OH MY GOD!
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for today is, “Oh My God!”
Today, Trinity Sunday, the call is to say something about God.
Everyone, even atheists, experience God.
Everyone says many times in their life, “Oh my God.”
It’s instinctual.
We see an accident. We watch a television news report about an earthquake, a cyclone, a hurricane, a crash, people killed, property ruined, and we automatically blurt out, “Oh my God!” We hear this from church goers and non-church goers alike.
We do the same on mountaintops – at the ocean – at the birth of a baby – on seeing a rainbow. I’m just back from 13 days in Ireland. We saw breathtaking scenes like the Cliffs of Moher – some 700 feet above the Atlantic ocean crashing into the rocks below. I stepped back at these spots. I listened. I watched. I studied faces and mouths as different folks slowly inched closer and closer to the edge of the cliff – for better and better, closer and closer views. Looking out and looking down, I could hear them saying, “Oh my God, how beautiful! Wow!”
POSITIVE & NEGATIVE MOMENTS
The title of my homily for today is, “Oh My God!”
Today, Trinity Sunday, the call is to say something about God.
Everyone, even atheists, experience God.
Everyone says many times in their life, “Oh my God.”
It’s instinctual.
We see an accident. We watch a television news report about an earthquake, a cyclone, a hurricane, a crash, people killed, property ruined, and we automatically blurt out, “Oh my God!” We hear this from church goers and non-church goers alike.
We do the same on mountaintops – at the ocean – at the birth of a baby – on seeing a rainbow. I’m just back from 13 days in Ireland. We saw breathtaking scenes like the Cliffs of Moher – some 700 feet above the Atlantic ocean crashing into the rocks below. I stepped back at these spots. I listened. I watched. I studied faces and mouths as different folks slowly inched closer and closer to the edge of the cliff – for better and better, closer and closer views. Looking out and looking down, I could hear them saying, “Oh my God, how beautiful! Wow!”
POSITIVE & NEGATIVE MOMENTS
So people say, “Oh my God!” in both positive and negative moments.
If someone challenged me on that, I’d say, “Okay. No problem. But step back and check it out for yourself. In fact, listen to yourself. I guarantee you, you too say, ‘Oh my God,’ like everyone else.’”
Some people think when they are say, “Oh my God,” they are taking the name of the Lord our God in vain. I would say it’s prayer – a prayer from out of out depths of our heart so many times.
At my sister’s 70th birthday party in February, “Oh my God, my sister Peggy is 70, and I’ll be there in less that two years. Oooooh!”, well, my grandnephew made the sign of the cross when I did the grace at the meal. Then I busted him afterwards, “I thought you announced you were an atheist.” He’s in his second year of college. Smile.
I also heard him saying, “Oh my God” a few times when playing Wii. I didn’t bust him the second time – but I was tempted.
“Oh my God.” It’s a primitive – gut reaction – we all say, when we experience both beauty and fear – crisis and wonder.
Just listen, just watch, and you’ll hear, “Oh my God” from everyone.
“Phew! Oh my God, that car just missed being hit by that truck. Woooh! Wow!”
“Oh my God, what’s a beautiful baby!”
“Oh my God, did you see that shot he just took. Wow.”
“”Oh my God, what a beautiful morning.”
GOD: CAUSE AND EFFECT
“Oh my God” is a normal announcement, that there is a God.
Some theologians would say: that’s the God of reason – more than the God of revelation.
C.G. Jung, the Swiss psychoanalyst, was quoted as saying, “I don’t believe in God. I know there is a God.”
Cause and effect. See me, see my parents. See a car, you know there is a car maker. See bacon and eggs, and you know there are pigs and chickens, fire and a frying pan.
See this church or St. Mary’s Church or any church and you know there were collections to build it. You know there were people who wanted a church. Look for the cornerstone and see when it was built.
See the stars, and you know there is a star maker.
But what is the car maker and the star maker like?
If someone challenged me on that, I’d say, “Okay. No problem. But step back and check it out for yourself. In fact, listen to yourself. I guarantee you, you too say, ‘Oh my God,’ like everyone else.’”
Some people think when they are say, “Oh my God,” they are taking the name of the Lord our God in vain. I would say it’s prayer – a prayer from out of out depths of our heart so many times.
At my sister’s 70th birthday party in February, “Oh my God, my sister Peggy is 70, and I’ll be there in less that two years. Oooooh!”, well, my grandnephew made the sign of the cross when I did the grace at the meal. Then I busted him afterwards, “I thought you announced you were an atheist.” He’s in his second year of college. Smile.
I also heard him saying, “Oh my God” a few times when playing Wii. I didn’t bust him the second time – but I was tempted.
“Oh my God.” It’s a primitive – gut reaction – we all say, when we experience both beauty and fear – crisis and wonder.
Just listen, just watch, and you’ll hear, “Oh my God” from everyone.
“Phew! Oh my God, that car just missed being hit by that truck. Woooh! Wow!”
