1) Missionary in
2) Imageries: St. Patrick – 3 leaves of the clover shamrock on one stem; St Ignatius 3 notes but one sound; water with three forms – ice, steam and liquid; 3 vows of the religious: poverty to the Father, chastity to the Son and Obedience (listen attentively) to the Spirit.
3) But someone has cleverly noted that, unlike other Christian doctrines, the Trinity is not a truth that leads to action. But rather, like a painting by Monet or a poem by Keats or a symphony by Beethoven, it should point us to prayer or just wonderment. Perhaps it will help us to become the prayers we recite. (Joan Chittister)
4) Whoever can no longer wonder or no longer marvel is as good as dead. (Einstein)
Our goal today is not to get us into the Trinity but to get the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit into us.
5) Faith: knowing and loving; lovers, when we know someone we may love or hate that person. Our roots, history and mystery. Bottom line: Trinity Sunday is about where we have come from and where we are going..
6) Mystery, meaning and message; Mystery:
7) Man: lived with my wife for the past 55 years, and you think HT is a mystery
8) Theology: Revelation & Response; God reveals through: creation, inspiration & incarnation; Dt 6, Ex 20; Mt 3 (baptism), 28 (mission)
9) How inscrutable are your plans & how unsearchable your ways (Paul)
10) Dr. Henry Morris: The universal testimony: A good illustration of the Trinity comes from world-renowned scientist Dr. Henry Morris. He notes that the entire universe is Trinitarian by design. The universe consists of three things: matter, space, and time. Take away any one of those three and the universe would cease to exist. But each one of those is itself a trinity.
Matter = mass + energy + motion.
Space = length + height + breadth.
Time = past + present + future
Thus the whole universe witnesses to the character of the God who made it (cf. Psalm 19:1).
11) Sun is 80 million miles away; we can see the rays of the sun and experience the heat; Sun=Father, rays=son & heat=HSpt. Distinct, yet undivided like heat & cold, light & darkness; 1x1x1=1; Magnate; world=sky, earth & oceans; time=past, pr & future, undivided, continuous reality.
11) Sun is 80 million miles away; we can see the rays of the sun and experience the heat; Sun=Father, rays=son & heat=HSpt. Distinct, yet undivided like heat & cold, light & darkness; 1x1x1=1; Magnate; world=sky, earth & oceans; time=past, pr & future, undivided, continuous reality.
12) Meaning: Unity in diversity; look at the world, we are astounded by the immense variety & diversity in colour, shape, gender, language, food, religions, ways of doing, culture; Masses in so many different rites, styles, but the same Lord, same faith, same baptism…Polish sausage, bagel, curries, Philippino ballooth,…
****Michel de Verteuil
General Textual comments
We meet two kinds of feasts in the liturgy. The most important are the mysteries, incidents in the life of Jesus which we enter into, experiencing them as living again in us – we have just completed the cycle of the Easter mysteries.
Now the Church invites us to celebrate three of the second kind of feasts – the Trinity, Corpus Christi, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
In these feasts we celebrate some aspect of our faith. It is a celebration, therefore, not an academic exercise. Meditating on the gospel texts chosen for each feast helps us enter into it.
It is particularly important to do this for the Trinity, because this doctrine is usually experienced as a mathematical sum to be learnt, rather than good news to be celebrated.
The gospel text for the feast this year will seem forbidding at first. But as with many of the teachings of Jesus recorded in St John’s gospel, if you read it imaginatively you will find that it will come alive.
Feel free to take the passage as you will, but it is good to let it speak to you about the Trinity. Jesus is the model of what believing in the Trinity does for us.It is helpful to situate the passage in its context: it is a moment of separation, Jesus is giving his followers a last teaching before leaving them.
Lectio prayer
“Consult not your fears but your hopes and dreams.
Think not about your frustrations but about your potential.” …John Paul II
Lord, as parents and teachers we tend to become self-important
– we think we have to tell our charges everything they need to know,
– preserve them from making mistakes,
– prepare them for every eventuality.
Help us to be humble like Jesus,
knowing that no matter how much we do for people,
there are always things that we still have to say to them,
but these things would be too much for them at this point in their lives.
We need not be anxious about that, because when the time comes,
the Spirit of truth will come and will lead them to the complete truth.
“Someone who knows his own weakness is greater than someone who sees the angels.” …Isaac of Nineveh, Syrian monk of the 7th centuryLord, there are many factions in the Church,
each one thinking they have the complete truth.
Help us to be a Church modeled on your Holy Trinity,
aware that none of us possesses the complete truth since that belongs to you alone.
We do not speak as from ourselves,
but only what we have received from you as your gift.
When we understand that, we can really prepare people for the things to come.
“When the archer shoots for no particular prize, he has all his skills;
when he shoots to win, he thinks more of winning than of shooting,
and the need to win drains him of power.” Tranxu, Chinese sage
Lord, like Jesus, we need not be anxious for success.
Whatever happens in the future will glorify us
since it will be taken from what is ours.
That may seem a presumptuous thing to say, but it isn’t.
We say it because we know that everything you have is ours.
“My son, you are with me always, and all I have is yours.”…The father in the parable of the prodigal son, Luke 15:31
Lord, you treat us like members of your family,
and share everything you have with us.
When we think we must earn goodness by our hard work,
– we become jealous of others;
– angry that they do not recognize what they owe us;
– self-righteous that our words have been proved right.
If, like Jesus, we remember that everything you have is ours,we rejoice in the gifts of others.
Lord, forgive us that as followers of Jesus,
we think we have a monopoly, or even a first option, on the truth.
Teach us to welcome truth wherever we find it;
remind us that Jesus was not possessive of the truth;
he knew that everything you have is his,
and so everything the Spirit would tell the world until the end of time
would be taken from what was his.
Lord, noble ideals are handed on to us by great people who went before us.
When we strive for those ideals, we glorify them,
since all we do is taken from what is theirs.
“Nothing that happened in Eastern Europe in these last years would have been possible without the presence of this Pope.” …Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, March 1992
Lord, we thank you for Pope Paul II, Francis I and all spiritual people like them.
Guided by the Spirit, they do not speak as from themselves,
but say only what they have learnt, and so they tell the world of things to come.
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Thomas O’Loughlin,
Introduction to the Celebration
This feast is unique in that the focus of our celebration is not an aspect of the history of salvation, but reflection on the nature of God as we believe it has been revealed to us as Christians. Thus every Sunday is the Sunday of the Trinity, every feast, every action has a trinitarian dimension, and should any prayer be uttered or homily preached which does not include that core of faith — at least tacitly with a conclusion such as ‘through Christ our Lord’ — then we are apostates, have ceased to be Christians and become some sort of vague deists or unitarians who value the ‘message of Jesus’. At the outset of the celebration it is worth reflecting that today’s focus is the very essence of Christian identity. We have just stated that we are acting ‘In the name of the Father…’ and that is a declaration of our basic faith, not just an opening formula. Our aim in today’s liturgy should be to become more sensitive to the tririitarian cues that run right through our religion.
Homily Notes
1. There is almost a tradition of beginning homilies today with:
‘this is the most difficult sermon of the whole year’, or ‘this is a mystery and I was never good at dogma in the seminary’, or some such deprecating remark which is ostensibly intended to
emphasise that God is mystery, and defensively that actually speaking of ‘things divine’ is more demanding than commenting on the practical implications of belief. However, what is actually communicated is that what follows is really rather irrelevant and that you are only going through with the homily because it’s your job. In that case, no matter what you say, the congregation have switched off. Every teacher knows that if you tell a class that the next topic is awfully hard to understand,it is a self-fulfilling prophesy; equally, if you tell the assembly that this is all very complicated, then they will decide that it is probably something they can live without – as they have successfully done until now.
‘this is the most difficult sermon of the whole year’, or ‘this is a mystery and I was never good at dogma in the seminary’, or some such deprecating remark which is ostensibly intended to
emphasise that God is mystery, and defensively that actually speaking of ‘things divine’ is more demanding than commenting on the practical implications of belief. However, what is actually communicated is that what follows is really rather irrelevant and that you are only going through with the homily because it’s your job. In that case, no matter what you say, the congregation have switched off. Every teacher knows that if you tell a class that the next topic is awfully hard to understand,it is a self-fulfilling prophesy; equally, if you tell the assembly that this is all very complicated, then they will decide that it is probably something they can live without – as they have successfully done until now.
In any case, what it required is not a mini-version of Augustine’s De Trinitate, but a recollection that to believe as we do, is to believe that in Christ we are caught up into the life of God, he shows us the Father, and sends the Spirit to dwell with us. Your task is not a lecture in dogma (so avoid’ arithmetical theology’ such as ‘I God, 2 processions, 3 Persons, 4 relations, 5 notions’), but to bear witness in the assembly to what we believe to be the basic dynamic of life revealed in Christ.
