A homily for The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, May 30, 2021
Dt 4:32-34, 39-40, Rom 8:14-17, Mt 28:16-20
For years, I thought shamrocks were the size of ping-pong paddles. The decorations that covered every wall and shop window in mid-March made it seem as if St. Patrick held up something visible from the cheap seats when he explained the Holy Trinity to the early Irish. Even classroom posters that portrayed the Missionary to the Celts often pictured him with a hefty tri-lobed green thing that looked more like broccoli than theology.
And that pretty well exemplifies the confusion some of us have about God’s Unity in Trinity, expressed in human terms as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Abba, Jesus and Paraclete.
Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier or Sustainer.
One God in Three Persons, indivisible and inseparable, eternal yet outside any measure of time, sequential yet simultaneous, a perfect relationship who’s perfectly female and male.
Limitless.
Which is why it’s immensely difficult to wrap our limited brains around everything that God is. We try to understand the Three Persons as if God is three ordinary people we’d meet at the ShopRite, and God is far beyond that while still being right beside us every moment of every hour.
If the shamrock or a similar visual aid works, then that’s wonderful. For many of us, though, we simply accept the great mystery. We embrace the Trinity through faith, the faith that we break open and reaffirm every time we recite the Nicene or Apostle’s creeds.
Some of us believe so that our heads don’t explode. The theology of the Trinity is deep and expansive, and deeply beautiful, but also the stuff of lifetimes of study and deep thought.
Even today’s selections from Scripture are arguably only surface examinations of the core of our faith.
So maybe it’s better to look at the Holy Trinity through the lens of some of the countless gifts of God, which are a bit more tangible.
Our Creator gave us everything. Ev. Er. Eee. Thing. This universe and all the others. Our beautiful Earth. Our families and friends. Ourselves.
God gave us souls and bodies and minds and hearts and free will to choose to follow God and obey God’s laws. Or not. And, because God gave us souls and bodies and minds and hearts and free will, ever since the dawn of time humans have often chosen “or not.”
But God so loved Creation that God gave us the gift of our Redeemer, who became truly human while remaining fully divine. He had to be human to suitably atone for humanity’s sins, yet he had to be divine to shoulder the full weight of those transgressions.
The gift of love that Jesus showed us became the template for how all of us who came after him and who still follow in his footsteps must act.
Because we are yoked to Jesus, we have the gift of spiritual sustenance, his body and blood through the Eucharist. We can keep carrying the load.
And any time we need reassurance, guidance, inspiration, the Holy Spirit flows to us and through us. The Spirit even has a special set of seven more gifts we can draw upon: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of (deep respect and love for) God.
Yes, we can see and feel God’s Unity in Trinity by appreciating all of God’s gifts, by giving thanks and caring for everyone and everything in our lives.
Creation is ongoing and never-ending.
Wherever two or more are gathered in Jesus’s name, he is there.
The Holy Spirit works in mysterious ways.
All in all, God is love.
