"Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him..." (Revelation 3:20) A collection of my Sunday homilies for Holy Mass as well as some occasional talks and reflections. May my words enable you to hear the voice of Christ, who asks that you open the door to Him. Please share this podcast with others if you benefit from listening to it.
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Our Christian faith has at its foundation the profession of the Blessed and Eternal Trinity. This is singular to Christianity but it is so profound and awesome a mystery that it is nothing that the human mind could have invented. It is only what God has revealed. On this Sunday we proclaim our faith in the nature and operation of God and we give worship to the Three in One and the One in Three.
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In the readings from Holy Scripture of today's sacred liturgy, we are swept through time in a glorious procession from before earth and sky were set in place to the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the new creation, the Church. We begin in the heart of the Trinity. It is there that all creation begins, and it is where all creation, most especially ourselves, will find fulfillment and our eternal home. The Holy Trinity always act together. There is no solo activity in their life together. Even if one member is prominent, the other two are not on time off. They are inseparable in what they are, and they are inseparable in what they do. One way in which we express this inseparability is in the Nicene Creed, when we say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. One is not resting while the other sends forth the Spirit. The Father has shared with the Son everything that belongs to the Father, except being the Father. So the Father and the Son being totally united, issue forth the Holy Spirit. So Christ can say that all that the Spirit tells the Church will be taken from what is his, and from everything that is the Father's, because the Father and He are one. Within each single divine operation, each divine person shows forth what is proper to each one in the Trinity. So it is the Son who becomes man, it is the Holy Spirit who dispenses gifts. It is the Father who receives the sacrifice of Christ. A further indication of the unity of the three persons of the Trinity is found in the formula of Holy Baptism. Christians are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, not in their names. There is only one God, the Almighty Father, His only Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now, if you are scratching your head or saying that your brain can't cope, or it hurts at trying to understand this, that's okay, because the Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense. It is not accessible to human reason, and could never be known by human reason unless God revealed it. We can have some entry points into the mystery though, because God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his works of creation and in his revelation in the Old Testament. And all of that, of course, was made clearer by the teachings of Christ Himself. One of the clearest indications we have of the union that is the Blessed Trinity is the Christian family. Here we have a communion of persons that begins with the husband and wife and their covenant of love and life. In the procreation and formation of children, the divine work of creation is reflected. The child issues forth from the father and the mother, and so a threefold communion of persons comes into existence. This is repeated with the birth of each child. The communion of life and love that is the family is built upon a close connection of emotion, affection, and interests that arise out of each member's love and respect for the others. The family is a precious icon of the Trinity, which is why the Church protects it and defends it against attack. Apart from that, how do we all, no matter what our vocation or state of life, how do we live out this mystery of the Trinity? Well obviously, we come as God has directed us every Sunday to Holy Mass, to offer fitting worship to the one true God, and to each of the divine persons. Have you noticed that all our formal prayers in the sacred liturgy are addressed to the Father, and they conclude with through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. And then we also obey God's divine law in our way of living, and we abide by the natural law that God has written into every human heart. We also respect God's creation, especially each human person who is made in the image and likeness of God. So rightly with devotion and sincerity we can say today Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, to God who is, who was, and who is to come. Amen.
