infinite solitude, but rather that God is in communion with us, giving and receiving light and life.
Through the Incarnation of the Word made flesh, a relationship is established with us, God enters into our life and invites us to enter into God’s life through the Word, Jesus Christ.
The entire mission of Jesus Christ was to invite and teach us how to live in love, in unity and in peace. His life of service and reconciliation, healing and forgiveness is the love of God for us, gathering in the lost and those left behind. We are the ones he came to gather together. We are the ones he calls, “friends.” It is in relationship with Jesus, the Son of God, the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity, that we discover what divine life is all about. It is through Jesus that we discover we are called to live in communion with each other and with God.
We are made in God’s image, every single one of us, and since God is a Community of Persons bound by love, so it is in our nature to be. We are made to be in relationship to each other, we are made for community, we are made for unity with one another and with God.
We are not created by God to be solely individuals. In our culture, we live with the danger of “individualism,” which is the prevalent American way of viewing the human person. Thus, the American way is to go it alone. The Way of Trinity—we need each other. In fact, we can only make it to heaven together. The American way tends toward an inward focus on “me,me,me” which is deadly. The Way of Trinity is to focus outward on “we, we, we.” The American way is to place too much faith in technology. The Way of the Trinity is to put our faith in the messiness of relating person to person, of saying to others by our lives, this is my body given up for you—I am here for you.
Though modern technology has made our lives much easier and has helped us to connect more quickly with loved ones, and even with strangers, there is also a dark side to technology. Many people spend more time relating to machines than to people. Many become totally absorbed in smart phones and tablets and computers, and are held captive by TV screens and movie screens. They find it difficult to tear themselves away, to turn toward the other, to turn toward God. The basic setting which for centuries deepened and enhanced human relationships—sharing a meal together—has lost its power because those eating pay more attention to their smart phones than to the people gathered around the table. The “ping” of a text or the “buzz” of an incoming call causes people who are meant to connect to each other while sharing in the basic act of nourishing their bodies to not even be bodily present to one another.
We believe in the Triune God, who is not an abstraction, but who is interested in us, who is present to us, who wants to engage us on a personal level, especially in the context of this sacred meal we call the Eucharist. We gather around this table to give our complete attention to God and to one another in worship and so be drawn deeper and deeper into communion with the Trinity.
This experience of being drawn into the very life of God begins for us at Baptism as the command Jesus has given is obeyed. Baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit seals our adoption into the family of God. Every other sacrament draws us deeper into this divine life of grace, which makes our participation in all the sacraments so very important if God’s life is to be sustained in our own.
At baptism, we are claimed by the Father as one of his children, joined forever to the Son, and transformed by their life-giving Spirit. At baptism, we are adopted into the Trinity, into life with the Triune God.
So that throughout life, as we live out our baptism, we can come to know the Father who is always for us, the Son who is forever with us, and experience the sustaining presence of the Spirit within us.
WE ARE A FACTOR IN GOD’S LIFE. ENTRUSTED BY TRINITY TO DO GOD’S WORK, TO BRING OTHERS INTO LIFE WITH THE TRINITY. EVEN THOUGH WE DOUBT, STILL ENTRUSTED WITH THIS WORK.
“What God does first and best and most is to trust people with their moment in history, to do what must be done for the sake of his whole community. “ (Walter Burghardt, SJ)
Fr. Joseph A. Jacobi
