Trinity Sunday 15.6.14 The Mystery of God
Today is a chance for us to consider the mystery of God Himself.
There is much confusion about God. Some do not think He even exists. Others think He does not matter. Others are not sure who is the right God.
People ask questions like, Where does God come from? Who made God?
We believe that God had no beginning. He simply IS from all eternity. He relies on nothing else for His existence and is the source of existence for everything else.
Because He is so much greater than we are we have to accept there is much about Him we cannot understand.
We cannot exhaust the mysteries but we can enter them, like an art gallery or a large garden, where there are endless avenues to pursue.
God reveals Himself to us to be a Trinity of Persons.
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!).
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 insofar 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 remember the limitations of language and of our own understanding. The greater God is the better for us. We must never try to limit Him to our level but rather let Him lift us to His level (at least as far as such is possible).
Our ultimate need, whether we realize it or not, is to be in union with God, loving and being loved by Him.
We find God through prayer, sacraments, reading the signs of His presence, trusting Him to steer us through each event; finally coming to see Him face to face, but preparing all the time for that encounter.
The more seriously we seek Him in this life the more we will understand Him and the more ready to spend eternity with Him.
Far from thinking that God is distant we learn more and more that we have no life apart from Him. We are not only created by Him; not only must we return to Him; but nothing even in our non-religious activity falls outside His holy will.
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.
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.
Instead we fall on our faces and proclaim His glory, and we pray that He will enable us to participate more fully in His life.
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.
Our praise of Him will lift us beyond narrow vision and gloomy thoughts, leading instead to faith and hope.
God is not so far away as to be unapproachable; not so close as to be equal. We need to find the right mix of reverence and filial trust.
All Glory be to the Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
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