Homily Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity 18 May 2008

This Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
will forever hold a special place in my heart.
For it was on this feast a year ago,
which, because of the later date of Easter, fell on June 3rd…
that I celebrated, with much joy and all due solemnity…
my first Mass as a priest.

There is nothing this side of heaven so exciting and at the same time so humbling
as to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
I am grateful to God for my First Mass and for every Mass I am privileged to offer.

[PAUSE]
This Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity is a great gift to us from the Church…
for it affords us all the opportunity to reflect upon
the core mystery of our faith: the very reality of God.

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains,
“The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the
central mystery of Christian faith and life.
It is the mystery of God in himself.
It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith…”

God is the author of our lives
the origin of everything we behold in our human existence
and the reason for our faith.
Thus the reality of God is the foundational truth
in which all of faith and life is grounded.

Without the wise and loving Triune God, life and faith would not simply be empty
but entirely inconceivable.

Today we celebrate with joy our faith in the Triune God
whose never-failing presence and unconditional love
fill our lives with grace in every step of our earthly journey.

And we pray with gratitude for our relationship with God,
which brings us peace and consolation amid the trials of life.

Today we rejoice and give thanks that we are so privileged to know the Lord…
that we are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father
that we have been redeemed by the of the Son
and filled with the grace of Holy Spirit through the Sacraments.

Today we cry out with one voice…
joining with the Church in every corner of the globe
and together with the hosts of angels and the whole company of the saints…
“Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
who was, who is, and who ever shall be!”

With this feast the Church deliberately re-awakens our drowsy faith …
and reminds us that the very center of our lives…in every moment…
as Catholics and as human persons…is the Triune God.
God is at the same time three distinct divine persons and yet also perfect unity.
Certainly this is a mystery…inaccessible to reason alone…and dependent on faith.

Reason tells us that distinct persons cannot be at the same time unified.
Faith reminds us that love conquers all division…
and…as Saint John writes in his First Letter…“God is love!”

God is love itself!
God is three persons eternally in loving relationship with one another…
and what is more…they are divine persons…sharing perfect love!
God is a communion of persons who are eternally and completely
giving themselves over to the others
to the point of sharing their very being with one another!

And so…in God…three are at the same time one.

The profound mystery of God is that unity and distinctness coexist.

This mystery sheds light on the beautiful balance essential to our Catholic faith.
As three distinct persons are perfectly one in God…
so the distinct and seemingly disparate elements of faith
blend in harmony to create the great symphony of truth.

God is at the same time the author of truth and love itself.
As truth and love are one in God, so they must be in our lives.


What is more, Catholicism is a religion of “both…and” and never “either…or.”

For us it is both Martha the busy servant, and Mary, who rested with the Lord…
both Peter the outspoken leader, and John the beloved contemplative
both authentic participation in the Mass, and prayer before the Bl. Sacr.
both working for justice, and nurturing our life of prayer and study
both love unto , and fearless defense of the truth.

For us it is always both…always a total embrace of whatever is good and holy.

There are those who want Jesus without His Mother
His Church without a Pope
Mass without the Eucharist
the Eucharist without Jesus’ presence in the Tabernacle.

Any such sense of separation is a tendency toward Protestant minimalism
and is not the marvelous wholeness that Jesus has given to His Church.

There are those among our own community…
often called “cafeteria Catholics” for their tendency
to select the doctrines and traditions that appeal to them
as if picking and choosing from a smorgasbord.


They want a slice of Jesus…but trim off His Cross of suffering
a good slab of ecology with a little bit of pro-abortion on the side.
Such dichotomizing of the realities of the faith is just as empty and lifeless
as believing in only two of the three persons in God.

Authentic Catholicism embraces all that God is
and all that the Lord and the Church offer to us…
lock, stock, and barrel…with joy and excitement.

We praise the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!
We open our hearts to all the bountiful blessings the Lord has to offer us.

We rejoice that our Triune God is so good very to us!