THEOLOGY AND THE TRINITY
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “Theology and The Trinity.”
This Sunday is called, “Holy Trinity Sunday,” so obviously some comments about God and God as Trinity are called for.
Let me take 10 minutes to make 5 points. Check your watches. However, as we all know, sometimes 10 minutes feels like an hour and sometimes an hour feels like 10 minutes.
FIRST POINT: EVERYONE HAS IDEAS ABOUT GOD
This Sunday is called, “Holy Trinity Sunday,” so obviously some comments about God and God as Trinity are called for.
Let me take 10 minutes to make 5 points. Check your watches. However, as we all know, sometimes 10 minutes feels like an hour and sometimes an hour feels like 10 minutes.
FIRST POINT: EVERYONE HAS IDEAS ABOUT GOD
Everyone has thoughts, ideas understandings, “figuring”s, about God.
What are yours?
If I asked you to give 5 thoughts – 5 understandings about God – what would they be? You’re allowed to have doubts as we heard in today’s gospel from Matthew (Cf. Matthew 28:17.)
Even atheists have thoughts about God. God doesn’t exist.
Theology means “words about God”. Everyone is a theologian – more or less – because everyone has words about God.
How have our inner words of and with God developed, changed, grown through the years?
Have you ever heard someone say something about God and you found yourself saying, “I don’t agree with that.” or, “That’s not my God.” or “That’s not my creed.”?
Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Can everyone be right and nobody’s wrong when it comes to God?
What are your ideas and inner words about and with God?
SECOND POINT: ORIGINS – GOD IS OUR ORIGINS
We can assume that everyone in the world has a mom and a dad. As Descartes said, “Cogito, ergo sum.” “I think, therefore I am.” If I can think, I am here.
Well, then, if I am and I’m here, therefore I had to originate from a mom and a dad. That’s the way it works. See a person – see a mom and a dad.
We don’t say, “I believe you had a mom and a dad.” We know another has a mom and a dad.
We might have been adopted or what have you – but we still know we had parents.
Even if we know our parents, we might not know them as much as we would like – and hopefully we can get to know them better as life goes on.
Why don’t we apply these basic thoughts to God?
In my third year of college – in a philosophy course on God, called, “Theodicy,” I made a life changing move in my mind. I stopped believing in God – and I moved to saying in my mind, “I know there is a God.” I don’t say that to trigger a tiny tinge of the sensational, but with the hope you’ll think of the significant moments in your life when you had breakthroughs in your thoughts about and with God.
So I don’t believe in God, I know there is a God; just as I don’t believe you had parents, I know you had parents.
I was in my early 20’s when I took that philosophy course – and that realization has stayed with me ever since.
It is basically “The Watchmaker Argument for God” and it made sense to me.
And way before that moment in college, I remember when I was around 10 years old, I opened up the back of an old watch I found in a top drawer. It was stopped. With the back off, I wound it up by the stem. Amazing – tick, tick, tick – all those parts were moving. Amazing. It just didn’t happen. I wound that watch up. Also as a kid, I knew I didn’t make that watch. A watchmaker did. So when I see the stars and the deep night sky – also having gone to Hayden Planterium in New York City as a kid, having seen the Star War movies as well as 2001: A Space Odyssey, having seen the Moon Landings on TV, picturing the heavens all moving in wonderful sync, I say, “Wow! God! Universe Maker!” People coming into this church for the first time look at the ceiling, at the stars up here, and sometimes I’ve heard them go “Wow!” The hope is all will look out each night at the real thing and say, “Wow, God, wow!”
THIRD POINT: THEOLOGY AND SUFFERING
If I asked you to give 5 thoughts – 5 understandings about God – what would they be? You’re allowed to have doubts as we heard in today’s gospel from Matthew (Cf. Matthew 28:17.)
Even atheists have thoughts about God. God doesn’t exist.
Theology means “words about God”. Everyone is a theologian – more or less – because everyone has words about God.
How have our inner words of and with God developed, changed, grown through the years?
Have you ever heard someone say something about God and you found yourself saying, “I don’t agree with that.” or, “That’s not my God.” or “That’s not my creed.”?
Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Can everyone be right and nobody’s wrong when it comes to God?
What are your ideas and inner words about and with God?
SECOND POINT: ORIGINS – GOD IS OUR ORIGINS
We can assume that everyone in the world has a mom and a dad. As Descartes said, “Cogito, ergo sum.” “I think, therefore I am.” If I can think, I am here.
Well, then, if I am and I’m here, therefore I had to originate from a mom and a dad. That’s the way it works. See a person – see a mom and a dad.
We don’t say, “I believe you had a mom and a dad.” We know another has a mom and a dad.
