and spirituality, so that supposedly incomprehensible teachings like that of the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity could become topics for

Transcription

1 Homily for Trinity Sunday, 2015 In 1973, Fr. Joseph Ratzinger was invited to preach a series of Lenten homilies at a parish church in Regensburg, Germany. His hope was that these homilies would help build a bridge between theology and spirituality, so that supposedly incomprehensible teachings like that of the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity could become topics for prayer and meditation for all Christians. Many years later this priest would become the Bishop of Rome whose humility and love for Christ and the Church was evident in the 8 years he served the Church with unwavering devotion and continues to in his life of quiet prayer. His humility is also evident in the homilies he offered back in the 1970 s. It will be Fr. Ratzinger today who will offer you some insights into the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity or rather my inadequate but hopefully insightful attempt to convey the thoughts and words of the greatest theological mind of the past century. Fr. Ratzinger asked what do we think of when we enter a church, make the sign of the cross, and invoke the name of the triune God? This

2 ritual action is supposed to be a renewal of our baptism when we were given the gift of faith in the Holy Trinity. After all, this is the primary concern of Christianity, that we believe that God exists. That comes before all matters concerning the life of the Church, the concerns of man, and the countless joys and trials we face in human existence. To be a Christian is first and foremost to believe that God exits. And to that believe God exists is also to declare and place our confidence in what has been revealed to us in the Sacred Scripture and Tradition of our Church, especially in the Nicene and Apostle s Creeds: that I believe in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three divine persons united as one, undivided deity. We believe this to be true, but do we stop there and say to know anymore more about the Trinity is simply beyond me? Can I possibly deepen my understanding of the Most Holy Trinity? I believe that we can! Let us begin with saying something more about God as Father. Human fatherhood can give us some insights into what God is, but sadly human fatherhood is prone to succumb to two traps that distort

3 our image of God as Father: the total subjugation of a child to the father s own priorities and goals or the unquestioning acceptance of the child as he or she is. Too often these failings get attributed to God the Father. He is often seen more like the Greek god Zeus who was sometimes in a good mood and treated his children well but more often was a tyrant, unpredictable and dangerous, seeing some of his children as his favourites whom he cared for while others he indifferently left to starve, be enslaved or left to ruin. Christians cannot succumb to the lie that God the Father is simply a duplicate of human fathers, with their virtues and vices. Rather, we believe he must be the critique and answer to all the failings of human fatherhood. We can only discover what divine fatherhood is meant to entail in the relationship that the Father has with God the Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Long ago, the Apostle Philip asked Jesus Show us the Father and we will be satisfied, to which Jesus replied Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. (Jn 14:8-9)

4 This passage from St. John s gospel shows that God the Father chose to reveal himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus was the one who casts aside all the negative images of paternal divinity that had come before by showing the relationship between the Father and the Son to be that of a continual, never ending exchange of love between them. But this exchange of love was not intended to remain simply with God as something for us to stand in awe and marvel at. Rather, Jesus was offering an invitation to the Apostles and all Christians of every age to experience this love, most notably when we imitate Christ s life of prayer with God the Father. When Jesus prayed to his Father, Fr. Ratzinger said that [Jesus] plunges the totality of his life into the abyss of truth and goodness that is God. It is only on the basis of this Son that we can truly experience what God is. Without Jesus, we do not know that God the Father truly is Prayer was the center out of which he lived, and it was prayer that showed him how to understand God, the world and humanity.

5 Christ invites us to experience God the Father in the same way by asking for the grace to pray as Jesus prayed. This prayer will be our chance to daily place ourselves in the care of our Heavenly Father, being bold in asking him to reveal his love for us, to help us know what His will is for us, and to help us discover in our dialogue with Him how it was that Jesus was able to carry out the work of salvation that was entrusted to him, and how the Father desires for each of us to be co- workers with him in bringing many souls back to Christ. It will be in the midst of our prayer, one that we ask to resemble the prayer of Christ, that we can we come to know the great love which unites the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as The Holy Trinity. This love between the Father and the Son can best be described as fruitful, a love that goes beyond them to be shared with others. In the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, we are invited to encounter the one who Fr. Ratzinger called the breath of God, whose gentle presence is evident when we pray, allowing us to cry out Abba! Father! and declare that Jesus Christ is Lord. It will be the Holy Spirit,

6 the one sent forth by the Father and the Son, that will be with us when we pray to draw us into the love that exists within God himself. My friends, long ago someone chose to baptize us in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, allowing God to make us His holy temple and inviting us to come to know him in both the private and communal prayer we offer as Christians. It is true that many of us were not asked permission to be baptized into the Church, but then again so much of our existence was determined far in advance before we were born, and many other decisions come upon us outside the grasp of our personal freedom. Baptism was a gift we were given in advance to be loved, by eternal love, even before we knew this love existed! Now each and every time we walk into the church we are invited to look at that small dish of holy water, and consider when I trace the sign of the cross over my body that I am making one of the most meaningful prayers as a Christian. It will be a moment we can offer and proclaim our faith in the Most Holy Trinity, acknowledging that God is

7 My Father, who loves me and fulfills all the shortcomings of human fatherhood; that God is Son, who reveals to us the Face of the Father in the intimacy of our prayer; and God is the Holy Spirit, the gift of love sent forth by the Father and the Son to help us pray and know that we are children of God. 1 1 Quotations and content for this homily are found in a homily entitled God is three and God is one found in the book entitled The God of Jesus Christ: Meditations on the Triune God By Pope Benedict XVI.