God designed these beautiful flowers, so God must be beautiful.
3. But, first, it is useful to recall what we do not believe. We do not address a ‘God’ as if it is ‘us’ and ‘him over there’, as if our prayers were like letters to a distant ruler. That is a model of the God-humanity relationship that belongs to many religions (indeed it is a constant distraction for us too), but it does not reflect our basic confession. To talk of God as the ‘wholly other’ is to forget that Jesus Christ, the Son, wholly God, is wholly one with us.4.
We are all called into life by God
We believe that we were brought into the life of God by Christ, when we were baptised into him. The Son reveals that he is distinct from the Father, he comes from the Father, he returns to the Father. The Son gathers us and the whole creation into his kingdom which he presents to the Father. The Son sends us the Spirit, the Spirit enables us to grow ‘in Christ’ and to call the Father, our Father. We see this in the opening prayer today: ‘Father, you sent your Word … and your Spirit … through them we come to know the mystery of your life.’ This pattern of ‘from the Father’, ‘through the Son’, ‘in the Spirit’, and ‘to the Father’ can be found in virtually every prayer in the liturgy. A slightly larger example would be Eucharistic Prayer II. We address the Father throughout the prayer, who as the fountain of holiness sends us the Spirit. The Spirit enables us to remember Christ. Then we actually remember Christ and his thanksgiving/ offering (the institution narrative) which he made to the Father. Through the Son we stand in the Father’s presence and serve him, and ask him that as we ‘share in the body and blood of Christ’ we might ‘be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit’.5. To be baptised and to believe means that we enter into the trinitarian life of God, we profess this when we recite the creed. But the creed in its reciting form is derivative of the three-fold, question-and-answer form of baptism. This trinitarian aspect can be brought out more effectively today by replacing the recited creed with a renewal of baptismal promises as on Easter Day (Missal, p 220).
*********************************
3. Sean Goan
This short gospel from John’s Last Discourse highlights the pivotal role of the Spirit in making known the mystery of God. We should not imagine that the idea of the Trinity was something that the early church came to easily. The first Christians were Jews and they believed very much in God as one, so they had to grapple with the identity of Jesus that had been revealed to them. This they did, firmly believing that the Spirit was guiding them into the amazing truth about God.
They came to see that God’s own inner life had been shown to them as Creator, Saviour and Sanctifier and that as believers they were being asked in some way to live out the life of love that had been made known to them. The Gospel of John is a witness to this whole process.
Reflection
The gospel for today tells us that the Spirit of truth will lead us to the complete truth about God. Happily for us the gospel does not say when we will come to the complete truth. Perhaps this is because the evangelist knows full well that the God revealed by Jesus is not just a mystery to be solved. Every generation of Christians must make the effort to see where and how the God who creates, saves and sanctifies is speaking to us.
At the beginning of the third millenium it may well be that She is screaming at us through a hole in the ozone layer and in the voices of the hungry and oppressed who suffer so terribly in God’s beautiful world.
****************************************************4. Donal Neary S.J.
Beginning of time – wisdom
Wisdom, truth and love seem to be the themes of readings today, and that love will lead to hope.It’s a confusing sort of feast, as we cannot understand the truth of the Trinity But we can ‘hit’ it from different angles.
The wisdom of God has been born before the beginning of time. Somehow wisdom is essential to God – and is presented very often as female. In celebrating the Trinity we celebrate and ask for wisdom, which comes from the heart of God. So this wisdom is the sort of wisdom that comes from love.
Love is ‘poured’ into our hearts by the Spirit. Connected with love are qualities we would want to live by – courage and hope. These are the gifts of the Spirit as wisdom may be the gift of the Father.
Jesus is presented by the gospel as the source of truth. His also is the truth of love, as his truth is best seen on the cross, in his self-sacrificing love.
The most famous icon of the Trinity by Rugenev, ( c/f icon above) well-known to us now, has the Trinity at a table and an empty space at the table for us all. In one sense they are not completed without us! We are part of their love, and their life of wisdom, truth and love, which they wish to share with us.Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
****
From the Connections:
THE WORD:
As Ordinary Time resumes, two “solemnities of the Lord” are celebrated on the next two Sundays. Today’s celebration of the Trinity, originating in France in the eighth century and adopted by the universal Church in 1334, focuses on the essence of our faith: the revelation of God as Creator, the climax of his creation in Jesus the Redeemer, the fullness of the love of God poured out upon us in the Sustainer Spirit.
In his final words to his disciples at the Last Supper, Jesus promises to send the “Spirit of truth [to] guide you to all truth.” The Son has revealed the Father to the Church; the Spirit of truth and wisdom keeps that revelation alive in the Church.
HOMILY POINTS:
Trinity Sunday is a celebration of the many dimensions in which we discover the how and why of God: God, the Creator and Sustainer of all that lives; God, the Christ who became one of us to show us the depth of God's love; the Spirit, the love of God living among us, the love that gives meaning and vision to us, God's beloved creation.
Truth is an ongoing process; God continues to reveal himself in all time. He is not a silent God who ceased to reveal himself on the last page of Scripture. Through the Spirit dwelling within us and within the Church, God is still leading us into a greater realization of what Jesus taught in the Gospels.
To be a person of authentic faith means to seek out and face the truth -- regardless of the consequences, regardless of the cost to egos or wallets, regardless of our doubts and cynicism and fear. To live our faith means to live the truth about love, justice and forgiveness with integrity and conviction, regardless of the cost.
Faith begins with realizing the Spirit of God breathing life into all that exists; faith then compels us to continue the creative work of God, to embrace and be embraced by the love of God that envelopes every wonder of nature and every manifestation of compassion.
Once upon a time . . .
A writer has an idea for a book. He or she nurses it along in his or her mind where it might “exist” for a long time. After many long hours of hard work, the idea becomes a book, and the idea can now be touched, seen and heard. As a book, the idea generates energy – an energy that affects those who read it. The energy released by the book may even change the lives of its readers. And while some may like the book, others may dislike it so much they will do their best to destroy it, by bad reviews, whispering campaigns, or burning it in the public square. In spite of the attempts to destroy the book, the book’s appreciative readers draw ongoing power from it, sharing its message with others. Some will remember parts of the book; some will write down everything they learn from the book; and some will tell all who will listen the wonderful story or facts contained in the book. The power released by the book endures long after its pages are no more.
[An idea suggested by Dorothy Sayers in The Mind of the Maker.]
God is the writer with the ‘idea’ – an idea for a world of men and women created in his image who live in his love. The idea takes the form of a "book" – Jesus, the human “face” of that idea. Despite the failed attempts of some to destroy the book, the energy of the book endures, the book takes on a power that “rises” above those who seek to “crucify” the idea. Such is the Spirit of God giving life to the idea and inspiring those who embrace it. That is the God of the Trinity. May we embrace the God's “idea” of love and reconciliation as mirrored in the "book" of the Gospel Jesus; may that idea energize us to transform our world in that idea through the power of the ever-present Spirit. ****
Fr. Tony Kadavil:
Introduction: The mystery of the most Holy Trinity is a basic doctrine of Faith in Christianity, understandable not with our heads but with our hearts. It teaches us that there are three distinct Persons in one God, sharing the same Divine Nature. Our mind cannot grasp this doctrine which teaches that 1+1+1 = 1 and not 3. But we believe in this Mystery because Jesus who is God taught it clearly, the Evangelists recorded it, the Fathers of the Church tried to explain it and the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople defined it as a dogma of Christian Faith.
Importance in Christian life:
1) All prayers in the Church begin in the Name of the Holy Trinity and end glorifying the Trinity.
2) All Sacraments are administered (we are baptized, confirmed, anointed, our sins are forgiven and our marriage blessed and our Bishops, priests and deacons ordained) in the name of the Holy Trinity.
3) Church bells ring thrice daily, reminding us to pray to the Holy Trinity.4) We bless ourselves, and the priest blesses us, in the name of the Holy Trinity.
Biblical proofs: There are only vague and hidden references to the Trinity in the Old Testament. But the New Testament gives clear teachings on the Holy Trinity.
1) At the Annunciation, God the Father sends His angel to Mary, God the Holy Spirit overshadows her and God the Son becomes incarnate in her womb.