“Oh my God, what’s a beautiful baby!”
“Oh my God, did you see that shot he just took. Wow.”
“”Oh my God, what a beautiful morning.”
GOD: CAUSE AND EFFECT
“Oh my God” is a normal announcement, that there is a God.
Some theologians would say: that’s the God of reason – more than the God of revelation.
C.G. Jung, the Swiss psychoanalyst, was quoted as saying, “I don’t believe in God. I know there is a God.”
Cause and effect. See me, see my parents. See a car, you know there is a car maker. See bacon and eggs, and you know there are pigs and chickens, fire and a frying pan.
See this church or St. Mary’s Church or any church and you know there were collections to build it. You know there were people who wanted a church. Look for the cornerstone and see when it was built.
See the stars, and you know there is a star maker.
But what is the car maker and the star maker like?
That’s where revelation comes into play.
GOD: A TRINITY OF PERSONS
GOD: A TRINITY OF PERSONS
Today, we’re celebrating God as Trinity – three persons – one God.
We hear this as revelation.
We hear this as revelation.
We hear this as faith.
Christians, like Jews and Moslems, are monotheists. We believe in one God.
Christians, like Jews and Moslems, are monotheists. We believe in one God.
Christians, unlike Jews and Moslems, believe that there are three persons in this one God.
Now that’s a revelation.
It took centuries for Christianity to come up with formulas – on how to state this – how to put into words, Jesus’ words about the Spirit, about the Father, about indwelling, about “See me, see the Father.”
There were heresies – major heresies in the process. Some said the Spirit was not God. Some said Jesus was only divine and not human or vice versa. Some said all three were not equal.
So we have the major creeds: the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed. One is said at the beginning of the rosary and the other is said at Sunday and major feast day Masses. Listen carefully to the words about God in the Nicene Creed as we say at this Mass after this 60 minute homily.
Christianity teaches: God is three persons – one God – equal and co-eternal – all 3 without beginning, without end.
“Oh my God!” that’s quite a statement.
So we have the shamrock and the triangle as two major symbols of the Trinity – to try to help people grasp somehow that three can be one.
But we won’t understand God, because we are not God. We won’t know the much more about God till we enter into the Trinity in eternity and then we’re going to really say, “Oh my God.”
What images help you? What are you thoughts and understandings and figurings about God being one and three and one?
WE ARE MADE IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD
For starters, there is a key text in the first chapter of Genesis – verse 27. Someone very early on in Jewish history came up with the revelation that we are made in the image and likeness of God, male and female God made us.
That person like every person from time to time was trying to understand God and life – in good times and bad, sickness and health, birth and death, with males and females, – and the why’s and wherefores of God in all this.
The world that person lived in was filled with cultures that came up with all kinds of images of God: war gods, fertility gods, wine gods, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, etc., etc., etc.
To understand God, instead of looking out at mountains – powerful scenes of God experiences on tops of mountains like Moses had in today’s first reading – we can also look within – into our inner geography and inner spaces – as well as in our relationships with each other – as we heard in today’s second reading.
In those places and spaces – we can get glimpses of how we are made in the image and likeness of God – how God can be three as well as one.
Only glimpses however….
God like the other persons in our lives – as well as ourselves – is very mysterious.
AUSTIN FARRER (1)
Let me use some thoughts by Austin Farrer – a British preacher who died back in 1968 – to walk closer to the edge of the mystery of God – as Trinity – knowing as St. Augustine knew, it’s like standing at the edge of ocean and trying to put it all into a tiny pail.
This stuff is quite tricky – and we don’t have centuries to grasp it – so we take so much on faith. However, think of these two human experiences.
1) We talk to ourselves
2) We talk to each other.
FIRST WE TALK TO OURSELVES
Does anyone here do that?
Human beings talk to self all day long. We even answer ourselves. We argue with ourselves. We laugh at ourselves. We get angry with ourselves.
Isn’t that interesting?
We’re experiencing ourselves as two – yet we’re one. Yet, at times, we feel so divided.
Now that’s a revelation.
It took centuries for Christianity to come up with formulas – on how to state this – how to put into words, Jesus’ words about the Spirit, about the Father, about indwelling, about “See me, see the Father.”
There were heresies – major heresies in the process. Some said the Spirit was not God. Some said Jesus was only divine and not human or vice versa. Some said all three were not equal.
So we have the major creeds: the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed. One is said at the beginning of the rosary and the other is said at Sunday and major feast day Masses. Listen carefully to the words about God in the Nicene Creed as we say at this Mass after this 60 minute homily.
Christianity teaches: God is three persons – one God – equal and co-eternal – all 3 without beginning, without end.
“Oh my God!” that’s quite a statement.
So we have the shamrock and the triangle as two major symbols of the Trinity – to try to help people grasp somehow that three can be one.
But we won’t understand God, because we are not God. We won’t know the much more about God till we enter into the Trinity in eternity and then we’re going to really say, “Oh my God.”
