A TRINITY:
MOM, DAD, ME -
ALL THREE
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily is, “A Trinity: Mom, Dad, Me - All
Three.”
BERNARD PIAULT
Bernard Piault, begins his book, What Is The Trinity?, this
way. “In his booklet on examination of
conscience Fr. Lebret suggests that we include in our self-examination the
fault of ‘never meditating on the Trinity.’
Nothing is easier for the Christian to answer him, the theologians and
parish priests, ‘Examine your consciences yourselves; do you ever talk to the faithful
about the Trinity?’”
Guilty as stated. I rarely speak about the Trinity. Well,
I do at least once a year - today, the feast of the Holy Trinity.
And every year I feel inadequate, because speaking about the Trinity is speaking about God - mystery - and God as a Trinity - is so much more mysterious.
And every year I feel inadequate, because speaking about the Trinity is speaking about God - mystery - and God as a Trinity - is so much more mysterious.
Yet every year every other priest or deacon in the world tells
folks about the images of the shamrock - [3 leaves - one shamrock]; or the triangle - [3 angles, 3 sides, one
triangle]. Then they tell the story of
St. Augustine - who wrote a big fat book on the Trinity. While meditating on the Trinity - while walking
along the beach - he spots a kid - going back and forth with water with his
pail to fill a hole he dug in the sand.
Augustine asks the kid what he’s doing and the kid says,
“I’m trying to put the ocean in that hole.”
And Augustine says with a smile, “Impossible” and the kid says, “I can fill
my hole with the ocean sooner than you can put the Trinity in a book.”
Our God is a big God - a Trinity - and all of us have a
hole inside our being that longs to be filled with God.
OBVIOUSLY THE
TRINITY IS CENTRAL TO CHRISTIANITY
Obviously, the Trinity is central to Christianity.
The Christian communities hold that the One God is Three
Divine Persons.
The Jews, the Moslems, and so many other religious
communities don’t.
In fact, if a Christian Community does not state in their
creeds and belief statements that they believe in God as a Trinity - 3 divine
persons - they are not Christian.
So the Unitarians are not Christians - but one would hear
of Jesus Christ at Unitarian Services.
Mormons theology is more complicated. “The first article of faith for the
Latter-day Saints reads: ‘We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His
Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.’” After
that - if we delve into Mormonism we
find out that they don’t have the same teachings and understandings about God
as Trinity that the mainline Christian Churches have.
We Catholics
believe that God is a Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We come into Church and make
the sign of the cross using water, “In the name of the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit.” And during Sunday Mass we say one of the two great creeds: the Nicean
Creed or the Apostles Creed. Those
creeds were hammered out in the early Christian centuries after many fights,
heresies and councils.
IMAGE OF THE TRINITY FOR THIS HOMILY
The image for the Trinity that I would like to use this morning is
ourselves for starters - the person inside our skin suit - me - the human triad - see me - you see my mom and dad and me.
The title of my homily is, “A Trinity: Mom, Dad, Me - All Three.”
There are over 7 and a half billion people on the planet.
Each of us has our mom and dad’s influences - whether or
not we were adopted or what have you.
When understanding Christianity, I like to go the way of
looking at people more than things - or plants or images, like shamrocks or
triangles.
We are called to be family. We are called to be
community. We are called to be one body.
Two of the great images of God are the ocean and
marriage.
In both hopefully we discover God.
I think of two people who came back to God because of the
ocean. One was on vacation at Ocean
City, Maryland and was hit by the vastness and the power and the eternity of
God while standing on the beach one early morning - at sunrise. He was
overwhelmed by God. The second was a
submariner who told me he came back to God while doing deep, deep thoughts
about life, while deep, deep under water in the ocean. Both had gone to church
earlier on in life. Both had given up on their Christian upbringing in their
college years and beyond.
Oceanic feelings can give us oceanic reflections about
God.
The other image is marriage.
How many spouses have brought their spouse to religion
and God and faith?
How? By example,
by love, by love making, by sacrifice, by dying to self so the other can
rise.
How? By children, by grandchildren, by the mystery that I
can’t control anything - or very little.
Take the names of the Trinity - the names of God: Father,
Son and Holy Spirit.
I am me - but I am like my father. I am me - but I’m like my mother.
I am born and at some point I cry and someone comes
running.
My mom or dad gets sick or my child gets sick and I get
running to God.
I learn speech and custom in family.
I read the book of Genesis and I see God has created
paradise for his first two children: Adam and Eve.
I see parents trying to create paradise for their kids.
If I am blessed with brothers and sisters and fellow
workers and classmates and team mates and neighbors I can learn about Christ my
brother - and neighbor and friend.
If I am blessed with a family that eats together I can
learn about the Mass as a meal - and I see parents sacrificing to put food on
the table and preparing it.
If I am blessed with a family that forgives each other I
can learn about the sacrament of forgiveness.
So too washings and anointings and leadership.
So too - hopefully - in my relationship with my Mom and
Dad and if I have grandparents and siblings - I pick up spirit - hopefully a
Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is pictured as fire, the dove, wind. Hopefully I pick up from my parents and
family, the fire of enthusiasm, the dove of peace, the breath of fresh air that
is another - especially a family member.
CONCLUSION
My homily has been entitled, “A Trinity: Mom, Dad, Me -
All Three.”
Hopefully we all do our part to bring God the Father, God
the Son, God the Holy Spirit, all three, to all the people of our family and
our world each day. Amen.