2) At the baptism of Jesus, when the Son receives baptism from John the Baptist, the Father’s Voice is heard and the Holy Spirit appears as a Dove. 3) At the Ascension, Jesus gives the missionary command to his disciples to baptize those who believe, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
4) In John, chapters 15-18, we have a detailed account of Jesus’ teaching of the role of each Person of the Holy Trinity:
a) God the Father creates and provides for His creatures.
b) God the Son redeems us and reconciles us with God.c) God the Holy Spirit sanctifies us, strengthens us, teaches us and guides us to God.
Life messages: 1) Let us respect ourselves and others because everyone is the temple of the Holy Spirit where all the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity abide.
2) Let us have the firm conviction that the Trinitarian God abides in us, that He is the Source of our hope, courage and strength and that He is our final destination.
3) Let us practice the Trinitarian relationship of love and unity in the family relationships of father, mother and children because by Baptism we become children of God and members of God’s Trinitarian family.
4) Let us practice the I–God–my neighbor vertical and horizontal Trinitarian relationship in society by loving God living in others. (Fr. Tony) L/16
1:Simplified explanations by Ss. Patrick, Cyril and John Maria Vianney:
The shamrock, a kind of clover, is a leguminous herb that grows in marshy places. St. Patrick, the missionary patron saint of Ireland, used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity. The story goes that one day his friends asked Patrick to explain the Mystery of the Trinity. He looked at the ground and saw shamrocks growing amid the grass at his feet. He picked one up one of its trifoliate leaves and asked if it were one leaf or three. Patrick's friends couldn't answer – the shamrock leaf looked like one but it clearly had three parts. Patrick explained to them: "The mystery of the Holy Trinity – one God in Three Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - is like this, but more complex and unintelligible.” St. Cyril, the teacher of the Slavs, tried to explain the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity using sun as an example. He said, "God the Father is that blazing sun. God the Son is its light and God the Holy Spirit is its heat — but there is only one sun. So there are three Persons in the Holy Trinity but God is One and indivisible." St. John Maria Vianney used to explain Holy Trinity using lighted candles and roses on the altar and water in the cruets. “The flame has color, warmth and shape. But these are expressions of one flame. Similarly the rose has color, fragrance and shape. But these are expressions of one reality, namely, rose. Water, steam and ice are three distinct expressions of one reality. In the same way one God revealed Himself to us as Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.” Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQLfgaUoQCw&feature=player_detailpage
# 2: Trinity prayer of Tolstoy’s monks:
Three Russian monks lived in a faraway Island. Nobody ever went there. However, one day their bishop decided to make a pastoral visit to learn more about their religious life. But when he arrived he discerned that they did not know even the Lord’s Prayer. So he spent all his time and energy teaching them the Our Father and then left them, satisfied with his pastoral visit. But when his small ship had left the island and was back in the open sea, he suddenly noticed the three hermits walking on the water – in fact they were running after the ship. When they approached it, they cried out. “Dear bishop we have forgotten the Lord’s Prayer you taught us. The bishop, overwhelmed by what he was seeing and hearing asked them, ”But dear brothers, how then do you pray?” They answered, “We just say, there are three of us and there are three of you, have mercy on us.” The bishop, awestruck by their sanctity and simplicity said, “Go back to your island and be at peace.” (Adapted from Leo Tolstoy- The Three Hermits" (Russian: ТриСтарца, a short story by Russian author Leo Tolstoy (Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy), was written in 1885 and first published in 1886 in the weekly periodical Niva (нива).
# 3: "But that is impossible, my dear child:
”There is a very old and much-repeated story about St. Augustine, one of the intellectual giants of the Church. He was walking by the seashore one day, attempting to conceive of an intelligible explanation for the mystery of the Trinity. As he walked along, he saw a small boy on the beach, pouring seawater from a shell into a small hole in the sand. "What are you doing, my child?" asked Augustine. "I am trying to empty the sea into this hole," the boy answered with an innocent smile. "But that is impossible, my dear child,” said Augustine. The boy stood up, looked straight into the eyes of Augustine and replied, “What you are trying to do - comprehend the immensity of God with your small head - is even more impossible.” Then he vanished. The child was an angel sent by God to teach Augustine a lesson. Later, Augustine wrote: "You see the Trinity if you see love." According to him, the Father is the lover, the Son is the loved one and the Holy Spirit is the personification of the very act of loving.This means that we can understand something of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity more readily with the heart than with our feeble mind. Evagrius of Pontus, a Greek monk of the 4th century who came from what is now Turkey in Asia and later lived out his vocation in Egypt, said: "God cannot be grasped by the mind. If God could be grasped, God would not be God."
*****
Fr. Jude Botelho:
The Sundial
A missionary from Africa, on his home-leave, came across a beautiful sundial. He thought to himself, “That sundial would be ideal for my villagers in Africa. I could use it to teach them to tell the time of the day.” The missionary bought the sundial, crated it and took it back to Africa. When the village chief saw it, he insisted that it be set up in the centre of the village. The villagers were thrilled with the sundial. They had never seen something so beautiful in their lives. They were even more thrilled when they learned how it worked. The missionary was delighted by everyone’s response to his sundial. He was totally unprepared for what happened a few days later. The people of the village got together and built a roof over the sundial to protect it from the rain and the sun! Well, I think the sundial is a lot like the Holy Trinity, and we Christians are a lot like the African villagers. The most beautiful revelation of our faith is the teaching about the Holy Trinity, namely, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. But instead of putting the teaching to work in our daily lives, we have built a roof over it, just as the villagers did over their sundial. For many of us the Trinity seems of little practical value, when it comes to our daily lives. We treat it more like an ornament of our faith.
Mark Link in ‘Sunday Homilies’
The Gospel will remind us that while we have the privilege and gift of being of the family of God we also have the task and the duty of living and sharing this life with others. If we are children of the Father-God, who always takes the initiative of loving, sharing and giving, then we His children must be like our Father, the first to love, share and give to others. “Go and make disciples of all nations… We can only make disciples of all nations if we ourselves are true disciples, witnesses and mirror images of the Father. We are called to be like Jesus and we do that by doing the Father’s will. Jesus was the obedient son of the Father. Obedience to His laws and commandments should characterize our lives. Jesus lived for His Father and we too are called to live for the Father. This life is only possible in and through the Spirit. Jesus was obedient to the Spirit and led by the Spirit. If we are members of the Trinitarian family of God, we will always be led by His spirit and radiate His spirit of love in our lives.
Our true inheritance
The ‘Taking of Christ’ by Caravaggio continues to haunt me. It communicates pain, distress, disappointment, agony, patience but, above all, love. It evokes a response of gratitude, empathy, solidarity, communion and love in return for such great love. Its power is stupendous. Its value is immeasurable. However, in a culture that insists on evaluating everything from sporting prowess to feminine beauty in terms of the money it can command, this painting has acquired a £20 million tag. But price is an unreliable guide to reality and oftentimes it deflects us from appreciating the true value of what life has to offer. In fact, the most precious things in life can neither be measured, earned, owned, proven or priced. They are pure gift and the greatest gift of all is the faith in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Trinity is our human way of talking about the wonder that is God, revealed to us in Jesus and living in us through the Spirit. Living in that Spirit, we bask in the love God pours into our hearts, which enables us to love one another in the image of the Holy Trinity, in whose name we are baptized. Such is our heritage. Trinity Sunday is a good day to reclaim our inheritance.
Tom Clancy in ‘Living the Word’
An ‘interpersonal’ God
For people who are active members of a local Christian congregation, perhaps the following metaphor will be at once shocking and comforting. Our God is a committee! To picture the Three Persons discussing the feasibility of creation, the time and place of the redemptive intervention, the best way to keep in touch with the human community through all history, would seem to be accurate anthropomorphic theology and not simply poetic imagining. Christianity demands that we support one another, depend on one another, love one another. Our strangely fascinating teaching of a triune God implies that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit relate to one another in a similar way. There is nothing Christian about the absolutely rugged individualist who needs no one else, who is concerned about no one else. Perhaps there is nothing God-like about a Creator who does not need, and give support to, a Redeemer and Sanctifier.
Eugene Laeur in ‘Sunday Morning Insights’
Witness of community life
At an International Conference on Evangelisation, people from different countries were presenting their preferred methods in their missionary work. Some spoke of food, others spoke of housing, while others spoke of health and medicine. Between them, there was a wonderful spirit of generosity and of missionary zeal. One of the surprise packages presented came from a group of Christians in the Far East. Of course, they saw the need for food, for health, for housing, and they tried what they could to provide that. The most important thing for them, however, was, once they had selected as area in which they wished to implant the Christian message, the first thing they did was to send a Christian family to live there. Their first line of evangelization was always the witness value of Christian living. It had always been the Catholic tradition that its strongest message was the witness of its members in their daily living. This, of course, could be disputed, but there is no doubt about it, Christianity is more about attracting than promoting.
