Homily for Trinity Sunday-the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Year C

 A God without mystery is not God. St. Augustine.

 Today’s readings, aside from having the earliest references to a Trinity, all deal with truth and falsehood.  The people in Jesus’ time, as we have been seeing as we move through the Gospels of Luke and John, are all about honor.  It was important to them to maintain their honor above all else.  We have seen how this has played out in Jesus’ relation to his Father and giving honor to the the Father.  But it is just as important to note that the Mediterranean person in Jesus’ time would do anything to maintain his honor – even lie. This is a very foreign concept to us, though I guess if we read the news, many people do it. So, as Americans, even if we don’t particularly value honor, we do seem to put a lot of effort into finding out the ‘truth’ of things. Notice all the furor to find the truth behind Elena Kagan’s life as she has been nominated for the Supreme Court.  The Washington Post said recently that “the politics that drive such speculation (that she might be gay) can matter more than the facts themselves.” Our media is truth happy – always trying to discover and uncover the truth about everything.  And God help the person who has been hiding something!

 So, if we don’t particularly value honor, we do seem to value truth. So when Jesus says in the Gospel today: “when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth,” it is an important aspect of the Spirit for our society to consider. The truth today that we are considering and celebrating is the truth about who God is.

The story is told of St Augustine of Hippo, a great philosopher and theologian. He was preoccupied with the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity. He wanted so much to understand the doctrine of one God in three persons and to be able to explain it logically. One day he was walking along the sea shore and reflecting on this matter. Suddenly, he saw a little child all alone on the shore. The child made a whole in the sand, ran to the sea with a little cup, filled her cup with sea water, ran up and emptied the cup into the hole she had made in the sand. Back and forth she went to the sea, filled her cup and came and poured it into the hole. Augustine drew up and said to her, “Little child, what are you doing?”
She replied, “I am trying to empty the sea into this hole.”
“How do you think,” Augustine asked her, “that you can empty this immense sea into this tiny hole and with this tiny cup?”
She answered back, “And you, how do you suppose that with your small head you can comprehend the immensity of God?” With that the child disappeared.

 The whole concept of the Trinity is, of course, a mystery, and we will never really understand it.  Tons of paper have been used to try to explain it, and the Catholic church has developed a theology around it over the years that attempts to explain the unexplainable, but understand that this process started from the earliest times of the Church. It is not something that somebody just dreamed up. St. Paul, whose writings are the earliest we have of Christian literature wrote in Romans, which we read today, about the workings of the Trinity, and talks about the specific jobs of God, of Jesus and the Spirit, but he probably did not have the understanding that we have today in our catechisms and theology.

 In Romans today Paul shows how the the glory of God is reflected in the peace that Jesus brings and the love that the Spirit brings. Paul, not really a theologian,  was never particularly concerned how any of this was possible or fit together, but was more concerned about the effect of the Trinity on our lives. The Trinity brings peace, brings love, and hope.  It affects us by giving us endurance to trials, allowing us to prove our characters and live in hope of something better. It is what allows us to form community and to sustain community.

 In the Gospel of John we see one of the earliest formulations of Trinity.  Jesus speaks to his disciples and lets them know that he has so much to tell them but until the Spirit comes into them, they won’t be able to understand it, or it may even frighten them so they can’t bear to hear it. But when the Spirit comes, they will know and understand. And what the Spirit lets them know is that which Jesus wants them to know, because the Spirit and Jesus are one. But also, Jesus and the Father are one – “everything the Father has is mine – he says. And it is from this that we have developed the theological understanding of Trinity.

 Truth is not always easy. That is why Jesus says that at this point before his Ascension, the Apostles would not be able to bear it. It is not always easy for us to tell the truth either. Sometimes we hold off telling the truth until such a time as the hearer can bear it or when we can not fear to tell it. But it is only in truth that we can be truly free and be totally in the Spirit.

 I always find that this particular Sunday is one of the hardest Sundays to preach on. The whole concept of the Trinity is difficult – though central to the Christian’s beliefs. But I always ask myself the question – how can I help people apply the Gospel of the day in their own lives.  How can I preach the Good News in a way that it can be lived out in our lives. The practical applications of the Trinity in our lives is difficult to come to grips with. Jesus himself was less concerned with formulating a theology of religion than he was of having people love each other, care about each other, and show that in their actions. So, I would like to suggest that that is the model of the Trinity as well, that can be a model for how we live our lives.  The Father so loved us, his creatures, that he became one of us, humbled himself to show that love, becoming a servant to redeem us. As Son, God sent the Spirit to continue and sustain that love he felt for his creatures, so that we could experience that love and express it ourselves to others.