What images help you? What are you thoughts and understandings and figurings about God being one and three and one?
WE ARE MADE IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD
For starters, there is a key text in the first chapter of Genesis – verse 27. Someone very early on in Jewish history came up with the revelation that we are made in the image and likeness of God, male and female God made us.
That person like every person from time to time was trying to understand God and life – in good times and bad, sickness and health, birth and death, with males and females, – and the why’s and wherefores of God in all this.
The world that person lived in was filled with cultures that came up with all kinds of images of God: war gods, fertility gods, wine gods, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, etc., etc., etc.
To understand God, instead of looking out at mountains – powerful scenes of God experiences on tops of mountains like Moses had in today’s first reading – we can also look within – into our inner geography and inner spaces – as well as in our relationships with each other – as we heard in today’s second reading.
In those places and spaces – we can get glimpses of how we are made in the image and likeness of God – how God can be three as well as one.
Only glimpses however….
God like the other persons in our lives – as well as ourselves – is very mysterious.
AUSTIN FARRER (1)
Let me use some thoughts by Austin Farrer – a British preacher who died back in 1968 – to walk closer to the edge of the mystery of God – as Trinity – knowing as St. Augustine knew, it’s like standing at the edge of ocean and trying to put it all into a tiny pail.
This stuff is quite tricky – and we don’t have centuries to grasp it – so we take so much on faith. However, think of these two human experiences.
1) We talk to ourselves
2) We talk to each other.
FIRST WE TALK TO OURSELVES
Does anyone here do that?
Human beings talk to self all day long. We even answer ourselves. We argue with ourselves. We laugh at ourselves. We get angry with ourselves.
Isn’t that interesting?
We’re experiencing ourselves as two – yet we’re one. Yet, at times, we feel so divided.
We talk to self about others, about weather, traffic, what we’re experiencing, what were eating, drinking. We talk to ourselves about our family, our neighbors, our boss, other persons on the bus, or in the car. We think about a person looking out the window or reading the paper and we wonder what they are thinking about. We talk to ourselves about their hair, their weight, their clothes.
Yet, I am one – just one person.
Yet, I am one – just one person.
I am me – so different from every other person that I know.
I am like God – when I love, when I create, when I care, when I cry, when I help another or when I scream, “Not fair!”
I am so unlike God – when I don’t care – when I hurt others – when I hide.
So human beings can discover that God is so other than us and God is so like us.
The call is to be like God – because God likes to be with us.
When we talk to ourselves and start to bring God into that conversation – we are getting glimpse after glimpse of how we are made in the image and likeness of God. It’s called prayer. It’s called a relationship with God.
SECONDLY WE TALK TO EACH OTHER
Secondly, we talk to each other. It’s called relationships, friendships, marriage, family.
And when we really get close to another, our ego boundaries or self boundaries, our borders, disappear. Two people can become one. Three people can become one. Four people can become one. A team can work as one. Music can work – when all play in harmony. Marriages can work. Families can work. Parishes can work. Church can work. World can work.
Obviously, it starts with two people, male and female God made us, then the circle widens.
The dream is that the circle becomes as big as this world – and by the time it happens – maybe that’s what Jesus meant by the kingdom of heaven coming. Maybe that’s what we are praying for when we say, “Thy Kingdom come” in the Our Father. Maybe the circle will eventually embrace the universe. Time will tell.
So all this takes time. It takes a lot of living to be able to finish each other’s sentences, to know each other’s thoughts – to really become one.
It takes time to be thinking God’s thoughts – but God rejoices each time we are like Mary and say, “Be it done to me according to your word”. Then we too will experience our Christmas – Christ being born in the Stable of our heart, in our Holy Land. We too will experience Christ growing in wisdom, age and grace in our hearts. We too will experience Christ’s passion, death and resurrection taking place in us. We too will experience Christ sending the Spirit into us.
CONCLUSION – I NEED A CONCLUSION QUICKLY
“Oh my God, I’m talking to myself again.”
“Oh my God, some people might be understanding me. We’re becoming one.” Uh oh!
“Oh my God, thanks for creating me, making me, bringing me into existence - bringing me into You: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as well as into all those who have gone before us - all those who are here - and all those who are to come. More!”
"Oh my God!" More! The Trinity. Standing before God. Standing at the Edge of the cliffs of More!
_________
(1) Austin Farrer, The Essential Sermons, edited and introduced by Leslie Houlden, SPCK, Great Britain,1991, "Thinking the Trinity", pp. 76-80
Picture on top: from a post card I bought at the Cliffs of Moher - from the Liam Blake Collection, Irish Picture Postcards. I pronounce Moher, "more" - hence the ending pun.
1 comment:
For your edification & wonderment:
In defense of atheism (Oh My God!)-
Karl Rahner would suggest they've experienced disillusionment over a false God who, in fact, does not exist.This clearing of false images(i.e., as a God who micro-manages) makes way for new life - a kind of death & ressurection - and of course for the probability of further disillusionment!
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