Jack McArdle in ‘And that’s the Gospel truth!’
Understanding each other
John and Josephine have just celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary. Since their four children have left home and married, they have spent seventeen years on their own, a time they describe as “a new growing towards each other.” When they were asked why they still enjoyed each other’s company. Josephine replied: “We’ve always had a healthy respect for each other’s differences. And we’re still growing to know each other better. I just wish that we could have communicated with each other years ago the way we do now. But perhaps our easiness with each other now could only come about because of all the struggles we went through.” Unless we settle for stereotypes, understanding other people is a lifetime’s task. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that when it comes to understanding God we can become paralyzed by the sheer magnitude of the mystery. The more we discover about God, the greater becomes the mystery of his presence and love. The considerable knowledge of the Church can never dispel the mystery of ages. Mystery means that we can never say the final word about God; there is always more to discover, there is always more to share, there is always more to experience. And each year, Trinity Sunday calls us to reflect on the life of God.
Denis McBride in ‘Seasons of the Word’
Denis McBride in ‘Seasons of the Word’
Heirs of a Family-God
During catechism class, a priest asked 6-year old Sheila: “Can you say something abut the Trinity?” Sheila mumbled something softly and softly. “Sheila, I don’t understand what you’re saying!” complained the priest. “You shouldn’t,” replied Sheila, “Teacher said that the Trinity is a mystery!” Not only kids but also pastors and theologians have difficulty in explaining the Trinity. Theologian Karl Rahner laments that most Catholics are “Mere monotheists,” and, after their 1989 deliberations on Trinity, the British Council of Churches entitled their document “The Forgotten Trinity.” Thus, Trinity Sunday bids us remember the Trinity not merely as ‘mystery’ but as precious part of our everyday life. Trinity Sunday reminds us that there is no ‘self-made man’; or, ‘self-saved woman’, for that matter! It is the family God who creates us, saves us, sanctifies us. May Trinity Sunday see parents and pastors reminding their children and congregations of the urgent need to re-member the Forgotten Trinity, that down-to-earth Family-God who abides in, and animates, our daily family life. And may all families continue worshipping and working with our family-God.
Francis Gonsalves in ‘Sunday Seeds for Daily Deeds’
One God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity
St. Augustine, the bishop of Hippo, spent nearly 30 years of his matured life in writing 15 books on the subject of Trinity. His friends waited for the publication for many years, but Augustine was hesitating. One day they surreptitiously took away the manuscripts – without final corrections, and published them without Augustine’s knowledge and permission. Augustine immediately made corrections in the manuscripts he had, and began to publish them. Although he spent several years meditating on the Trinity, he was aware of his shortcomings in treating a topic so sublime. He said, “I pray to our Lord God himself, of whom we aught always to think, and yet of whom we are not able to think worthily, and whom no speech is sufficient to declare, that he will grant me both help for understanding and explaining that which I design, and pardon if in anything I offend.”
John Rose in ‘John’s Sunday Homilies’
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Illustrations:
1. School's out. Summer's here.
My kids have been waiting for this for weeks. All summer and nothing but swimming, riding their bikes, endlessly playing video games, and vacations. While our kids live in that world this summer we adults will be living in another. There is the economy and the struggle to keep Wall Street and Main Street happy and accountable at the same time. There are conflicts within our nation, not to mention the conflicts between nations. If there is one thing I have learned in life it's that everybody has their own version of the truth.
And we have to try and find the truth among all the truths that present themselves to us. It is very hard these days to know who to believe. Everyone is trying to lead us to their version of truth. In 1997, Nathan Zohner, a 14-year-old student at Eagle Rock Junior High School in Idaho Falls won first prize at the Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair by showing how conditioned we have become to alarmists spreading fear of everything in our environment through junk science. In his project he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical "Dihydrogen monoxide" because:
1. It can cause excessive sweating and vomiting.
2. It is a major component in acid rain.
3. It can cause severe burns in its gaseous state.
4. Accidental inhalation can kill you.
5. It contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape..
6. It decreases the effectiveness of automobile brakes.
7. It is found in tumors of terminal cancer patients.
He asked 50 people if they support a ban.
43 said yes
Six were undecided
And only one knew that the chemical is ... water.
Truth. Pontius Pilate asked his wife: What is Truth? It's a question that plagues everyone who tries to do the right thing...
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2. "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"
That was the thunderous directive declared by the "Wizard of Oz" to Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion. Dorothy's tiny terrier Toto had pulled back the curtain that kept the true identity of "The Wizard" a secret. Instead of being "Oz, the Great and Powerful," the "wizard" was revealed by the pup to be an ordinary man, a con artist, practicing the art of smoke and mirrors to impress the people with his faked naked powers.
Oz may have been a charlatan, but human beings have always been leery of coming face to face with a greater, non-human power. After they noshed on the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve hid from God in Eden's shrubbery. Moses only saw a burning bush and got a glimpse of God's back on Sinai.
The Israelites constructed an impenetrable portable "safety deposit box" for God's presence they called the "Ark of the Covenant." Violating the no-peeking rule for the Ark resulted in death. Even touching the ark resulted in death.
When the Temple in Jerusalem was finally constructed, there was a hierarchy of sacred space. There were outer courtyards available to Gentiles and women. There were inner circles available to devout Jewish males. There were sanctuaries and sacrificial altars available only to those in the Levitical priesthood.
Then there was the "Holy of Holies" where the Ark of the Covenant was placed. The "Holy of Holies" was the innermost sacred space, partitioned off from all human access by corridors, rooms, and finally by a blue, purple and scarlet-colored curtain of privacy.
Once a year the High Priest of the Temple parted the curtains and entered into this "Holy of Holies," this most sacred space where the very presence of God was believed to dwell. No one else could enter into that space. No one else could participate in that presence. No one else could feel the fullness of that power. No one else was deemed worthy. No one. God's audience was very small. The barrier between God's presence and peace and the human condition was insurmountable.
Until Jesus...
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3. The Trinity Is a Mystery
The Trinity is a mystery. God manifests himself in three forms--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--the Creator, the crucified one and the comforter who lives in our hearts. What does it all mean? It's a mystery. The best we can do is use metaphors to try to explain it.
I like a metaphor that Dr. John Pavelko uses. He compares the Trinity to our current obsession with multi-tasking. He points to some of the multi-tasking products we use, like the 3-in-1 Laser Pointer, Stylus, and Ball point pen he saw advertised. This 3-in-1 pen allows you to work faster and easier, according to the ads. You can enter your data into your PDA with the stylus, then rotate the top and sign a contact with the Ball point pen. When your work is all done you can use the laser to torment your dog.
Then there's the 3-in-1 Cooler, Fan and Ionic Air Purifier by Whirl Wind-Air. It will cool your air through a water sprinkling system, while at the same time freshening the air by releasing negative ions. It also uses a washable strainer to purify the air of all those microscopic particles that plague your allergies.
Finally, to put all your work into a hard copy, there is the Dell Photo All-In-ONE Printer. It will make copies of your photos, print, fax, scan and photocopy your documents with up to a 50-page auto feeder.
Dr. Pavelko asks, "With all of these multi-tasking devices, why do we have such difficulty accepting the notion that one God can exist as three persons?"
Good question. Why as human beings, whose finest minds still can't cure the common cold, do we think we will ever have the ability to understand the workings of God, who is so far greater than we are that we could never fathom His nature?
John H. Pavelko, quoted by King Duncan
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4. Our Harbor Master
4. Our Harbor Master
When a large ship enters a harbor, it takes on board what is called a harbor master. This is a man who knows that harbor; he knows the length of it, he knows the depth of it. He knows where the hazards are. He knows where the tides and currents are; what direction they flow in and how strong they are. When that harbor master comes on board, he takes control of that ship, and he gives order to the captain who steers the ship. He is an outside expert who is brought in to make sure that ship docks safely.
As we sail through the sea of life, we have been given a harbor master. He is the Holy Spirit. He knows the currents, the tides, the hazards, and the flow. If you will let Him guide the ship of your life, He will guide you safely through the hazards of earth, right into the harbor of heaven. Because He is the only guide you need.
James Merritt, Collected
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5. Eternity and Trinity
Clarence Macartney tells of a certain Canadian river which flows through a forbidding chasm. Looming on either side of the river are rugged, uninviting crags which bear the names "Eternity" and "Trinity." Macartney suggests that the opposing crags invite an analogy (you understand of course, that to a preacher, most everything invites analogy). "Inseparable from any true conception of God," he says, "are always the two doctrines of God's eternity and God's trinity ... The threefold experience of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit." The great preacher then goes on to conclude that both doctrines lie helplessly beyond human comprehension.