 In our own lives, we can never be afraid to humble ourselves in the service of others, to love others so much that we are willing to suffer for them, to give of ourselves for those needier than ourselves, and to give the gift of ourselves, our love and support so that others know we care about them. If we live our lives caring less for ourselves than for others we will honor God, and we will be fulfilling all the mandates of Christ, and be living in the Spirit. The is how the concept of Trinity can be meaningful in our lives.

 Jesus called God his Father, but did so in a special way. Jesus called his Father “Abba”, an Aramaic word, which means something like our “Daddy.” (Aramaic was the language in Palestine at the time of Jesus). So now we do not look on God as distant from us. Our heavenly Father is our Abba, he is our Daddy, the most perfect Daddy we could have. Since our heavenly Father is our Daddy, he is someone who is close to us, who cares about us, who loves us, who watches over us. He is someone we can turn to in good times as well in bad, someone who will listen to us, someone who wants our good.

 The baby Jesus is described with the name “Emmanuel” in the Gospel of  Matthew. Immanuel means GOD IS WITH US. One might mistakenly not realize that our Abba, our heavenly Father or Daddy cared so much about us if Jesus had not come. But because of Jesus we really do see how much our heavenly Father, Abba, Daddy cares for us. God is no longer loving us from heaven, now in Jesus God is loving us in a human like us. (Year A only: As our Gospel says “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son…” (John 3:16)) Now in Jesus, God is Immanuel. In Jesus, God is really With Us. Jesus is our brother. Paul sums it up very well, “If God is on our side, who can be against us.” (Rom 8:31)

 “Nothing can come between us and the love of Christ, even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking food or clothes, or being threatened or even attacked....Nothing can come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:35)

 Our heavenly Father is our Abba or Daddy, and Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. In our troubles and worries we turn to the Father and Jesus. Before Jesus ascended he promised the Holy Spirit would come. Last Sunday we celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is also to help us. The disciples were gathered in the upper room before Pentecost, they were afraid. When they received the Holy Spirit, their fear and depression were gone. They could face life again. Paul says, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness.” (Rom 8:26) Jesus himself called the Spirit “the Comforter.” Like the Father and Jesus, the Spirit is also on our side to help us when we need.

 Jesus didn't sit down with his disciples one day and say "Today I'm going to explain something very complicated, I'm going to try to explain it in the simplest language possible." He didn't say that nor did he do it. Instead what Jesus does is that he points to a few different things. And the first thing Jesus points to is the fact that 'God speaks'. God actually talks. And that's what makes our tradition, Christianity, totally different to other religions. God speaks. Remember that great line from Christ - "He who has seen me has seen God the Father".

Secondly, there is a Word spoken. Spoken by whom? Spoken by Jesus, of course. And listened to by those first disciples. So, there is a Word spoken. "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life", said Jesus.
And finally the third thing that Christ points to is what's know as the Holy Spirit. Or we sometimes call it the interpreter. The interpreter of the Word of God. The doctrine of the inner relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in such a way that each of them is fully and equally God, yet there are not three Gods but one, cannot be fully comprehended by the human mind. It is a mystery.

 If we expected today’s readings to give us a clear and elaborate presentation of the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, we have found out that they simply do not. The doctrine of three persons in one God, equal in divinity yet distinct in personality, is not explicitly spelt out in the Bible. In fact the very word “Trinity” is not found in the Bible. Early Christians arrived at the doctrine when they applied their God-given reason to the revelation which they had received in faith. Jesus spoke about the Father who sent him (the Son) and about the Holy Spirit whom he was going to send. He said that the Father had given him (the Son) all that he has and that he in turn has given to the Holy Spirit all that he has received from the Father. In this we see the unity of purpose among the three persons of the Trinity.

 In the story of salvation we usually attribute creation to the Father, redemption to the Son and sanctification to the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, though they are distinct as persons, neither the Father nor the Son nor the Holy Spirit ever exists or acts in isolation from the other two persons of the Godhead.

 Like Augustine we may not be able to understand the how of the Trinity but I think it is very important to understand the why. Why did God reveal to us this mystery regarding the very nature of the Supreme Being? The importance of this doctrine lies in this: we are made in the image of God, therefore, the more we understand God the more we understand ourselves. Experts in religion tell us that people always try to be like the god they worship. People who worship a warrior god tend to be warmongering, people who worship a god of pleasure tend to be pleasure-seeking, people who worship a god of wrath tend to be vengeful, and people who worship a god of love tend to be loving. Like a god, so the worshippers. Therefore, the more important question for us to ask today is: What does the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity tell us about the kind of God we worship and what does this say about the kind of people we should be? On this, I have two points to share with you.

