Homily for Trinity Sunday, May 26, 2024. Readings: Romans 8:14-17, Gospel of St. Matthew 28:16-20. Theme: Experiencing God’s Threefold Love
The celebration of Trinity Sunday reminds us that as Christians we’ve received a revelation or insight into who God is and what he is like that sets us apart from all other world religions. The doctrine of the Most Blessed Trinity seeks to express the inexpressible mystery that the One True God exists as three distinct but co-equal Persons whom Jesus identified as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. How can this be? We’ll never really know this side of Heaven because it’s something that our human minds simply cannot comprehend. But we believe and profess this doctrine because it was revealed to us by the Son of God himself. We accept it on his word alone because we trust Jesus. His Resurrection affirms that he is worthy of this trust because it proved his divinity and put a stamp of approval on his credibility. And really, this is about all we can know with some certainty about God.
No matter how much time we spend thumbing through the pages of the Bible, we’ll never find any explanation of HOW God can be a Trinity of Persons. But what we will find is a hint as to WHY this can be true. You see, once we accept the word of Scripture that says, “God is love” (1 John 4:8) then we can begin to consider that there must be more than just one Person who is Divine. The reason for this is that love is by its very nature relational, that is, it only happens within a communion or fellowship of persons. Love can never be a solo affair! And so it can make some sense to say that the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, and that this mutual exchange of love is so perfect, so powerful and so unitive that it brings forth yet another Divine Person, the Holy Spirit. But even this is only a feeble attempt to try and understand an unfathomable mystery.
But you know, there is something even more wonderful, almost unbelievable that Scripture tells us about this divine love relationship of the Trinity. It informs us that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit do not just keep this love between themselves, but it spills out onto and over all of their creation and to each one of us individually and personally. This reaching out to us took place when, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God the Son was sent by the Father into our world as its Savior. He became man and extended to any and all who desire it the invitation to become adopted children of the Father and thus enter into the divine relationship. We see this beautifully proclaimed in today’s second reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, where he says:
"For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons and daughters 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, my Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God our Father and joint heirs with Christ.” (Romans 8:14-16)
We can get a better idea of what St. Paul is saying here if we step back in time for a moment and look at what adoption meant to those Romans. You see, in their culture to be adopted meant to become as much a part of the father as were his natural children. There was absolutely no distinction allowed or even permitted by Roman law. As a matter of fact, it was easier to disinherit a biological child than it was an adopted one. The rationale behind this was that the adopted child was personally and intentionally chosen while the biological child was simply the natural result of human sexuality. Thus, a father knew exactly what he was doing and who he was choosing in the process of adoption.
Another interesting and enlightening thing to know is that in ancient Rome people were not typically adopted as infants but as older children or adults. And they had an interesting ritual for doing this. First, a death certificate was issued listing the person’s old name. Then a new birth certificate was drawn up bearing their official adopted name. The idea behind this was that their old lives, their old selves were dead and gone. Now they had a new life, a new family, a new identity, a new beginning.
This is precisely what St. Paul is trying to express in the passage we just read, By accepting God’s invitation and entering into a new relationship with the Trinity through Baptism, our old sin-tainted selves die and we become a brand new creation! This is how those Roman Christians interpreted St. Paul’s words and so they thought to themselves, “My old life before knowing Christ is dead and gone. My old way of thinking and acting is over. This is the beginning of a new life. I have a new family now which is the Church, the community of God’s people. I am now a child of God the Father, a sibling of Christ the Son, and a temple of the Divine Spirit. All that rightfully belongs to Christ now also belongs to me and this includes Heaven, which is my birthright and my inheritance.”
So you see, today’s Liturgy celebrates the wonderful truth that God binds himself to us in an interpersonal relationship as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And in doing so the Trinity becomes not so much a doctrine to be believed (which it is) but an experience of God to be lived. It enables us to know the protective care of the Father’s providence in our lives that provides for what we need and sustains our every heartbeat. It brings us the merciful and redemptive Presence of the Son who loved us to the point of even dying for us and who is with us always through his Word and Sacraments. It blesses us with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, our Bond of Connection with the Trinity, who is our Comforter and Companion throughout life. To no other religion that now exists or has ever existed on planet Earth has God extended such an awesome invitation and experience to human beings. This is the great gift and beauty of Christianity.
