Homily for the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity

All of what humankind knows about God, we have learned from God Himself, through divine Revelation and divine action in the midst of human history. This includes the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity which we celebrate today.

Looking to the Sacred Scriptures, the Bible does not seek to prove the existence of God. Instead, it tells us how He made Himself known, and what He said about Himself to certain people:
+as He took His evening stroll in the Garden with Adam and Eve…
+as He spoke with Abraham about His plans for the restoration of humanity…
+as He spoke to Moses atop Mount Sinai.

In all of these ways, God shows Himself to be simultaneously transcendent and imminent, that is, not a deity of splendid isolation alone in Heaven, but God who desires that His creatures know Him.

Unlike the polytheistic gods of pagan cultures, figments of human imagination displaying human attributes projected onto them in order that humans could make some sense out of the cosmos and the tragedy that so frequently invades human experience, God supersedes the caprice of paganism’s false gods to reveal His eternal, true identity and His plan for humanity by way of creation, redemption and sanctification.  

Atop the mountain, Moses learned the “why” of the conduct of God who proclaims Himself “a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” This reveals to us something of the depth of His identity. The revelation of His Name to Moses: “Yahweh,” gives us some insight into His essence. This name is usually translated, “I Am Who Am,” and elsewhere translated, “I Am Being Itself and the Source of Being.” While we can accept this in Faith, the self-description remains enigmatic. It will remain that way until God the Son reveals the new-and-surpassing name of God by instructing us to call Him “Father.”

Back in the 4th century, Saint Gregory Nazianzen described the emerging understanding of the dogma of the Holy Trinity in these simple words: “The Old Testament clearly proclaimed the Father, more obscurely the Son. The New Testament manifested the Son and gave a glimpse of the Holy Spirit.”

So we learn from both Sacred Scripture and the Teaching of the early Church Fathers that God does not prove Himself; He reveals Himself. We believe in Him and have certitude about His existence not only because we trust the source of those who taught us, but because little-by-little… now and then, we discover His active Presence in the world, and sometimes within our own lives.

Whenever we approach the Mystery of God in the Most Holy Trinity, we must do so with extreme restraint and great humility, never forgetting that He exists beyond the limitations of human language. Returning to Saint Gregory, here is a prayer he composed in that 4th century:

O you beyond everything,
is not this all we can sing about you?
What hymn, what tongue will express you?
No word can speak of you.
To what can the mind cling?
You surpass all intelligence.
You are the only One who is unutterable,
because whatever is said comes from you.
You are the only One who is unknowable,
because whatever is thought comes from you.
O you, beyond everything,
is not this all we can sing about you?

But because we are rational and linguistic creatures, we must proclaim our Faith in words, as we do each Sunday when we recite the Creed. The Creed is essentially a proclamation of our faith in the Holy Trinity. A brief look at the structures of the Creed shows the emphasis we place on the Holy Trinity in our faith:
+four lines about God the Father
+four lines about God the Holy Spirit
+twenty lines about God the Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Though Catholic Teaching is far more expansive than what we proclaim in the Creed, we find the essentials therein: God the Father is described simply as “maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.” God the Holy Spirit is defined as “proceeding from the Father and the Son, the Lord and Giver of life.”

We speak more about God the Son because He is God-made visible, incarnate in human form, whose teaching, living and dying reveal the Trinity’s Intention, Will, and Love for us. The central point of the Creed, then, is that God gave His only Son, as Saint John tells us, not to condemn the world, but to show in a striking way that in His love, God desires the salvation of the entire world.

By taking this inconceivable initiative, the transcendent God becomes immanent… close to us… among us… in order to draw us close to Him. The purpose of the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity in Jesus Christ was described for us by Saint Augustine who wrote, “God became man so that men could become god,” an arcane way of saying, “men could become God-like.”  

There is an immediate purpose intended for us men and women to become God-like. We are meant to reveal something of God to one another as we emulate Christ:
+in the exercise of the Faith
+in common, shared worship
+in living a virtuous life
+in teaching the Faith to our children and grandchildren
+in the way we cast our votes
+in our works of mercy, justice and charity.

It is by attracting attention to God’s action in the world, and in our lives, that God brings humankind to discover who He is, His true nature, and His nearness to us.

Our belief in the Holy Trinity must not remain a metaphysical abstraction. We are meant to live the Mystery. By this I mean that our faith in God shapes the relations we have with one another. Created in the image and likeness of God, we mere mortals must live with one another as do the three Divine Persons in their unity — that is — with love that not only enriches us, but love that defines us. Our human charity must reflect a share of the Divine Love which bonds the Holy Trinity as one Being.

Though we are imperfect, the Sanctifying Grace of prayer and the Sacraments, along with the Actual Grace of our sacrifices and good works, will perfect our love, thereby making us more God-like. This makes the Mystery more approachable, a little easier to understand and accept. It moves us beyond our rational mind to the realm of the heart, where we can freely choose to love God as God really is… and then to the realm of the soul where we seek to live in union with God for the rest of eternity.

In the end, all of this seeks not to prove the existence of God, but to embrace and venerate the Mystery because, as I said at the outset, all of what humankind knows about God, we have learned from God Himself.