Larry Powell, Blow the Silver Trumpets, CSS Publishing Company ____________________________
6. Who God Is
When I was a student, we had an assignment: "Prove or disprove the existence of God" in ten pages. One clever answer used less than a page, and got top marks for the effort. The student wrote to the effect that the assignment was not possible using the rules of logical proof. For in using the available conventional starting point, we would only be able to use the things that can be observed and verified by human senses within the known created world. All one could do, the argument supposed, in that instance is prove that something in the created world was God. In other words, you could prove that something was God that could not possibly be God. The second part of the argument suggested that in order for such a "proof" to be valid, a student would have to be objective, from the start, about that answer. A student would need not to care if there was or was not a "God". Since everyone has a stake in the answer, one way or another, it was reasoned that such a proof was impossible to attempt.
The point of the exercise was to get the students to think about who or what God is. The reality of the exercise, at least for the student in question, is that we cannot approach the answer through logical thought, through reason alone. Now this is not to say that reason and logic do not have their place in the realm of faith. It is just to say that they alone cannot do the job. The IS ness of God is just too different from our experience to be able to fathom. So the language of the Trinity in the Christian witness may serve mostly to humble us. It serves to remind us that God is indeed beyond our complete comprehension. All the language that we have about God must be metaphor. Most of the language in the bible is just that, with one notable exception: "God is love."
The point of the exercise was to get the students to think about who or what God is. The reality of the exercise, at least for the student in question, is that we cannot approach the answer through logical thought, through reason alone. Now this is not to say that reason and logic do not have their place in the realm of faith. It is just to say that they alone cannot do the job. The IS ness of God is just too different from our experience to be able to fathom. So the language of the Trinity in the Christian witness may serve mostly to humble us. It serves to remind us that God is indeed beyond our complete comprehension. All the language that we have about God must be metaphor. Most of the language in the bible is just that, with one notable exception: "God is love."
Luke Bouman, Difficult Things
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7. Oh, Now I Understand
C. S. Lewis once said that the most frequently spoken word in heaven would be, "OH." As in, "Oh, now I understand." Or, "Oh, now I see what God's plan was." Or, "Oh, now I see the reason for the trial I went through."
We do not have that luxury in this world. We walk by faith, not by knowledge. But one day it will be revealed to us. We will be in the presence of the Father and the Son and the Spirit. How can we be in the presence of all three at the same time? It beats me, but as St. Paul says in another place, "I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that He is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me." (II Timothy 1: 12)
We do not have that luxury in this world. We walk by faith, not by knowledge. But one day it will be revealed to us. We will be in the presence of the Father and the Son and the Spirit. How can we be in the presence of all three at the same time? It beats me, but as St. Paul says in another place, "I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that He is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me." (II Timothy 1: 12)
King Duncan, Collected Sermons
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8. Kierkegaard's Story of the Prince
We affirm a belief in the Son, Jesus Christ. We say that God took on human form, came and lived among us, suffered the same trials that we suffered, experienced the same Feelings that we experienced. Jesus was purely human and purely divine. Jesus was not God. Jesus was God incarnate. There is a difference. Jesus never drew attention to himself but always pointed to God.
Soren Kierkegaard, the great Danish theologian of another century tells a story of a prince who wanted to find a maiden suitable to be his queen. One day while running an errand in the local village for his father he passed through a poor section. As he glanced out the windows of the carriage his eyes fell upon a beautiful peasant maiden. During the ensuing days he often passed by the young lady and soon fell in love. But he had a problem. How would he seek her hand?
He could order her to marry him. But even a prince wants his bride to marry him freely and voluntarily and not through coercion. He could put on his most splendid uniform and drive up to her front door in a carriage drawn by six horses. But if he did this he would never be certain that the maiden loved him or was simply overwhelmed with all of the splendor. As you might have guessed, the prince came up with another solution. He would give up his kingly robe. He moved, into the village, entering not with a crown but in the garb of a peasant. He lived among the people, shared their interests and concerns, and talked their language. In time the maiden grew to love him for who he was and because he had first loved her.
This very simple, almost child like story, written by one of the most brilliant minds of our time explains what we Christians mean by the incarnation. God came and lived among us. I am glad that this happened for two reasons. One, it shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is with us, that he is on our side, and that he loves us. Secondly, it gives us a first hand view of what the mind of God is really all about. When people ask what God is like, we as Christians point to the person of Jesus Christ. God himself is incomprehensible. But in Jesus Christ we get a glimpse of his glory. In the person of Jesus we are told that God, that mysterious other that created the stars and the universe, is willing to go all of the way, to be one of us, talk our language, eat our food, share our suffering die on a cross. Why? So that a single person, you, me, might be redeemed.
And, grow to love Him.
Brett Blair
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9. A Dependable Guide
Pastor Michael Walther tells of listening to a radio program (Focus on the Family) about a famous test pilot. This pilot was flying a fighter jet in bad weather and about to make his instrument approach to an airport. The air traffic controller called and asked how much fuel he had. "Plenty," he said. "Well," the controller said, "we've got a little problem. There's a young pilot who is not instrument rated. He's lost in the clouds, and we were wondering if you could intercept him and lead him back to the airport." "Sure," the pilot responded. He found the lost plane and pulled up beside it. He called on the radio and told the pilot to look out to his left. There the pilot of this small plane saw the powerful fighter jet, and the man burst into tears. As far as he was concerned at that point his life was about over. He would soon run out of fuel and crash. "Don't worry," the test pilot said...
Since they had all studied economics in college, they began to shout “free rider” at one another. Soon they were not speaking to one another. Their community collapsed under the pressures of success, resentment, and envy – in that order. See, we told you so, said the neighbors on other streets. Later none of the three could figure out what went wrong. (Andrew Greeley)
Prayer to the Blessed Trinity
The following prayer is read slowly by the leader, or by all the people if they have the text. The celebrant concludes with the Prayer after Communion.
Lord God, our Father
you are my God.
Let your wisdom direct me,
your grace keep me,
your love rejoice me,
your truth protect me,
your power guard me.
Jesus Christ, God's Son,
my brother and my Savior.
That you became man
is my joy.
I want to go your way;
your suffering be my victory,
your disgrace my honor,
your death my life,
your resurrection my comfort.
Holy Spirit, God,
you are my comfort,
convert me,
for I am sinful person.
Bring me back to life,
for I am dead.
Awaken me,
for I am sleeping.
Make me ready
for eternal life.
Give light to my mind,
sanctify my will,
give strength to my weak powers.
Be with me,
live in me,
stay with me,
Trinity worthy of all praise.
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From Fr. Tony Kadavil's Collection:
1: Simplified explanations by Ss. Patrick, Cyril and
John Maria Vianney: The shamrock, a kind of clover, is a leguminous
herb that grows in marshy places. St. Patrick, the missionary patron
saint of Ireland, used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity. The
story goes that one day his friends asked Patrick to explain the Mystery of the
Trinity. He looked at the ground and saw shamrocks growing amid the grass
at his feet. He picked one up one of its trifoliate leaves and asked if
it were one leaf or three. Patrick’s friends couldn’t answer – the
shamrock leaf looked like one but it clearly had three parts. Patrick
explained to them: “The mystery of the Holy Trinity – one God in Three Persons:
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – is like this, but more complex and
unintelligible.” St. Cyril, the teacher of the Slavs, tried
to explain the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity using sun as an example.
He said, “God the Father is that blazing sun. God the Son is its light
and God the Holy Spirit is its heat — but there is only one sun. So there are
three Persons in the Holy Trinity but God is One and indivisible.” St. John
Maria Vianney used to explain Holy Trinity using lighted candles and roses on
the altar and water in the cruets. “The flame has color, warmth and shape. But
these are expressions of one flame. Similarly, the rose has color, fragrance
and shape. But these are expressions of one reality, namely, rose. Water, steam
and ice are three distinct expressions of one reality. In the same way one God
revealed Himself to us as Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.” Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQLfgaUoQCw&feature=player_detailpage(http://frtonyshomilies.com/ )
2: Trinity prayer of Tolstoy’s monks: Three
Russian monks lived in a faraway Island. Nobody ever went there. However, one
day their bishop decided to make a pastoral visit to learn more about their
religious life. But when he arrived, he discovered that they did not know even
the Lord’s Prayer. So he spent all his time and energy teaching them the Our
Father and then left them, satisfied with his pastoral visit. But when his
small ship had left the island and was back in the open sea, he suddenly
noticed the three hermits walking on the water – in fact they were running
after the ship. When they approached it, they cried out, “Dear bishop we have
forgotten the Lord’s Prayer you taught us.” The bishop, overwhelmed by what he
was seeing and hearing asked them, ”But dear brothers, how then do you
pray?” They answered, “We just say, there are three of us and there are
three of you, have mercy on us.” The bishop, awestruck by their sanctity and
simplicity said, “Go back to your island and be at peace.” (Adapted from Leo
Tolstoy- The Three Hermits” (Russian: Три Старца, a short story by Russian author Leo Tolstoy (Lev
Nikolayevich Tolstoy), was written in 1885 and first published in 1886 in the
weekly periodical Niva(нива). http://frtonyshomilies.com/
3: “But that is impossible, my dear child:” There is
a very old and much-repeated story about St. Augustine, one of the intellectual
giants of the Church. He was walking by the seashore one day, attempting
to conceive of an intelligible explanation for the mystery of the Trinity.