We might have been adopted or what have you – but we still know we had parents.
Even if we know our parents, we might not know them as much as we would like – and hopefully we can get to know them better as life goes on.
Why don’t we apply these basic thoughts to God?
In my third year of college – in a philosophy course on God, called, “Theodicy,” I made a life changing move in my mind. I stopped believing in God – and I moved to saying in my mind, “I know there is a God.” I don’t say that to trigger a tiny tinge of the sensational, but with the hope you’ll think of the significant moments in your life when you had breakthroughs in your thoughts about and with God.
So I don’t believe in God, I know there is a God; just as I don’t believe you had parents, I know you had parents.
I was in my early 20’s when I took that philosophy course – and that realization has stayed with me ever since.
It is basically “The Watchmaker Argument for God” and it made sense to me.
And way before that moment in college, I remember when I was around 10 years old, I opened up the back of an old watch I found in a top drawer. It was stopped. With the back off, I wound it up by the stem. Amazing – tick, tick, tick – all those parts were moving. Amazing. It just didn’t happen. I wound that watch up. Also as a kid, I knew I didn’t make that watch. A watchmaker did. So when I see the stars and the deep night sky – also having gone to Hayden Planterium in New York City as a kid, having seen the Star War movies as well as 2001: A Space Odyssey, having seen the Moon Landings on TV, picturing the heavens all moving in wonderful sync, I say, “Wow! God! Universe Maker!” People coming into this church for the first time look at the ceiling, at the stars up here, and sometimes I’ve heard them go “Wow!” The hope is all will look out each night at the real thing and say, “Wow, God, wow!”
THIRD POINT: THEOLOGY AND SUFFERING
Figuring stuff out about God is what theology is all about. To become a priest I had 4 years of theology after college.
Then I had a whole life time as a priest to discover even more about God. My first big discovery after ordination is that many people discover “There is a God” from suffering.
In trying to keep this sermon to 10 minutes, let me sum up this third point about how people often come to God through suffering with a poem called “Fever” by John Updike who died recently.
FEVER
from the land of 102 degrees.
God exists.
I had seriously doubted it before;
but the bedposts spoke of it with utmost confidence,
the threads in my blanket took it for granted,
the tree outside the window dismissed all complaints,
and I have not slept so justly for years.
It is hard, now, to convey
how emblematically appearances sat
upon the membranes of my consciousness;
but it is a truth long known,
that some secrets are hidden from health.
FOURTH POINT: THEOLOGY AND MAPS
Of my 5 points this is the most important point – and if this doesn’t grab you, this homily entitled, “Theology and the Trinity,” flops.
After I got ordained I discovered the writings of C.S. Lewis – who wrote a long time before I was ordained.
When I had to sit down with someone who was interested in becoming a Catholic, I checked out various catechisms. This was before the R.C.I.A. program. By trial and error, headiness and head scratching, I found C.S. Lewis’ book Mere Christianity great.
As in everything, the teacher learned more than the student.
C.S. Lewis wrote a lot of books. Many folks are familiar with The Chronicles of Narnia or The Screwtape Letters. I became very familiar with Mere Christianity.
It came out in 1943 and it was basically some radio talks he had given and then put into print.
If you want some clarity for your theology, C.S. Lewis’ book, Mere Christianity, is a good place to start. It’s a thin paperback – 190 pages still being sold in Borders, Barnes and Noble or on line, or check the library. It’s worth owning your own copy. Mark it up big time.
Then I had a whole life time as a priest to discover even more about God. My first big discovery after ordination is that many people discover “There is a God” from suffering.
In trying to keep this sermon to 10 minutes, let me sum up this third point about how people often come to God through suffering with a poem called “Fever” by John Updike who died recently.
from the land of 102 degrees.
God exists.
I had seriously doubted it before;
but the bedposts spoke of it with utmost confidence,
the threads in my blanket took it for granted,
the tree outside the window dismissed all complaints,
and I have not slept so justly for years.
It is hard, now, to convey
how emblematically appearances sat
upon the membranes of my consciousness;
but it is a truth long known,
that some secrets are hidden from health.
FOURTH POINT: THEOLOGY AND MAPS
Of my 5 points this is the most important point – and if this doesn’t grab you, this homily entitled, “Theology and the Trinity,” flops.
After I got ordained I discovered the writings of C.S. Lewis – who wrote a long time before I was ordained.
When I had to sit down with someone who was interested in becoming a Catholic, I checked out various catechisms. This was before the R.C.I.A. program. By trial and error, headiness and head scratching, I found C.S. Lewis’ book Mere Christianity great.
As in everything, the teacher learned more than the student.
