Holy Trinity

 

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, and I bet very few of us really knows why.

 

The idea of God as Trinity came from the apostles’ understanding of who Jesus was and is. From the very beginning that was a challenge for the disciples. “Who do you say that I am?” The apostles knew that this person, Jesus, was special. At first they thought he was a great teacher, then a mighty prophet, then finally they came to believe in him as the Son of God. But it took awhile. Remember that St. Thomas doubted even the resurrection.

 

Those closest to Jesus struggled with that question for three years, and for the rest of their lives. They never really could wrap their minds around it, and it took another three hundred years before the Church finally put it into words, words that are totally inadequate, especially to those of us today who have no background in Greek philosophy. Our creed was an attempt to organize our beliefs, and it falls short. Because God is so different from us, so infinite, we cannot wrap our limited minds around God. And so we use imperfect images.

 

Why is it important how we image our God? Why is it important that we image God as Trinity? As three in one? The Jews don’t believe in the Trinity, the Muslims don’t, nor do the Buddhists or the Hindus. Even our LDS neighbors don’t. In fact, less than 20 percent of the people in the world today believe as we do. Are they wrong? Are we? Does it matter?

 

The way we see ourselves is the way we see our God. The Hindus believe in many, many gods, that all things have a spirit within them and therefore are sacred. Their image of God causes them to treat the natural world with respect. The Buddhists believe in reincarnation, that we will come back to this life again and again, and the form we take will depend upon how we have lived our previous life, until finally we achieve nirvana, pure freedom and perfection. God is within you until you become god, so a Buddhist’s faith is a deeply personal, internal thing. The LDS church teaches that the Trinity was a creation of the Council of Nicea, part of the Great Apostasy where the Church got it all wrong. There are three separate gods, Heavenly Father, the Savior and the Holy Ghost, and they are really exalted men. They became gods because of what they did in life. Therefore, if men in these latter days do the right things they too can become gods, and so the LDS pattern their lives.

 

We are created in the image of God. Genesis tells us so. Contrary to what the cynics say, we do not create God in our image, we create our images of ourselves after our image of God. People of every faith pattern their behavior after their image of God.

 

So, how does our image of the Trinity affect our behavior as Christians? St. John in his first letter states that God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God and God in him. Whether or not we understand what form God really takes, whenever we love, we are worshiping God. If love is present, God is present. So, we image God as a relationship of love. Two perfect lovers bound by one perfect love.

 

We image God this way whenever we love in relationship. God is love. God is relationship; Father, Son and Spirit, therefore, love also cannot exist by itself. It must occur in relationship, and it cannot be fulfilled unless it is given away. St. Augustine said that “One man is no man”. We are not saved by ourselves. We are saved with each other. Love is relationship, God is relationship, God is love. When we love in relationship we best image God.

 

And God gave us the best example of love, when we read in the gospel of John, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish, but might have eternal life.” Wow! God not only is a relationship unto himself, he wants to have a relationship with me. He wants me to be like Him. He wants me to enter into the Trinity with Him.

 

I was teaching a class a couple of years ago, and we were discussing this very topic. I went all through the “proofs” of the Trinity, assuming that we all had the same understanding since everyone there was Catholic. At the next week’s class one of the students said that she had found the topic of the Trinity very enlightening, because for her entire life she thought there were three separate gods, not three in one. She was 38 years old and had lived her life as a practicing Catholic, a good life, and she never knew about the Trinity. It didn’t matter to her what the Greek philosophy said, she had a personal relationship with her God as she imaged God, and that worked for her.

 

Sr. Karen used to say that after all she had studied about the Trinity and pondered it, finally she just accepted it and didn’t worry about it too much, because she’d really never understand it. We should just accept it, and go on with our lives. Seems simple, but that’s really what it’s all about. It’s nice to think we have God all figured out, that we have named him, Father, Son and Spirit, and so we take that knowledge and store it away until we need it. We think about it on days like today. But just as we create images of God in our minds and hearts, we need to be conscious that our God is also calling us to be images of Him, to live like Him, and to love like Him.

Are You Ready?

 

4^th Sunday of Easter

Cycle A

Good Shepherd Sunday

What happened to Peter? Who was this guy? In all the gospels, Peter is quoted only about 25 times, and those are usually short responses to Jesus or exhortations no more than a couple sentences long. None of them are particularly eloquent and in some of them he sticks his foot in his mouth. The longest conversation quoted is actually his denial of Jesus. He had never preached or taught, he never spoke in public, he wasn’t an intellectual, nor a particularly peaceful or thoughtful man, definitely not courageous, and yet he was able to stand up in front of thousands of people and preach his longest, most eloquent, most persuasive and most theologically deep teaching, so persuasive that over 3000 people asked to be baptized because of it. There was a strength and confidence and courage behind it. It’s as if he was a new man.

