The Most Holy
Trinity – May 27, 2018
I
–The Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below and there is no other.
R
–Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
II
– You received a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, “Abba, Father!”
A
– Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; to God who is, who was,
and who is to come.
G –Baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
+ Now that the entire Easter Season has concluded (last Sunday
with the Feast of Pentecost), the
Church today looks back on the past seven months. From the first Sunday of
Advent until last Sunday - in our liturgies - we have seen dramatized and
played out for us once again for our consideration, the work of the Most Blessed Trinity: the love of God the Father, who sent the Son [his very Word, the exact
representation of himself] into the
world to be born among us, and to live and die and rise for our salvation: for
the forgiveness of our sins and to open the gates of heaven that were surely
locked forever due to the sin of our first parents.
And
then, in order to preserve the life of the Son on earth for all ages: the Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit:
to “blow where he wills,”- to inform and
guide and direct the community of believers in the Divine Son and his eternal
Father, [ the very Mystical Body of Christ] in their personal lives of conversion from the
world, and indeed the transformation of the whole world into the glorious
kingdom of God, as it is meant to be transfigured and transformed.
And
so this is what we celebrate today the
activity of the Trinity on our behalf!
But we also need to back up
even further and look at this Triune God
as He is in Himself: for if this Trinity of Persons comes to dwell within
us by our initiation into the Church by Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist:
who is this Trinity? who is God in Himself? and what does it mean for us?
Though it can easily be
stated, it cannot ever in this life or even in the next be fully understood:
the mystery of God in his Threefold Oneness
may inadequately be described as: “the uncreated God, who simply is,
loves himself, sees himself, and gives himself infinitely to an image of
himself who is the Word, a second Person; in effect God utters one Word and
that word is WORD, it is Son, it is everything that the Father is; and then in
an ongoing process the Son and his Father
look at one another and they sigh:
they breathe out a breath of love for
one another: and that breath of love is
the Holy Spirit: the created manifestation of the love of the Father and
the Son!
This is God’s own life that He
lives all in Himself!” And it is this God, Three
Persons bound together with a chain of love into One Being, who entirely at
their own discretion chose to invite other persons to enter into their life.
God did not have to create
anything because he needs nothing! But since he is not only an infinite dynamic of loving, he is also goodness
itself, and beauty and truth; and so he would just naturally want to go outside
himself and share himself with others who are in some sense like him: that is why he created the
entire universe as a backdrop and then mankind to be the highest form of his
earthly creatures – creating them persons
(in his image); giving them intellect and free will so that they could freely choose to fall in love with him!
The rest is up to us: for
those who have already or who want to fall
in love with God – he has provided the fullness of truth, beauty, goodness
and love in the Catholic Church – though lesser degrees exist outside of it – with
its Word, with its Sacraments, with its Works of Charity done out of love for
him; the Church invites everyone, everywhere to accept God’s call to a very
intimate life of love with him and everyone else who likewise believes.
To put it simply: God goes out
of himself and creates and loves us as persons; and if we have the Triune God
living within us due to our baptism and life in the Church, then we must also
go out of ourselves and love other persons as he loves, selflessly and
self-sacrificial – empowered by the Spirit of Pentecost, the Spirit of Love,
Joy and Peace.
Together
we are all – all on the face of the earth – meant to cry out: Abba, Father; Jesus, Lord; Spirit,
Comforter!
May it be so today and every
day for more and more people until the Kingdom
of God emerges fully in all its majesty, beauty and peacefulness here and
hereafter!
Amen!