"When he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you . . . "
John 16: 12-15
“In the name of the Father + and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, Amen.”
How often have we proclaimed our faith in the Trinity
by the sign of the cross we make to begin and close a prayer but given little
thought to its’ significance? Familiar liturgical gestures of faith and prayer become
routine at times: genuflecting, the sign of peace, the sign of the cross,
blessing oneself with holy water, and sadly, even the reception of Holy
Communion.
Yet, the sign of the cross has been a marker for
Christians since the early centuries of Christian history. It is no passive or
insignificant gesture. Rather, the sign of the cross is most regularly seen
among Catholics to begin/close prayer, is rich in meaning.
We aren’t swatting flies or cooling ourselves on a hot
day. We are proclaiming our faith in the
unity of three divine persons of the One we call God. And, most importantly,
how those persons were directly connected to Jesus’ death on the cross and his
resurrection which brought salvation to humanity. That the work of our
salvation, accomplished through Jesus’ death and resurrection, was not an act
of one person, but the eternal plan of the Father, the Son, + and the Holy Spirit,
the three in one persons of God.
In speaking about God, we cannot deny the element of
mystery. This is God in himself so how does one come up with an adequate
explanation – you can’t, it is a mystery beyond our limited human conception. God
is not a puzzle like a crossword or Rubik’s cube to solve but a Mystery to
stand before in awe as one might be moved by an ocean sunset, the northern
lights or view of stars and planets “in a galaxy far, far away.” No words, just
speechless as one is overwhelmed by beauty and wonder. I remember seeing a total
eclipse of the sun here locally and words cannot describe it; you must
experience its wonder. That’s a sense of
mystery a presence of God the creator.
Our first reading from Proverbs, opens us to a poetic
reflection on the mystery of the Holy Spirit (Wisdom) and the pre-existence of
that Spirit before time began: “When the Lord established the heavens I was
there . . . then I was beside him as his craftsman playing before him all the
while . . .” (Prov 8: 30-31).
Despite his wonder and mystery, our God wants to
communicate with us; he desires a relationship with us, for us to come to know
and love him in return.
This weekend on the Feast of the Holy Trinity, always
falling on the Sunday after Pentecost, we mark that great uncovering on the
nature of the divine. Like dense fog
that suddenly lifts we have a way of seeing that would not have lifted by any
other way other than for this truth to be revealed through the Scriptures and
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Yet it is that person of Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, who has lifted the veil off the face of God and uncovered for the
world the very nature of his Father and the Holy Spirit.
As Jesus spoke, worked miracles, taught in parables
and gathered people around him, we hear the very voice of the Father opening a
dark door so that we may see, at least as much as we may comprehend, that God
is love, as we hear in the Gospel.
God desires a relationship with us for we are his
beloved sons and daughters created in his image. And our Gospel reading so
beautifully summarizes: “Jesus said to his disciples: I have much more to
tell you, but you cannot bear it now . . .”
A God who reaches out, who extends himself not out of
vengeance or punishment but out of love and mercy towards those he reaches to.
He communicates with us as a living being. His Son is his Word.
Belief in the Holy Trinity is uniquely Christian for
no other world religion defines God in this way as a singular community of persons
yet remains one.
The image of a human family might be a helpful analogy
to explain the Trinity: father, mother and children. Individual persons yet all members of one
family. They share the same human nature as individuals, but all are in harmony
with the one set of parents as they are related to the one set of parents. They
are one family consisting of a variety of individual persons who share the same
nature: human.
Well, it limps, as does any human explanation of the
unexplainable God, but we grapple with the unknowable character of God.
We have a helpful image not of just one part but of
the whole of God. We believe God is three yet one; three divine persons yet one
in their unity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit - One eternal God. They do not act
apart from one another. As God took on
human nature in Jesus so too is the Trinity present.
This is heady stuff to be sure and rather than waste
time trying to get your round brain into a square theological hole to solve it,
simply stand before God in wonder and humility.
The Council of Nicea in the year 325 A.D. the Church,
in direct defense against false understanding about the nature of the Son,
Jesus, formally defined the Trinity in what we proclaim as the Nicene Creed we
recite each Sunday at Mass. It should be
very familiar to us: “I believe in one God the Father Almighty . . .I
believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God . . . I believe
in the Holy Spirit . . . who proceeds from the Father and the Son.” It is
the core truth of a Christian and what we profess to believe as Catholic
Christians. Believe, yes, but importantly also by what we live.
All the prayers of the Mass, the calling down of the
Holy Spirit upon the gifts of bread and wine, our personal prayer, our
sacraments such as when we are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, the prayer of absolution as our sin is forgiven in penance.
Wherever Christ is present as in the sacraments, so too is the work of the One
God as they operate in relationship with one another.
Like a hand stretched out to rescue a drowning man God
has extended himself to us in love to rescue us from our own sin the result of
which is death. As he reveals himself through his own Son in Jesus Christ:
merciful, gracious, kind, forgiving and filled with eternal love. In that
action, ultimately in the cross and resurrection, he has forever recaptured his
creation and destroyed the power of death.
God has the last word. The potential for human society is unlimited if
we were to follow the way Christ has shown us.
How blessed are we in our Catholic life which promotes
community of persons united by one faith around a common word and his
altar. May that unity in community
reflect the true nature of this God who loves and reaches out to us
continually. In the Holy Eucharist we
see God reveals himself to us in the person of his Son so as to gather us as
one around his altar to feed and unite us in his mercy, kindness, graciousness
and forgiveness.
“In the name of the
Father, the Son + and the Holy Spirit.” AMEN!
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