As he walked along, he saw a small boy on the beach, pouring seawater
from a shell into a small hole in the sand. “What are you doing, my
child?” asked Augustine. “I am trying to empty the sea into this hole,”
the boy answered with an innocent smile. “But that is impossible, my dear
child,” said Augustine. The boy stood up, looked straight into the eyes
of Augustine and replied, “What you are trying to do – comprehend the immensity
of God with your small head – is even more impossible.” Then he vanished.
The child was an angel sent by God to teach Augustine a lesson.
Later, Augustine wrote: “You see the Trinity if you see love.”
According to him, the Father is the lover, the Son is the loved one and
the Holy Spirit is the personification of the very act of loving. This means
that we can understand something of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity more
readily with the heart than with our feeble mind. Evagrius of Pontus, a Greek
monk of the 4th century who came from what is now Turkey in Asia and later
lived out his vocation in Egypt, said: “God cannot be grasped by the mind. If
God could be grasped, God would not be God.” http://frtonyshomilies.com/
4) Trinitarian Love the essence of family life: One
day, while he was walking with God in the Garden of Eden Adam said, “Excuse me
God, can I ask you a few questions?” God replied, “Go on Adam, but be
quick. I have a world to create.”
So, Adam says, “When you created Eve, why did you make her
body so curved and tender unlike mine?” “I did that, Adam, so that you could
love her.” “Oh, well then, why did you give her long, shiny, beautiful hair?”
“I did that Adam so that you could love her.” “Oh, well then, why did you make
her so stupid? Is that too because I should love her?” “Well, Adam,
no. I did that so that she could love you.”
5) Wisdom from child’s mouth: A priest went into a
second-grade classroom of the parish school and asked, “Who can tell me what
the Blessed Trinity means?” A little girl lisped, “The Blethed Twinity meanth
there are thwee perthonth in one God.” The priest, taken aback by the lisp,
said, “Would you say that again? I don’t understand what you said.” The little
girl answered, “Y’not thuppothed to underthtand; ‘t’th a mythtewy.”
6) Trinitarian pastor: One parishioner said, “The
Trinitarian God is a lot like our pastor. I don’t see him through the week and
I don’t understand him on Sunday.”
7) Lutheran satire about St. Patrick’s bad analogies (Funny
You Tube joke): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQLfgaUoQCw&feature=player_detailpage
22 Additional anecdotes:
1) The universal testimony: A good illustration of the
Trinity comes from world-renowned scientist Dr. Henry Morris. He notes that the
entire universe is Trinitarian by design. The universe consists of three
things: matter, space, and time. Take away any one of those three and the universe
would cease to exist. But each one of those is itself a trinity. Matter = mass
+ energy + motion. Space = length + height + breadth. Time = past + present +
future. Thus the whole universe witnesses to the character of the God who made
it (cf. Psalm 19:1). http://frtonyshomilies.com/
2) “You ask me a riddle?” Boston’s Richard Cardinal
Cushing (d. November 2, 1970, age 75), told of an occasion when he was
administering last rites to a man who had collapsed in a general store.
Following his usual custom, he knelt by the man and asked, “Do you believe in
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?” The Cardinal said the
man roused a little bit, opened an eye, looked at him and said, “Here I am,
dying, and you ask me a riddle?” Call them riddles. Call them Mysteries. There
are things about life and Faith we do not understand, but I am not going to
suggest that you resign your effort to understand. http://frtonyshomilies.com/
3) “The undertaker.” There is an old story about a
henpecked husband who went to a psychologist. He was tired of being dominated
by his wife. The psychologist told him, “You do not have to accept your wife’s
bullying. You need to go home right now and let her know that you’re your own
boss.” The husband decided to take the doctor’s advice. He went home and
slammed the door on the way in. He confronted his wife and said, “From now on
you’ll do what I say. Get my supper, then go upstairs and lay out my clothes.
After I eat, I’m going out with the boys while you stay home. By the way, do
you know who is going to tie my tie for me?” “I sure do,” said his wife calmly,
“the undertaker.” Some marriages are filled with conflict. So are some offices.
Unfortunately, some churches are filled with conflict as well. The feast of the
Holy Trinity challenges us to cultivate the Trinitarian relationship of love
and unity in our families and offices and parishes. http://frtonyshomilies.com/
4) Human mystery confronting Divine Mystery: The story
is told that Franklin D. Roosevelt and one of his close friends, Bernard
Baruch, talked late into the night one evening at the White House. At last,
President Roosevelt suggested that they go out into the Rose Garden and look at
the stars before going to bed. They went out and looked into the sky for
several minutes, peering at a nebula with thousands of stars. Then the
President said, “All right, I think we feel small enough now to go in and go to
sleep.” The wonder of the power and wisdom of God puts things in perspective
for us humans. It was not an accident, but the result of a Divine Plan;
planets, stars, plants, birds, fish, and animals were all created by God. And
the climax of God’s creation was humanity. How complex and mind-boggling is our
physical construction! Chemically, the body is unequalled for complexity. Each
one of its 30 trillion cells is a mini chemical factory that performs about
10,000 chemical functions. With its 206 bones, 639 muscles, 4 million pain
sensors in the skin, 750 million air sacs in the lungs, 16 million nerve cells
and 30 trillion cells in total, the human body is remarkably designed for life.
And the brain! The human brain and nervous system compose the most complex
arrangement of matter anywhere in the universe. One scientist estimated that
our brain, on the average, processes over 10,000 thoughts and concepts each
day. Bill Bryson in his book, A Short History of Nearly Everything,
says it is a miracle that we even exist. Trillions of atoms come together for
approximately 650,000 hours (the average span of human life), and then begin to
silently disassemble and go off to other things. There never was something like
us before and there never will be something like us again. But for 650,000
hours the miracle that is uniquely us exists. One could spend years just
dealing with the marvelous intricacies and majesty of God’s creation. We are,
as the Psalmist states “fearfully and wonderfully made.” No wonder we cannot
understand the mystery of a Triune God! http://frtonyshomilies.com/
5)”Bad things always come in threes.” An old adage
warns, “Bad things always come in threes.” Have you found this true in your own
experience? That bad things (and good things), like to happen in community, in
bunches? You say: we invent this connection by suddenly realizing that we got a
flat tire on the same day that a computer glitch devoured our hard drive,
shortly after our last contact lens just slid down the drain. I say: there
seems to be something significant about the power of three. Today the Church
celebrates the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—on this “Trinity Sunday”
affirming the truth that good things also come in threes. We recognize God as
Power (the Father), God as Person (the Son), and God as Presence (the Holy
Spirit). http://frtonyshomilies.com/
6) “But the machine can’t ask me about my arthritis.” The
true story is told of a woman named Mamie who made frequent trips to the branch
post office. One day she confronted a long line of people who were waiting for
service from the postal clerk. Mamie only needed stamps, so a helpful observer
asked her, “Why don’t you just use the stamp machine? You can get all the
stamps you need and you won’t have to wait in line.” Mamie said, “I know, but
the machine can’t ask me about my arthritis.” That’s part of the wisdom of
Christ’s coming to our earth to live among us as described in today’s Gospel
(John 3: 16-18). He can relate to us in all of our daily needs. As we try
to walk in Jesus’ steps, we might do well to pray the ancient Irish poem set to
an Irish ballad tune, which says,
Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all. http://frtonyshomilies.com/
7) Aggressively selfish child: A report some years ago,
allegedly by the Minnesota Crime Commission, painted a dark picture of human
nature indeed, particularly with regard to small children. I quote: “Every baby
starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He
wants what he wants when he wants it – his bottle, his mother’s attention, his
playmate’s toy, his uncle’s watch. Deny him these once, and he seethes with
rage and aggressiveness, which would be murderous were he not so helpless. He
is, in fact, dirty. He has no morals, no knowledge, no skills. This means that
all children, not just certain children are born delinquent. If permitted to
continue in the self-centered world of his infancy, given free rein to his
impulsive actions to satisfy his wants, every child would grow up a criminal a thief,
a killer, or a rapist.” [Cited in R. Scott Richards, Myths the World
Taught Me (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991), p. 39.] It is
to transform this self-centered human nature into a selfless, God-centered one
that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity took human form as described in
today’s Gospel. http://frtonyshomilies.com/
8) A dumb debate on God: The following hypothetical
debate for the mute and the deaf scholars is a warning to our pastors who think
that they have explained Holy Trinity well to their flock on Trinity
Sunday. The Jews and the Catholics are having a debate about God and
decide that they will each send one representative to prove that their side is
right. The only rule is that words are not allowed. They decide on their
representatives. The Vatican decides to send their best brain – Cardinal
Ratzinger, the head of the Congregation on Faith and Morals – while the Jews
pick one of their best rabbis to represent them. As a sign of respect the Jews
allow the debate to be held at the local cathedral. The time for the debate
comes and the rabbi walks into the cathedral and up to the cardinal. The
cardinal waves his hand towards the sky. The rabbi responds by slamming his
fist into his palm. The cardinal holds up three fingers. The rabbi responds by
holding up his middle finger. The cardinal then pulls out bread and wine. The
rabbi then reaches into a bag and pulls out two fish. At this point the
cardinal holds up his hands and walks away.