 (1) God does not exist in solitary individualism but in a community of love and sharing. God is not a loner. This means that a Christian in search of Godliness (Matthew 5:48) must shun every tendency to isolationism. The ideal Christian spirituality is not that of flight from the world like that of certain Buddhist monastic traditions where the quest for holiness means permanent withdrawal to the Himalayas away from contact and involvement with people and society.

 (2) True love requires three partners. You remember the old saying “Two is company, three is a crowd.” The Trinity shows us that three is community, three is love at its best; three is not a crowd. Taking an example from the human condition we see that when a man A is in love with a woman B they seal the loving by producing a baby C. Father, mother and child -- love when it perfected becomes a trinity.

 We are made in God’s image and likeness. Just as God is God only in a Trinitarian relationship, so we can be fully human only in a relationship of three partners. The self needs to be in a horizontal relationship with others and a vertical relationship with God. In that way our life becomes Trinitarian like that of God. Then we discover that the so-called “I-and-I” principle of unbridled individualism which is acceptable in modern society leaves much to be desired. The doctrine of the Blessed Trinity challenges us to adopt rather an I-and-God-and-neighbour principle. I am a Christian insofar as I live in a relationship of love with God and other people. May the grace of the Holy Trinity help us to banish all traces of self-centeredness in our lives and to live in love of God and of neighbour.

 So those three things, firstly, God speaks, secondly, there is a Word spoken, and finally, God gives us an interpreter which we call the Holy Spirit. On this Sunday every year we remember that God is our Father, our Daddy or Abba, and our brother Jesus who is Immanuel, God with us, and that nothing can separate us from his love except sin, and that God is also the Spirit who helps us in our weakness. As well as praying to Jesus it would be good to pray also to our Father whom Jesus called Abba or Daddy, and to pray to the Spirit asking for help in our weakness. Since God is a Daddy, and a Son who is Immanuel, God with us, and a Spirit who helps us in our weakness, let us continue to turn to God in our times of need. The Easter season is over. It was concluded last Sunday with the Pentecost. Today we return to Sundays in Ordinary Time. If there is one theme that marks the Ordinary Time of the liturgical year, it is the theme of growth in Christian living. The liturgical colour green symbolizes life and growth, as we know from nature. Ordinary Time will take us to the end of the liturgical year. If the theme of the Ordinary Time is growth, why then does the church choose to come back to it with the solemnity of the Blessed Trinity? Growth is a practical, everyday concern but the Trinity seems to be high up there, a matter of theological and philosophical profundity.

 The best explanation I can find why the church brings us back to the ordinary time of the year with the feast of the Holy Trinity is in the words of the French novelist Antoine de Saint-Exupery: “If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” The church is presenting us with the big picture of the “endless immensity of the sea” we call God. When we are personally caught up in the mystery of the love of God, then we shall find the rationale and the motivation to work for our personal growth in Christian living.

 Our second reading from Romans 5:1-5 links belief in the Trinity with the daily practice of Christian living. In this passage Paul speaks of the whole business of our justification and salvation as having peace with God. Being in right relationship with God our Father is the whole point of the Christian life. Paul is quick to add that the way to achieve this is through Christ.

 “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2).

 Our goal is to be at one with God. This is attained through Christ in whom we have access to the Father. Our hope is to share in God’s glory. This hope is nourished by our faith in Christ which justifies us.

 Our hope to share in God’s glory in the future is not based on wishful thinking. It is based on the fact that even now God has already given us the surety or assurance of what is to come by pouring out the love of God into our hearts:

 “And hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).

 Note that the love of God is poured into our heart through the Holy Spirit. Christian life is, therefore, not possible without a relationship with God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and his Holy Spirit. This is one big difference between the Christian religion and other religions. Whereas other religions present salvation and godliness solely as a matter between the individual believer and God, the Christian religion agrees that it is indeed a matter between the individual and God and adds that we have two heavenly advocates on our side. First we have our Lord Jesus Christ who redeems us and reconciles us to the Father. And then we also have “another advocate” who carries on the work of our sanctification.

 The business is not over the moment we believe in Christ and are justified before God. In fact the business of being a Christian has only begun. From then on, the rest of our lives should be devoted to the business of sanctification, the process of being holy as God is holy. This is where the Holy Spirit, the outpouring of whom we celebrated last Sunday, becomes the guiding principle of our lives. Through the Spirit God’s love is poured into our hearts, through the Spirit we learn to love God and our neighbour as Jesus teaches us. As we return to Ordinary Time and to the daily challenges of living the Christian life, let us know that we are not alone in the struggle. God the Father is on our side, Jesus Christ the Son of God is on our side, the Holy Spirit the Power of God Most High is on our side. Now this is hope, this is hope that never disappoints.

 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.

  By  Rt.Rev.Kasomo Daniel The Bishop of The Society of St.Peter and Paul (SSPP)