Trinity Sunday 26.5.13
This feast focuses on God Himself and what He is. So we don't fall into the trap of considering God only as He is useful to us!
God reveals Himself to be three Persons but not three gods. One nature (therefore ONE God) but three Persons, who dwell in perfect unity.
Each Person is not one-third of God, making up a coalition of three. Rather each Person IS God and whatever each Person does is done by God. There is no possibility of discord between the three Persons (as there would be in any group of three humans!). What one Person does would always be fully approved by the other two, thus accepting the action as their own.
This level of internal harmony is itself a revelation to us, so accustomed as we are to discord and compromise.
The inner life of the Trinity is essentially a giving and receiving of Love. Love begins with God. He had it first and then gives it to us.
God loves Himself as the three Persons love each other. God is self-sufficient. He did not create us because He needed someone to love, but in the overflow of His generosity wanted creatures to have some share of His own happiness.
We are very fortunate that He did make us and that we can share in that inner life, a fierce flow of love in which we are immersed.
By Baptism (Gospel) we are so immersed. God claims us as His own, adopting us as His children. He begins to dwell in us according to how much we let Him.
Being immersed we realize that He is so much bigger than we are; therefore hard to understand or to explain (Epistle)
When we talk of Him we are like a fish trying to talk about the whole ocean. The fish could only describe what he knows. But there is a lot more.
We can use symbols and analogies to describe God but we realize that there are not words enough to describe these things. We have to let ourselves be carried, as we are by poetry or music.
God is not a triangle or a shamrock. Nor is the Holy Spirit a dove. Images can help but they can also hinder. We must not limit God to any particular image.
In our inability to understand God fully we might be tempted to conclude that we do not need Him, contenting ourselves with whatever happiness we can squeeze from this life. But that would be only from ignorance of what else there is. In any case God wants us to have more.
Also there is a temptation to simplify God, as with those false religions which deny the divinity of Christ, and hence deny the Trinity.
Two things we must do straight away in the presence of God: Repent and Adore.
We fall on our faces and proclaim His glory, and we pray that He will enable us to participate more fully in His life. Included in this action is a plea for mercy, for the removal of sin.
How sad that people ignore, deny, or limit Almighty God. Today is a day for correcting that. A day of worship; simply saying how good God is. Let’s get this right for at least one day a year.
We salute God for His greatness. We could never praise Him enough. In Heaven they praise Him without ceasing and we should join in here.
Although we are focusing on God rather than ourselves we still benefit. Our praise of Him will lift us beyond narrow vision and gloomy thoughts, leading instead to faith and hope.
All glory to the One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!
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