After the debate the cardinal heads back to the Vatican to
talk it over with the pope and the other cardinals. “Man, those Jews have it
all figured out. First, I said to him, ‘God is everywhere,’ and he responded,
‘God is right here.’ I was taken aback. So, I held up three fingers
representing the Holy Trinity, and he responded, ‘We all worship the same one
God.’ I didn’t know what to do so I showed him bread and wine representing the
sacrifice of Jesus, and he responded with two fish, representing that Jesus
provides.
The Rabbi headed back to the synagogue to tell the others
his version what had happened. “Man, you wouldn’t believe those Catholics. The
moment I walked in this guy with a weird hat gestures at me ‘No Jews Allowed.’
I said, ‘I’m staying right here.’ Then he said, ‘You have three minutes.’ I
said, ‘Get lost.’ Then he pulled out his lunch, so I showed him mine.” http://frtonyshomilies.com/
9) Why Isn’t the whole West Coast Included? A
woman wrote to Reader’s Digest. She wanted to tell about an
experience that she had when she took a young girl from India to church with
her. It was the eleven-year-old girl’s first exposure to a Christian worship
service. The young lady’s parents were traveling on business and had left her
in the care of their American friends. The little Hindu girl decided on her own
to go with the family to church one Sunday. After the service was over, they
went out to lunch. The little girl had some questions. She wondered, “I don’t understand
why the West Coast isn’t included, too?” Her Christian friends were puzzled and
asked, “What do you mean?” She responded, “You know. I kept hearing the people
say, ‘In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the whole East Coast.’” http://frtonyshomilies.com/
10) God Is Everywhere: A pastor was trying to explain
to a little Sunday school child that God is calling people everywhere in the
world to believe in Him. “God is much bigger than we imagine him to be and God
can use all of us in lots of different ways to do his work everywhere,” the
pastor said. “God is everywhere!” “Everywhere?” asked the little boy.
“Everywhere!” said the pastor. The boy went home and told his mother, “God is
everywhere! The pastor said so.” “Yes, I know,” said the mother. “You mean he
is even in the cupboard?” “Yes,” said the mother. “In the refrigerator — even
when we close the door and the light goes out?” “Yes,” said the mother. “Even
in the sugar bowl?” the lad asked as he took the lid off. “Yes,” said the
mother, “even in the sugar bowl.” The boy slammed down the lid and said, “Now
I’ve got Him.” http://frtonyshomilies.com/
11) “What?” Jesus said, “Who do men say that I am?” And
his disciples answered and said, “Some say you are John the Baptist returned
from the dead; others say Elijah, or other of the old prophets.” And Jesus
answered and said, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and
said, “Thou art the Logos of the Father, the Son Whom the Father loved from
eternity and Whom the Holy Spirit, the eternal Personification of the love
between the Father and the Son, begot on the Virgin Mary. And Jesus answering,
said, “What?” http://frtonyshomilies.com/
12) “I’m surprised at you:” An English teacher of a
21-sophomore high school class put a small chalk dot on the blackboard. He then
asked the class what it was. A few seconds passed and then someone said, “That
is a chalk dot on the blackboard.” The rest of the class seemed relieved that
the obvious had been stated, and no one else had anything to say. “I’m
surprised at you,” the teacher told the class. “I did the same exercise
yesterday with a group of kindergartners and they thought of 50 different
things the chalk mark could be: an owl’s eye, a cigar butt, the top of a
telephone pole, a star, a pebble, a squashed bug, a rotten egg, a bird’s eye,
and so on.” The older students had learned how to find a right answer, but had
lost the ability to look for more than one right answer. The Holy Spirit helps
us, in His wonderful Wisdom, to see more than we might have seen by ourselves.
The Spirit’s vision allows us wonderful options for expansion and new
possibilities. It is the Spirit’s Wisdom that reveals the Word to us. It is the
Wisdom of the Spirit that shows us our sin, which guides us, which instructs
us, which leads us in the way to Life Everlasting. http://frtonyshomilies.com/
13) Trinitarian design for medieval cathedrals: When the
architect and engineer Aldo Spirito was commissioned to design a cathedral for
the Archdiocese of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, West Africa, he used a number of
architectural elements to reinforce, as in the tradition of the medieval
cathedrals, the truths of our Faith. Among those elements is the fact that the
basic structure is triangular, so as to state dramatically the fundamental
truth of Christian Faith: God has revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. http://frtonyshomilies.com/
14) The Sundial: A missionary from Africa, on his
home-leave, came across a beautiful sundial. He thought to himself, “That
sundial would be ideal for my villagers in Africa. I could use it to teach them
to tell the time of the day.” The missionary bought the sundial, crated it and
took it back to Africa. When the village chief saw it, he insisted that it be
set up in the center of the village. The villagers were thrilled with the sundial.
They had never seen something so beautiful in their lives. They were even more
thrilled when they learned how it worked. The missionary was delighted by
everyone’s response to his sundial. He was totally unprepared for what happened
a few days later. The people of the village got together and built a roof over
the sundial to protect it from the rain and the sun! Well, I think the sundial
is a lot like the Holy Trinity, and we Christians are a lot like the African
villagers. The most beautiful revelation of our Faith is the teaching about the
Holy Trinity, namely, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. But instead of
putting the teaching to work in our daily lives, we have built a roof over it,
just as the villagers did over their sundial. For many of us the Trinity seems
of little practical value, when it comes to our daily lives. We treat it more
like an ornament of our Faith. (Mark Link in Sunday Homilies;
quoted by Fr. Botelho). http://frtonyshomilies.com/
15) Jesus’ brother, Isukiri, died in
Jesus’ place on the cross and Jesus went to Japan : While visiting one of
the members of one of the congregations I served some years ago, I was offered
a cup of coffee, and while I sat in the lounge room waiting, I noticed
something unusual. On a table there was what appeared to be a
shrine. Inside was a Buddha statue with candles and flowers and food and
other symbols. As we sipped coffee, I asked about the display on the
table expecting to hear a story about an overseas trip and souvenirs. Instead I
heard a story about this person’s involvement in the cultic Japanese religion
Mahikari and how she felt that what she was learning through this religion
complimented and supported her Christian faith. She told me how it taught
her about karma, reincarnation, ancestor worship and making food offerings to
the spirits of the departed, and so on. She told me that Jesus’ brother,
Isukiri, died in Jesus’ place on the cross, that Jesus went to Japan when he
was 37 and he died there when he 106. The amazing thing about all this, is that
this person saw no conflict between what she confessed on Sunday mornings when
she said the Apostles’ Creed with us and what she did the rest of the week as
she prayed before the shrine in her lounge room. This reminds me of the
young man who asked if he could go into the Church to pray. Before the
pastor could respond he quickly added, “By the way, what kind of Church is
this? Not that it makes any difference. I don’t follow any
particular religion. Whenever I pass a Church or a mosque I go in say a
prayer and plug into the Divine. Any God will do!”
