Sunday, June 16, 2019

Why Bother? - Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Year C




            There’s a well-known legend about Saint Augustine that’s likely being told in countless churches on this Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. The legend tells of Saint Augustine contemplating the Trinity while walking along the beach.  As he struggled to understand this great mystery of our faith, he came upon a young boy running back and forth from the water to a hole he had dug on the beach, using a seashell to carry water from the sea and pour it into the hole. Curious, Augustine asked the boy what he was doing. The boy said, “I’m trying to put the entire sea into this hole.”  “That’s impossible,” Augustine replied.”  The boy stopped what he was doing, looked Augustine in the eye and said, “It is no more impossible than trying to comprehend the Holy Trinity with your small mind.”  Well, if it’s impossible for a Doctor of the Church to understand the Trinity, why should we bother trying at all?  Today’s readings give us the answer.
           
This morning’s readings invite us to contemplate God’s triune presence in every aspect of our lives. In our first reading from Proverbs, we learn that God’s wisdom permeates creation.  Our Psalmist ponders the magnificence of the work of God’s fingers, amazed that God would give us dominion and responsibility over it.  Saint Paul, in his letter to the Romans, emphasizes God’s desire for us to be in fellowship with him through Jesus Christ.  And in our Gospel, Jesus acknowledges that understanding all of God’s ways is more than we can bear at this time but promises to send the Holy Spirit, who will guide us to all Truth.  Our readings, taken together, encourage us to find God’s revelation in all of creation, in fellowship with Jesus, and in the workings of the Holy Spirit in our lives.   

People have been thinking about God since the beginning of time, as we should.  A certain curiosity, a desire, a longing for God is woven into our DNA.  People think about God so much that the academic discipline known as theology has grown up around it.  Simply defined, theology is the study of God, but I think Saint Anselm’s definition captures the theologian’s quest much better:  faith seeking understanding.  “What is handed on to us wants to be understood. This understanding is not merely logical and rational comprehension. It entails realization and integration.”[1]  Understanding God, then, isn’t just an academic exercise; it’s a call to action; it helps us change our lives and our world for the better.  Allow me to explain.

We know from Genesis that we’re created in the image and likeness of God – that we’re God’s representatives here on earth given the responsibility to care for his creation.  The Trinity is the model from which we are fashioned, so knowing our triune God helps us to know ourselves and our responsibilities as stewards of God’s creation better.  It helps us recognize God’s movements in our lives and act in accordance with his divine will.  It helps us know right from wrong, Truth from fiction. 

We should also try to understand God because God wants us to be in relationship with him through Jesus Christ.  To enter into a relationship, we have to know and understand each other.  God knows everything about us.  We should at least try to know something about him.  Knowing and understanding God through Jesus leads us into the only relationship that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things” (1Corinthians 13:7).  It leads us into a relationship of love, perhaps the most important reason to at least try to understand God. 

Saint John tells us that God is love, so the mystery of the Trinity is a mystery of love.  “The Father is the transcendent Source of Love; the Son is the historical embodiment of that Love; [and] the Spirit is the accompanying presence of that Love.”[2]  The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity we celebrate today “invites us to contemplate the triune God as love constantly outpoured.”[3]  It reminds us that we were created to love and to be loved.  Yes, there are truths about God and life and love that we can’t know through our own efforts, but our loving God continues to reveal himself to us through his Word, through the Sacraments, and through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so we can know and understand and love him better.  It’s up to us to bother to try.

I think about God a lot, particularly in light of my roles as husband, father, and deacon, and it has served me well.  Since it’s Father’s Day, I’d like to share with you a few things that I’ve come to understand about our triune God that have helped me to be a better father:

+ From God the Father, I’ve learned the power of calm, quiet presence when life seems out of control.  A few weeks ago, a young man who knows me as the father of two daughters asked me what he should do when girls act crazy.  I told him that I had no idea what he was talking about.  Then, when my daughters were out of earshot, I told him that in one of my favorite Old Testament passages, God appears to Elijah not in a roaring wind, not in an earthquake, not in a fire, but in a small still voice.  Calm, quiet presence may not always be the desired response, but if it works for God, it works for me.

+   From God the Son, I’ve learned to teach by example.  Jesus taught best by practicing what he preached.  He came to show us not only that it’s possible to live life as God commands, but that it’s the best and only way to reach our full human potential.  Like most parents, I am not shy about telling my children what to do and what not to do, but sometimes children don’t listen.  They imitate really well, though, kind of like monkeys.  So with Jesus as a model, I’ve found that the most enduring lessons I’ve taught my daughters came not from my words, but from my example, and I’m proudest when my daughters make good choices not because I told them what to do, but because they paid attention, and made the right choice by themselves. 

+ Finally, from the Holy Spirit, I’ve learned the value of wise counsel.  Some time ago, my daughter decided not to try out for an activity she loves.  She had valid reasons for coming to that conclusion, but I thought she was making a mistake.  I could have criticized her decision or forced her to try out, but I turned to the example of the Holy Spirit as Counselor to give her some simple advice born of knowledge and experience, while making clear that in the end, the decision was hers.  She changed her mind; she tried out, and she was accepted.

It takes time and effort to think about God, and even more to integrate the fruits of our contemplation into our lives, but I can tell you that I am a happier man, and hopefully a better husband, father, and deacon, as a result.

It’s easy for us to think that contemplating the Trinity is best reserved to the ivory towers of academia or the chapter halls of monasteries or seminaries, but remember, that Jesus chose ordinary people to receive his revelations.  Our small minds have no excuse then.  That little boy in the Saint Augustine legend knew that it was impossible to pour the entire sea into a hole on the beach, but he didn’t stop trying.  Saint Augustine didn’t stop trying to understand the Trinity either: he spent 30 years working on De Trinitate, his monumental treatise that remains one of the most comprehensive works on the Holy Trinity some 1,600 years later.  No, we will never understand everything there is to know about our triune God but trying is still worth the effort.  Why bother?  Because just trying to understand God, leads us to the Truth, it leads us to fellowship with God, and it leads us to everlasting love.



[1] John Shea, The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers, Following Love into Mystery (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2010), p. 204.
[2] Shea, p. 202.
[3] Mary M. McGlone, “All the Names of Love,” National Catholic Reporter, vol. 55, no 17, May 31-June 13, 2019, p. 17.

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