But something happened to Peter, and the other apostles, at Pentecost. Something radical had changed them. Peter was different because his experience of Jesus was different. Peter had witnessed Jesus every day for three years, yet he still denied him. But then he experienced the risen Christ, and was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he was truly a new man. It’s one thing to know Jesus the man, it’s another to know Christ and allow the Spirit to transform you. Peter was finally ready to truly become an apostle. The resurrection changed everything.

And what changed for the people in the crowd? These were some of the same people who fifty days earlier had cried out for Jesus’ crucifixion. Now, it seemed so easy, too easy, for them to accept him as the messiah and ask for baptism. They had heard Jesus teach in the temple. They had seen the proof of his wonderous signs. They had witnessed his suffering and death. But that was not enough for them to follow him. They had to experience the risen Christ, if not personally than through the experience of others. The facts did not convert them, the testimony of those who had seen him alive again did.

The resurrection changed everything. Now they were ready.

I always thought it was amazing that 3000 people were baptized in one day…until I saw it happen in Atlanta last year. And adult baptisms increased almost 40% in the US alone this Easter to between 45,000 and 50,000. That doesn’t include the tens of thousands of protestants who entered into full communion with the Catholic Church this year. The total estimate is 120-130,000. Why the resurgence in the Church? Why now are so many people ready?

Over the past 36 years that Nancy and I have been preparing people to enter the Church, there have been several times we were surprised that someone we had been seeing at Mass every Sunday for decades was not Catholic. They had been coming with their family but never thought it was time to join, until one day when someone asked them, and the time was finally right. One man actually was on the parish council and he wasn’t even Catholic. Another woke up one day and after 28 years of his wife gently inviting him, he decided it was time. He was ready.

The message hasn’t changed. The call hasn’t changed. We just have to be ready.

Maybe that’s why so many people are coming to the Church these past few years. They had known of Jesus for a long time but now they finally know Jesus. They have been called by God their entire lives, but now they can actually hear and understand that call, accept that call. They have finally experienced the risen Christ in his Church.

And maybe that’s why Catholic church attendance has been growing. Perhaps people are realizing the emptiness of secular humanism and are searching for the truth. All the old arguments against faith have fallen flat.

Maybe we no longer need proof. It is time to become a disciple. It is time to embrace the truth.

And it’s not just happening to converts. Many of us have heard the scriptures read and preached every Sunday, have received him body and blood, soul and divinity for years, but one day we’re ready to accept him for who he truly is. Like Peter, we are willing to be changed.

Today we hear Jesus say that there is no other way to salvation except through the gate, and he is that gate. That is oftentimes a difficult saying for people to accept. They have been taught to believe that there are many paths to God, that they are basically all the same and God doesn’t care as long as we’re good people. But Jesus never says that. He is the gate, the only gate. He is the way, the truth and the life. Not a way, a truth, and a life. No one comes to the Father but through him. St. Peter says that there is no other name by which we are saved.

They have also been taught that there are many different paths in Christianity, and they have been going from this church to that, trying to find one that fits their own particular worldview, rather than seeking the truth. They see the Catholic Church as just one of many, rather than the fullness of the revelation of the truth of Jesus Christ, and therefore the path to salvation.

And that can be a stumbling block for some, because it requires taking up our crosses daily and following him. And that cross may be humbling ourselves to the truth. That cross may be changing our lives and acting differently. That cross may be our repentance for all the years and times we crucified Jesus with our sins. If there is truly one truth, then one must follow it, no matter what it demands.

Those 3000 people that day didn’t ask Peter, “what must we believe?”, they asked “what must we do?” They had just realized their sin and were repentant. Peter’s words ripped away the veil of their self-righteousness and exposed their inmost hearts, but they also offered them the mercy of God through baptism.

That is the same path people travel to Jesus and his Church today. There are so many ways to study and hear the proofs of faith. Many people believe but still don’t know what to do to be saved. The answer is the same today as that first Pentecost. Repent and believe in the gospel, the good news that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to free us from our sin and offer us the chance for eternal life.

That message is not just for the newcomers. We could all use a bit of conversion. We should all renew our baptismal commitments. We should all become more committed to the truth. We could all use a bit of repentance. Are we ready?

Because when we are, we’ll find that he has been waiting for us the whole time.