TRINITY SUNDAY A. 18 May 2008

Exodus 34: 4-6, 8-9 Psalm: 104 2 Cor. 13: 11-13  John 3: 16-18

1. A theology professor was sent down to work with some teenagers.  He started his first homily with these words: “The Incarnational dimension of our credal formulas were first formulated in the kerygmatic proclamations.” The teenagers looked blank. What did he say? The wise old parish priest said, the professor is simply saying: God loves us. God sent Jesus into the world. The Jesus became flesh to tell us in language we understand that God is love.  Awesome exclaimed the teenagers.

When preaching on the Trinity, I sometimes feel like that theology professor, and wish there is a wise priest to put it in simple terms. Bernard Lonergan the famous theologian has written a volume on the Trinity. It is over 1000 pages in length. After reading it, one of the pupils of Lonergan summarised the book as 3,2,1 and zero. There are three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, two natures: Human and Divine, one Unity - God and zero understanding or explanations in human terms.

2. Another wise and holy woman has said, that the mystery of the Holy Trinity can only be understood and appreciated in the context of our daily life experiences. Today we have two such experiences. The first is the experience of the Elderly in our community. As they approach the end of life, they wonder whether they have forgotten any sin in their younger and wild days.  Have forgotten these sins, and will these be forgiven? The second is experience of historical disasters we experience. The cyclone in Burma-Myanmar is one, the earthquake in Sichuan in China is another.

 The questions that arise are: Howe can we speak of a God who cares when we experience these global disasters and will God condemn me because of my failings. We find these answered in our delightful first reading from exodus. Moses is face to face with a providential God that has led the People of God out of Egypt. Now God strikes a covenant with the people. God gives them the ten commandments which Moses is to take to them on tablets of stone. While Moses is with God, the people rebel, their lose their faith, they turn to idols. It is Moses not God who is angry. Moses smashes the tablets of stone, forces the people to repent. Yet we find that God is not impatient with an unfaithful people. God is described in those most encouraging words: God who is slow to anger and abounding in mercy. Like the teenagers we must say: Awesome.

3. In 2008 we are no different from the People in the time of Moses. God has given us the stewardship of creation. We have abused it with Global warming. We continue to destroy one another with land mines and nuclear bombs. We test atomic weapons in the Pacific Ocean. Why should be surprised when the ocean beds and the earth protest? If we disturb the ocean floor with bombs, there will be Tsunamis and Hurricane Katrina, Cyclones in Myanmar and Earthquakes in China. Instead of taking the responsibility, we blame it on God.

God is slow to anger and will take the initiative to build up a relationship with a rebellious people that we are. God so loves the world we are told in John’s Gospel. God will send His Word into this world. The Word will become flesh by the Power of the Holy Spirit. And we will be able to acknowledge Jesus also by the Power of the Holy Spirit. This Jesus will tell us that God is love, that God is a Unity of Love into which we are all invited.

4. Theologians have expressed this manifestation of God in subtle language, in words so difficult to understand precisely to safeguard the truth that God of Christian revelation is connected with our lives, and connected immediately and directly through Jesus. We know Jesus is God. We know the Father is God. We know that Jesus is not the Father. We know there is one God. It is a very mysterious but true way of talking. It is only after a long and difficult discipleship can we understand what is at issue. However, even the youngest and the simplest among us can experience that relationship of Love.

5. It is fitting that we celebrate the Feast of the Blessed Trinity now. When we find it difficult to grasp this challenge and invitation, Jesus will ascend to the Father. Jesus will send us the Spirit. We celebrated those two feasts in the last two weeks. We have seen the effects of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on us. We have seen the effects of the Holy Spirit on the simple fishermen from Galilee. Hopefully we too will accept the Wisdom that is offered to us as a gift and the Understanding to accept the invitation of a relationship with God who is three in person, yet one in Unity.

6. Let us go back to our Theology Professor whom I mentioned in the introduction and his credal formulas. We see the expression of those faith formulas in the salutation of Paul in the second reading. These are in the form of a greeting. They are not yet full fleshed our expressions or formulas of faith. The Church was still hammering out the language in which to express their beliefs. 2000 years later, - today we are so familiar with them that we utter them in a casual and glib manner.

May we feel and reverently say, “the grace and peace of Jesus Christ, the love of the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you and bind you together in the love of the Blessed Trinity and in union of minds and hearts as we live out our Christian lives.”

To summarize in the words of a theologian:

• the feast of the Trinity does not  invite us  to abstract speculation into the nature of God, but to enter into a community of Love. It is also a story of persons and communities relating their experience of God.
• The story of Moses is a story of a mysterious mountain top experience of love and mercy.
• the Gospel is a midnight moment of challenge and call to conversion not only of Nicodemus but also for all of us.
• Paul writes how in life and in liturgy, people enter into a relationship with God by discovering Mercy which is shown in the death and resurrection of Jesus. This leads us to “come back to God” - who is both mysterious and invisible but becomes present to us through the Power of the Holy Spirit.
• we should end up not with a string of concepts, but rather with a deep felt experience of the grace and peace of Jesus Christ, the Love of the Father and the fellowship of the Spirit.