Reflection for June 4, 2023

Solemnity of the most Holy Trinity (A)

​Exodus 34:4B-6, 8-9 | Daniel 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56 | 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 | John 3:16-18

​There’s a story about Phillip, a young boy who goes and climbs up a mountain in what is now Turkey. He meets Evagrius of Pontus, a Greek monk of the 4th century. And the boy wakes the monk up because the monk is half asleep. And the monk says, “What can I do for you, young man?” And he says, “I want you to explain God for me.” And the monk smiles and he says, “God cannot be grasped by the mind. If God could be grasped, he is not a God that you should worship.” And he smiled and went back to sleep.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life” (CCC, 234). Trinity is one God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It’s not three gods. It’s not three qualities of God. It’s not three phases of God. It's not three forms of God. There is one God in three persons. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are fully distinct from the other, but at the same time, fully and completely God. Each person, at the same time is fully united to the other and in their union they are completely God. One God, three persons. Maybe hard to understand completely, but not impossible to understand in part. 
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The story is told about hearing-and vision-impaired Hellen Keller. After her teacher, Anne Sullivan, had given Hellen the names of physical objects in sign language, Ms. Sullivan attempted to explain God and tapped out the symbols for the name "God". Much to Ms. Sullivan's surprise, she spelled back, "Thank you for telling me God's name, Ms. Sullivan, for he has touched me many times before." 

Everything said about God is approximate and human language is inadequate to aptly explain God. He is not something that can be fully explained, but his mystery can be experienced. Though unable to hear and see, Hellen Keller have come to appreciate God's presence in her life experiences and it was completely wordless. In our First Reading, Moses again encounters God at Mount Sinai. Here, the transcendent Yahweh, ever desiring to be in closer, deeper, fuller union with humanity, not only goes out in self-communication but also creates the response in the heart of Moses through revelation and illumination. God passes by Moses and Moses declares that he has experienced God who is gracious, merciful, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity. There could be no better way to tell us the truth about God’s identity. God’s Name is Mercy, Grace, and Faithfulness.

Christians are often likened to an army. We sing “Can't nobody stop me now. Cause I'm part of the army now...” and read, “Put on the whole armor of God.” Imagine Christ reviewing the troops, who are supposed to be fresh and ready for battle. But some have fairly recent wounds, scratches in their armor, arms in slings, legs in casts, etc. He asks, “What’s the matter here? Why are they wounded already?” “Oh, they’ve been fighting in the barracks again.”

In his Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul highlights that they can bring out the best in one another by living peacefully in community. In this passage, he reminds us that we’re a people meant to live in community. The Trinity is a community. If God is love, then God has to be a relationship. If God is love, he has to be a community of persons —Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One can’t love in solitude or in isolation. God is a relationship of love. The Father is the lover. The Son is the beloved. The love that they share is the Holy Spirit. We are a communal people because we are made in the likeness of a communal God. The quality of our Christian life is based on imitation of the interior life of the Trinity. Just as Father, Son and Spirit are joined, so we are joined together in community and we are joined together to love. 

The conclusion of this passage is especially significant because it is the only place in the new Testament where God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are explicitly mentioned together in such a blessing. The order—Son, Father, Spirit—is striking and again reflects the order of Christian experience. It is in Jesus Christ and his gracious life and death that we encounter the love of God, and this encounter leads to our incorporation into the redeemed community, in which we participate in the common life of the Spirit.

To demonstrate God’s love, Fr. Dexter, a Franciscan friar, announced he would be preaching next Sunday evening on John 3:16. As the shadows fell and the light ceased to come in through the church windows, the congregation gathered. In the darkness of the altar, the friar lit a candle and carried it to the crucifix. First of all, he illumined the crown of thorns, next, the two wounded hands, then the marks of the spear wound. In the hush that fell, he blew out the candle and left the pulpit. There was nothing else to say.
Our Gospel passage today is perhaps the most famous line of Scripture. This has been described as the "gospel in a nutshell" because the goodnews of Christianity can be summed up in this one verse: “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” God is a giving God. In this singular act of self-sacrifice, Jesus knowingly and freely gave up his divine and human life for the sake of his Church. This sacrifice of the cross is not only the work of the Son but also a Trinitarian sacrifice, made at the initiative of the Father and through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Triune God, you gather, protect, and care for us, your beloved, through Word and Spirit. Thank you for helping us realize that your Holy Trinity is not so much of an intellectual formula to comprehend but an invitation to experience you deeply in our life. Teach us to live the life of your Trinity by loving the people around us. Finally, bring us to love and give selflessly like you to be of benefit and blessing to one another. Glory to the Trinity, the undivided unity: the Father, Son and Spirit one from whom all life and goodness come. Amen.

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