In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Trinity. The Sign of the Cross reenforces our belief in a triune God. The sign of the cross is a prayer. Did you ever think about that? Every time we call upon the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit we are making one of the most powerful professions of faith. Making the sign of the cross helps deepen our understanding of God as a Triune God. When we make the sign of the cross, people not only hear the words we profess but see the sign - that brought us salvation - the sign of the Holy Cross.
We bless ourselves with Holy Water when we enter the church to remind us of our Baptism. The sign of the cross - is more prevalent during baptism - as the person - is baptized in the Name of the Holy Trinity. The central theme of our faith is - three persons in One God, the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit sharing one Divine Nature. The scriptures remind us just - how much - our triune God has been with us. I was really taken back by the first reading, though I heard it many times. It made me think about how much God the Father has done - for me; how much God the Father has done for everyone who believed in him from the very beginning.
The Book of Deuteronomy begins with Moses talking about God’s the Father’s relationship with his people and how amazed Moses is at what He continues to do for them. He first speaks about God's loyalty to them and asks: Did any other people - ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire - as you did - and live? Moses again conveys God’s faithfulness to them when he asks: Did any god - venture to go - and take a nation for himself - from the midst of another nation - as your God did?
Moses is referring to their great Exodus from their 400 years of bondage to the Egyptians and - how God freed them - by venturing in - and taking their nation out of a country - who enslaved them and how He did this - by testing them and by signs and wonders and - with a strong hand and - outstretched arm - all of which the Lord your God did - before your very eyes? Moses in a sense, reprimands them when he tells them: This is why you must know and fix in your heart that the Lord is God - in the heavens above and the earth below - there is no other. You must keep his statutes and commandments that you and your children may prosper and have a long life
I’m thinking as I’m reading this - what a beautiful way to speak about an - all powerful God - on the Feast of the Holy Trinity. A God who has been with us from the beginning of time. Another way the all powerful God has remained with us - was when he sent us - his only son, a son who reminds us: I will be with you always even until the end of time. I think one of the most - beautiful introductions of God the Son made - is in the prologue of Gospel of John when John introduces Jesus as the pre-existent and - incarnate word of God - as he proclaims:
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God and all things came to be through him and without him - nothing came to be. What came to be through him - was life and this life was - the light of the human race. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it and the Word was made flesh and made his dwelling among us and we saw his glory - the glory of his Father’s only Son - full of grace and truth.
Jesus in John’s gospel tells us that he is - the way and - the truth and - the life and that no one comes to the Father - except through him. He tells his Apostles: whoever has seen me - has seen the Father. Believe me - that I am in the Father and - the Father is in me or at least - believe in the works that I do.
Jesus then tells us that he must go - so that another may come as he states: I will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept because it neither sees it - nor knows it - but you know It, because it remains in you. St. Paul tells us in our second reading: “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are - Sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear - but you received a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit Himself bears witness with - our Spirit - that we are children of God - and as children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ, if only we suffer with him – so that we may be glorified with Him.
The love of the trinity is boundless and immeasurable. In the Old Testament, God the father offers life to the unwanted and outcasts. We are told in the New Testament that God the Son also offers life to outcasts and is even criticized for eating with prostitutes and tax collectors. His response being: healthy people don’t need a doctor - sick people do - I didn’t come for the righteous - but for sinners.
Just as God the father longed to save the world - in the Old Testament, He sent his son Jesus - to save the world in the New Testament. We read in John's Gospel: I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly Jesus then sends the advocate promising that all who call upon the holy spirit will have the hope of eternal life for God is a God of Hope, a God of peace , a God of love and, a God of mercy.
If we claim to believe in the Holy Trinity who is LOVE AND MERCY, then you and I need to be a people of LOVE AND MERCY. God offered his very self for us, therefore. we need to offer ourselves for those less fortunate, the poor, the desolate, the unborn, the sick, the dying and the imprisoned. We need to be in relationship with God if we want to be an image of him. St Thomas Aquinas pointed out something special about the word ‘person’. He stated: to be a ‘person’ is to be in a relationship with other persons." in eternity before time began, the father and the son and the holy Spirit were NEVER separated from each other - because they were ALWAYS in relationship with each other. Each of them is fully God with all knowledge and all power and all perfection.
We can NEVER say it is different with God the son because he is human - because he existed before he was human. Jesus existed before time. The Holy Trinity always was. Jesus became human in the womb of Mary and dwelt among us - but we cannot say - that this is when he first came into existence - because he always was; This is important for us to know because we are made in God’s image we are NOT just made in the father’s image or the sons image or the Holy Spirits image, we are made in the Holy Trinities Image. Remember in Genesis = God said: - let us make man in OUR IMAGE after OUR likeness. =When ONE person of the trinity SPEAKS -that person SPEAKS on BEHALF of the OTHER persons. The DEEPER meaning of GOD - is that - HE IS TRINITY. He is ONE GOD, three Persons - the Father and - the Son and - the Holy Spirit.
God in his deepest mystery - is not a solitude, but a family - since he has in himself Fatherhood, Sonship, and the Essence of the family, which is love - as the Holy Spirit is the love between the father and the Son. Always remember those last words: God is NOT a solitude but a FAMILY - proclaimed every time we make the sign of the cross. - In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.