C.S. Lewis wrote a lot of books. Many folks are familiar with The Chronicles of Narnia or The Screwtape Letters. I became very familiar with Mere Christianity.
It came out in 1943 and it was basically some radio talks he had given and then put into print.
If you want some clarity for your theology, C.S. Lewis’ book, Mere Christianity, is a good place to start. It’s a thin paperback – 190 pages still being sold in Borders, Barnes and Noble or on line, or check the library. It’s worth owning your own copy. Mark it up big time.
Let me give one example from this former atheist that has helped me immensely.
In Book IV of Mere Christianity, “Beyond Personality: Or First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity,” in the chapter entitled, "Making and Begetting,"* C.S. Lewis tells the following story.
He was giving a talk to some members of the R.A.F, the Royal Air Force, when “an old hard-bitten officer got up and said, ‘I’ve no use for all that stuff. But, mind you, I’m a religious man too. I know there’s a God. I’ve felt him: out alone in the desert at night: the tremendous mystery. And that’s just why I don’t believe all your neat little dogmas and formulas about him. To anyone who’s met the real thing they all seem so petty and pedantic and unreal!’”
C.S. Lewis then says, “Now in a sense I quite agree with that man. I think he had probably had a real experience of God in the desert. And when he turned from that experience to the Christian creeds, I think he really was turning from something real to something less real. In the same way, if a man has once looked at the Atlantic from the beach, and then goes and looks at a map of the Atlantic, he also will be turning from something real to something less real: turning from real waves to a bit of colored paper. But here comes the point. The map is admittedly only colored paper but there are two things you have to remember about it. In the first place, it is based on what hundreds and thousands of people have found out by sailing the real Atlantic. In that way it has behind it masses of experience just as real as the one you could have from the beach; only, while yours would be a single isolated glimpse, the map fits all those different experiences together. In the second place, if you want to go anywhere, the map is absolutely necessary. As long as you are content with walks on the beach, your own glimpses are far more fun than looking at a map. But the map is going to be more use than walks on the beach if you want to get to America.”
C.S. Lewis then says that theology is like the map.
People are deeply moved by God experiences whether at the ocean or on a mountain or at Mass or while visiting Christ in our Eucharistic chapel. They might have the kind of experience that the old R.A.F. guy had in the desert.
C. S. Lewis says that pious feelings are nice – but if you want to get further, then you need a map.
Theology is the result of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people who brought up – talked about – their experiences of God. Theology is the result of Theologians dealing with God questions over a long period of time.
FIFTH AND LAST POINT: WHAT’S THE WATCHMAKER LIKE?
My last thought is a question: “What’s the watchmaker like?” This is where faith really comes into the picture.
I can figure out with reason that the Creator of this Universe likes math and movement – complexity and diversity – beauty and a lot of everything. There are millions and millions of mosquitoes. Why so many God? Why so many? They are ruining my picnic. And when it comes to “Why” questions, when it comes to suffering and surprises I don’t like, then I have to begin to rely more and more on faith.
And the big “WHY” questions are usually people questions – relationship questions – family questions. Why is so and so, so UGGGGROWLGROWLGROWLURRRZZHRZ!!???!!!!
Surprise the great Christian revelation is that God is Three Persons – who is One God – so in love with each other – that they wanted more in the Union. Hint. Hint. We are made in the image and likeness of God and when we three, when we are 3, 6 billion and are in union with each other and God, then we really are in the image and likeness of God.
Today we celebrate the feast of the Blessed Trinity. We can figure God out by reason – that God exists by reason – but what God is like calls for faith. Prayer is necessary.
We as Christians believe Jesus came to tell us what God is like: a Father, A Son, and A Holy Spirit – and they are love – every expanding love – that wants to bring us into the expansion.
Now that’s where mystery appears and that’s where faith is called for.
And that’s why we read the scriptures and come to church – week after week after week – with the hope that our knowledge of this mysterious Three in One God keeps growing.
And that’s why we don't just come to church alone – but most of the time we come with each other.
And after we die, there is going to be a lot more – and God has that map. Surprise.
Today we celebrate the feast of the Blessed Trinity. We can figure God out by reason – that God exists by reason – but what God is like calls for faith. Prayer is necessary.
We as Christians believe Jesus came to tell us what God is like: a Father, A Son, and A Holy Spirit – and they are love – every expanding love – that wants to bring us into the expansion.
Now that’s where mystery appears and that’s where faith is called for.
And that’s why we read the scriptures and come to church – week after week after week – with the hope that our knowledge of this mysterious Three in One God keeps growing.
And that’s why we don't just come to church alone – but most of the time we come with each other.
And after we die, there is going to be a lot more – and God has that map. Surprise.
*C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, page 135-137
