My dear sisters and brothers,
Being the Trinity Sunday, I asked Fr. Matt whether he would be planning to call the bishop to come and celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity with us today… He was quite apprehensive about my inquiry… Then I said, I asked it because it is always easier to invite the Bishop and ask him to give a homily on the Holy Trinity than trying to do it on our own…
Since the bishop isn’t here today, and since Fr. Matt too has another Mass to celebrate, here I am, standing before you, trying to talk to you about the Holy Trinity…
So, shall I talk about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and give you an elaborated talk about what God is? Will that make you happy? Will that show you how learned I am? I am afraid, I am only gonna make myself a fool…
But nevertheless, I should speak… What shall I say, then?
Shall I speak to you about St. Patrick’s analogy of the Holy Trinity as the Three-Leaf Clover or Shamrock in which three leaves are parts of one and the same clover?
Or, St. Augustine’s analogy of the Sun, Light, and Heat wherein each of them cannot exist without the other two?
Or, shall I speak to you about St. Bonaventure’s analogy of the holy Trinity given as a triune relationship among a Lover, the Beloved, and the Love between them?
Or, shall I speak to you about the divine trinity after the analogy of St. John Damascene given as Fountain, River, and Water?
Or after the analogy of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas as Mind, Word, and Love?
Or, after the vision of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, as three musical notes needed to form one basic chord? Or, still better, after the invitation of St. Ignatius of Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises to to imagine how the divine Trinity is looking down upon the earth in their economy or plan of saving humankind?
Or, quite the contrary, shall I speak to you then about St. Augustine’s encounter with a little girl on the seashore who was trying to empty the ocean into a tiny little hole that she had dug on the shore? And in so doing, shall I try to explain to you how futile our efforts are and would be, no matter how smart and sophisticated they could be, in trying to fix this unfathomable Holy Trinity within our limited human languages, categories, and parameters?
No. I would not do that.
But what about, on a day like this, trying to understand our own trinitarian relationships in and around us and reflect upon how authentically and truly we try to live them after whatever knowledge we have, whether big or small, about the triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?
First, as human beings, let’s ask ourselves, how pure, how authentic, and how true is my triune relationship with God, with one another, and with the creation? Are we in the right relationship? Are there hurts around us? Have I hurt God? Have I hurt my brothers and sisters? Have I hurt the creation? Either with my acts of commission or my acts of omission? Pope Francis, in his encyclical, Laudato si, reminds us that Mother Earth is groaning today like a woman in labor pain. Can we hear her cry today, and how loudly we hear her pain?
Then, coming to the context of family, what about my triune relationship with my spouse, my children, and with everybody else around me? Be it my in-laws, my neighbors, my friends, etc. Am I in the right relationship that I am called to and that I vowed to live, with love and respect? Where have I gone wrong because of my acts of commission as well as acts of omission? Where should I need to change in order to restore the triune relationship in my family?
Then, in the context of our work environment, be it in the context of Creighton University and our parish family, or wherever you are called to serve, how much I work hard to promote unity among us? Not just to promote unity, but to consciously make an effort to do so even in diversity? Because the beauty that we understand in the Holy Trinity is the unity even in diversity? Where in my life I have failed to appreciate unity even in diversity? Diversity in unity? And thereby acknowledge and enjoy the beauty around me?
Therefore, my dear sisters and brothers, today, when we celebrate the feast of the holy trinity, the feast of God, is also our feast, a feast of humanity. It is also about us to ponder and celebrate our own triune relationships around in and us.
It is all the more so because as Karl Rahner would say, if at all Divine Trinity had ever left its trinitarian glory, in other words, if God has ever become something else other than being God, even for a second, my dear sisters and brothers, the good news is that, God became not a cat, rabbit, puppy, or anything else that we could name. But God became a human being like you and me, fully alive and fully divine in Jesus Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity.
Therefore, this trinitarian God is within us, in us, and around us. The feast of the Holy Trinity, the feast of God, therefore, is also the feast of humanity. But the difference is that we can celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity and we should rightly do so because the relationship among the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is so spotless, so uncanny, so true, so authentic, and so full of mutual understanding, patience, and give and take.
But when it comes to us, we have questions. We got to ask ourselves, the way we live our triune relationships, the way we have lived them thus far, have we lived them in such a way that we could celebrate it today, that we could celebrate it at each and every given point in time? Be it in our personal lives, in our families, and in our common history of humanity in the world?
If not, how are we gonna plan it from now on to celebrate it better in the next year? What more should I/should we do both individually and collectively to put this triune relationship with God, with one another, and with the creation right in our lives? What plans do I have to get this right within me, within my family, within my workplace, and within humanity wherein exist more differences than similarities?
From today, how am I gonna promote beauty in and around me by consciously making an effort to appreciate unity even in diversity and diversity in unity, after the very example of the Holy Trinity?
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