“Plug into the Divine,” like it is magic, a kind of pill
that will keep us safe and sound! Today’s feast reminds us that our God
is a Triune God, one God in Three Persons. (Rev. Gerhardy). http://frtonyshomilies.com/
16) Exploring the mystery of Holy Trinity: Explorers
and the pioneer families did solve the mystery of what was out there beyond the
coastal strip. In fact, people have been exploring the mysteries of our world
on many fronts – medicine, technology, as well as what is out there in space.
Where there is any kind of a mystery, people will try to solve it. But there
are some Mysteries that will always be a Mystery. Today, Trinity Sunday, we
come up against one of those Mysteries – God. Who is God? Where is God?
What is God? I can’t touch Him. I can’t say how big He is. I can’t see Him. The
early Christians started talking about a Triune God. This wasn’t to make God
more logical and understandable and acceptable to human ways of thinking. In
fact, the idea of the Trinity intensified the Mystery and awesomeness of God.
They observed that Jesus had a unique relationship with the Father and that the
Holy Spirit had a unique relationship with the Father and the Son. Against all
sorts of odds, against all human logic, and in the face of mounting opposition,
the Church maintained that Jesus Christ is true God, equal with the Father, and
that the Holy Spirit is God, equal with the Father and the Son. Who is God? He
is our Heavenly Father Who made us, takes cares of us and calls us His dear
children. Who is God? He is Jesus Christ Who gave His life on the cross to
re-establish our relationship with God. He reveals the way to God and to
eternal life. Who is God? God is the Holy Spirit in you giving you Faith in God
and guiding you in your daily walk as a Christian. Faith in the Triune God
acknowledges the might and majesty of God but, at the same time, trusts in His
care and intimate knowledge of our needs and of what is happening in our
lives. O LORD, our Lord, the majesty of Your Name fills the earth! Your
glory is higher than the heavens. Let us make this our prayer: “Lord
God, in spite of our unbelief and lack of understanding of Who You are, show us
Your new way of living. Amen.” (Rev. Gerhardy). http://frtonyshomilies.com/
17) Holy Trinity prayer (Fr. De Mello version of
Tolstoy’s Three Monks) : When
the bishop’s ship stopped at a remote island for a day, he decided to use the
days as profitably as possible. He strolled along the seashore and came across
three fishermen mending their nets. In Pidgin English they explained to him
that centuries ago they were Christianized by missionaries. “We, Christians!”
they said, proudly pointing to themselves. The bishop was impressed. Did they
know the Lord’s Prayer? They had never heard of
it. The bishop was shocked. How could these men claim to be Christians when
they did not know something as elementary as the Lord’s Prayer? “What do
you say, then, when you pray?” the bishop asked. “We lift eyes in
heaven. We pray, ‘We are three, You are three,
have mercy on us.’” The bishop was appalled at the primitive,
downright heretical nature of their prayer. So he spent the whole day teaching
them to say the Lord’s Prayer and he succeeded although the fishermen were poor
learners.
Months later the bishop’s ship happened to pass by those
islands, and the bishop, as he paced the deck saying his evening prayers,
recalled with pleasure the fact that on that distant island were three
fishermen who were now able to pray correctly, thanks to his patient efforts.
While he was lost in thought he happened to look up and noticed a spot
of light in the east. The light kept approaching the
ship and, as the bishop gazed in wonder, he saw three figures walking on the
surface of the water towards the boat. The captain stopped the boat and all the
sailors leaned over the rails to see this amazing sight. When they were within
speaking distance, the bishop recognized his three friends, the fishermen.
“Bishop!” they exclaimed, “we are so glad meet you! We heard your boat go past
island and came in a hurry, hurry to meet you.” “What do you want?” asked the
bishop filled with wonder seeing them walking on water as Jesus did. “Bishop,”
they said, “we so sorry. We forgot that lovely prayer you taught us. We
remember only this much: ‘Our Father in Heaven, holy be your name, your
kingdom come’ . . .the rest we forgot. Please teach us whole
prayer again.” The bishop felt humbled. “Go back to your homes, my good men,”
he said, “and each time you pray, say your Holy Trinity prayer, ‘We are
three, You are three, have mercy on us!’” (Fr. Anthony de
Mello S.J., The Song of the Bird, Adapted from Tolstoy’s
original story of Three Monks). http://frtonyshomilies.com/
18) Welcome in! There is a
beautiful Russian icon of the Blessed Trinity painted by a monk named Rublev.
The monk, Andrei Rublev (c. 1360 – 1430), was a medieval Russian who painted
Orthodox icons and frescoes. His Trinity icon is considered
the greatest of its kind, and one of the finest works of religious art ever
created, depicting a wordless conversation between Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. It is based on an earlier icon known as the “Hospitality of Abraham”
illustrating Genesis 18 which depicts the three angels who visited Abraham at
the Oak of Mamre (see. Genesis 18,1-15) sitting around a table. But the
painting is full of symbolism and often interpreted as an icon of the Holy
Trinity. A dish of food lies on the table. But the thing that immediately
strikes you is the fact that at the front of the table there is a vacant place.
The vacant place is meant to convey openness, hospitality and welcome towards
the stranger and outsider. That vacant place is meant for each one of us, and
for all the human family. It signifies God’s invitation to us to share in the
life of the Trinity. God doesn’t exclude us. He invites us to come in and sit
at His table. He wants to share His life with us. [Flor McCarthy in New
Sunday & Holy Day Liturgies (Fr. Botelho.] http://frtonyshomilies.com/
19) You don’t need to understand God for Him to
take over your life
Thomas Edison, the inventor, once remarked: “We don’t know
what water is. We don’t know what light is. We don’t know what electricity is.
We don’t know what heat is. We have a lot of hypotheses about these things, but
that is all. But we don’t let our ignorance about these things deprive us of
their use.” The truth of that statement is real. Most of us do not know how an
electric light works, how a telephone or a TV works, but this does not prevent
us from using them. Let us try to apply the same common sense to our Faith in
the doctrine of the Trinity. [John Pichappily in The Table of the Word;
quoted by Fr. Botelho.] http://frtonyshomilies.com/
20) “Holy, Holy, Holy”: Today’s “signature” Hymn
is familiar to all of us. It begins,
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
Holy, Holy, holy, merciful and mighty,
God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity.
21) Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity Becomes a House of God: No
one understood this better that Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity. She grew up
in France in the late eighteen hundreds, the daughter of a successful military
officer who died of a heart attack while she was still only a girl. She was an
extremely strong-willed and temperamental child. Her frequent fits of rage were
almost uncontrollable, and she was known as the “little devil.” This began to
change after her first Communion, when she was eleven. That afternoon she met
for the first time the prioress of the nearby Carmelite convent. The nun
explained that the girl’s name, Elizabeth, meant “house of God,” and wrote her
a note that said: “Your blessed name hides a mystery, accomplished on this
great day. Child, your heart is the House of God on earth, of the God of love.”
From then on, recognizing that God had taken up residence in her soul, she
waged a holy war against her violent temper. She didn’t win overnight, but she
did win, eventually, and she also discovered her vocation to become a Carmelite
herself. Her mother didn’t like the idea, however, and made her wait until she
was twenty-one. She won friends of all ages during those years of waiting,
singing in the parish choirs, arranging parish day-care service for families
that worked in the local tobacco factory, and also winning several prizes for
her skill at the piano. She died only five years after entering the convent, at
the age of 26, after having suffered horribly for months from an extremely
painful disease of the kidneys. But her realization that the Blessed Trinity
dwelt within her enabled her to suffer with patience and even with joy. As she
wrote to her mother: “The bride belongs to the Bridegroom, and mine has taken
me. [Jesus] wants me to be another humanity for him in which he can still
suffer for the glory of his Father, to help the needs of his Church: this
thought has done me so much good.” Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity had
discovered the intimate, loving presence of God that He so eagerly wants to
reveal to all of us. (E-Priest). http://frtonyshomilies.com/
22) “As there is fire and water in this brick” According
to Tradition, when St. Spyridon of Trimithund was asked at the Council of
Nicaea (A.D. 325) how three can simultaneously be one, he responded (with a
little divine help!) by taking up a brick and squeezing it. From the now-soft
clay in his hands, a flame flared up, while simultaneously water flowed
downward. “As there is fire and water in this brick,” said St. Spyridon, “in
the same way there are three persons in the one Godhead.” (The great
20th-century Catholic theologian Father Karl Rahner, SJ, was supposedly asked
once by a priest friend how he should explain the Holy Trinity when preaching.
Father Rahner’s reply was simple: “Don’t!” The mystery we celebrate in today’s
feast defies not only explanation but also comprehension. The preacher is left
to reaffirm our core belief that God, remaining one, is somehow also triune.
The preacher is further challenged to help his congregants (and himself)
understand why that truth might matter in their daily lives.)
