"In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."
Matthew 28: 16-20
Back
in the early days of my priesthood, I had the chance to share with other
priests a pilgrimage to Athens, Greece, Israel and Rome. I was excited of course by the whole journey
and we shared much along the way. But
one unexpected, yet I believe profound experience on a city bus in Jerusalem,
gave me pause.
A
couple of us were going to move on to the museum of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem,
in Jerusalem and so we caught a city bus, very crowded with Israelis. As we
squeezed through the crowd towards the back of the bus suddenly I heard a loud cry from a little Jewish boy in front of me, I would say around eight
or nine years old, who was clearly frantic.
He cried out, “Abba, Abba” which of course means “daddy,
daddy” as he reached out his hand in front of me. The little boy had gotten
separated from his Father in the crowd and he was desperately looking for him down the packed isle of the bus. I remember the
boy’s father was standing behind me so he called his son’s name and he reached
around me as I let the now much calmer boy pass and they were quickly reunited.
Immediately
what came to my mind were the words of Jesus, mentioned by Paul in our second
reading this Sunday from Romans: “. . . you
received a spirit of adoption through whom we cry, “Abba, Father!” Hearing
that little boy yell out for his Daddy made those words of Jesus all the more
personal and startling. God is like a
Father to us; we are reaching out to connect with him, to find him because we
are his adopted sons and daughters. And
so, this Sunday’s Feast of the Most Holy
Trinity, I think in that simple example, brings it home. Jesus used such an
everyday word that was spoken even in his own time to open up for us a
window to the nature of what God is like.
Yet,
after the wonder of Pentecost and the sound of wind, the startling appearance
of “tongues as of fire,” the bold proclamation of formerly indecisive
disciples, and the conversion of thousands, we are stopped short in our tracks.
We’re tempted to take our faith from the tangible to the abstract and
theological as we reflect on the meaning of the Trinity yet we desire to wrap
our head and heart around this great truth that all Christians profess. It’s the stuff of shamrocks and united
triangles and circles in order to explain the unity of the Trinity.
How
did we come to believe and profess this great, yet mysterious, truth about the
nature of God as three persons yet one?
Well, it didn’t come about instantly.
Sure, our Lord implied in his teaching of what God is like and we are
many centuries after the final composition of what is called the “Nicene Creed”
spoken each Sunday at Mass. But it was through the lived experience of the
Christian faith that the early Christians began to see and understand the
meaning of the words of Jesus in the Gospels.
By living out the teachings of Jesus in their everyday life, by
gathering in prayer and reflection, the Church gradually over time began to
formulate this dogma. Jesus used, and Paul remind us, that God is an “Abba” to us, tells us something about
what we hear in the first reading as the author of Deuteronomy writes. He has a relationship with us that is akin to
a parent and a child, and in particular a desperate child in search for his
Abba.
In
short, Deuteronomy reminds us of what God has done in creation, that God has
reached out to communicate with us and with a people he specifically chose to
reveal himself to, and that no other “god” can compare to the true and only God
who has proven his love to his people through mighty works and a covenant of
laws he has handed on to us. What we
hear is that God collects or gathers us to himself. That God is searching for us like that child
and father searched for each other. This is not a Trinity of Persons who desires
to remain distant and mysterious but a God who reaches out to communicate.
These
readings and the experience of the Church over time showed them the deeper
implications of Jesus’ teaching about the Father and the Spirit. So, by the time the now common Creed we
proclaim at Mass was written, three centuries later, it simply reflected and
finally clarified what the Church had come to know and already believed over
time about the nature of God.
Our
Gospel from Matthew brings this all home for us and forever sets the mission of
the Church forward to proclaim to the entire world, for all time, not only who
God is but that he desires to gather us to himself in community with one
another and with him. Jesus approaches
his disciples before his ascension and sends them out to: “. . . make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching
them to observe all that I have commanded you . . .”
Each
time we gather for holy Mass, we direct all of our prayers to the Father,
through his Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit. To imagine that we share in the life (love)
he enjoys, that he comes to us in the intimate and real presence of the
Eucharist is to bow in adoration of his mystery as his spiritually adopted sons
and daughters.
So
the next time we bless ourselves before and after entering into prayer, let’s
be reminded about a God of family, communication, relationship, and a God who
listens for our “Abba” when we run to find him, we can give thanks for this
divine life extended to us, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit.”
God our Father, who by sending in to the world
the Word of truth and the Spirit of sanctification
made known to the human race your wondrous mystery,
grant us, we pray, that in professing the true faith,
we may acknowledge the Trinity of eternal glory
and adore your Unity, powerful in majesty.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
(Collect of Feast)
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