{"id":1103,"date":"2013-05-26T09:52:30","date_gmt":"2013-05-26T13:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1103"},"modified":"2013-05-26T09:52:30","modified_gmt":"2013-05-26T13:52:30","slug":"trinity-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/trinity-sunday\/","title":{"rendered":"Trinity Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Most Holy Trinity, Year C<\/a>
\nProverbs 8:22-31
\nRomans 5:1-5
\nJohn 16:12-15
\nMay 26, 2013<\/p>\n

Today we honor the Trinity, a nice simple topic to talk about right?<\/p>\n

All I need to do today is explain the Trinity right?<\/p>\n

No, it isn\u2019t.\u00a0 Three persons yet one God.\u00a0 What does that really mean?\u00a0 Some people try to explain it with a three-leaf clover.\u00a0 Somebody tried sharing an explanation with me once that used the idea of ice, water, and stream.\u00a0 Having minored in Chemistry in college, my response to that explanation was it was wrong.<\/p>\n

In a previous parish, I prepared what I thought was a great homily on the Trinity.\u00a0 After Mass a person told me it was the best explanation of the Trinity they had ever heard.\u00a0 Then the person began to repeat what they thought<\/em> I said.\u00a0 It was a heresy condemned in the 3rd Century (which was not what I said), point being it’s hard to explain the Trinity.<\/p>\n

The Trinity is literally a mystery.\u00a0 We can\u2019t understand it completely.\u00a0 Does that mean we don\u2019t try to understand it at all?\u00a0 No, we are to work to deepen our understanding of the Trinity and what it means for us. But in the end, we need to accept what we cannot understand.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we call it faith.\u00a0 Faith means to believe in what cannot be proven.\u00a0 We want answers.\u00a0 We get some answers but we don\u2019t get all the answers we want.\u00a0 We never do!<\/p>\n

The Trinity is a central mystery of our faith.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we begin and end our prayers with the Sign of the Cross.\u00a0 The word \u201ctrinity\u201d is not found in the Bible.\u00a0 In stories like the Baptism of Jesus, all three persons are present together, Jesus, the voice from the Father, and the Holy Spirit coming down upon Jesus as a dove.<\/p>\n

Likewise, our Creed clearly includes all the three persons of the Trinity but it does not use the word \u201ctrinity.\u201d\u00a0 What the Creed does say about the Trinity is the relationship involved.\u00a0 Jesus is the only begotten Son, God from God, light from light.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit is the giver of life who proceeds from the Father and the Son.<\/p>\n

The three are always working as a team. They do not do a solo act.\u00a0 We want to separate them into three but you can\u2019t understand the Father without the Son and the Holy Spirit comes not of self but as sent by the Father and Son.\u00a0 What Jesus began in accord with the Father\u2019s Will, the Holy Spirit brings to completion.<\/p>\n

It has been this way for eternity.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit was not \u201ccreated\u201d by the Father or the Son after the Resurrection.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 existence did not begin with his conception in Mary\u2019s womb.<\/p>\n

All three have existed for all eternity as one.<\/p>\n

We want to split them apart.\u00a0 We think of the Father as the image of God as portrayed in the Old Testament, being before Jesus, but Jesus was always \u201cin the plan\u201d heard in the prophecies about the coming messiah but even as far back as Genesis when God speaks of the one who will strike at the serpent\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

The Holy Spirit is not spoken of as much until the New Testament but there are references in the Old Testament.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always been three working together as one.\u00a0 They are a team.<\/p>\n

We see it as different phases.\u00a0 We often see it as the Father is the image of God in the Old Testament (but is never called Father in the Old Testament) who lays down the rules.<\/p>\n

Jesus then comes to help us understand what the rules are really about.<\/p>\n

Lastly, the Holy Spirit comes to help us apply all that the Father and the Son has revealed to our lives.<\/p>\n

But we can\u2019t think of it as three different <\/i>people, each having their own approach.\u00a0 As children, we can learn what we ask our parents about.\u00a0 We know to ask Dad for certain things because Mom will say no and vice versa.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that way with God.\u00a0 God is three persons but one God, all working together in unison.<\/p>\n

What we see is a God is all-knowing and so understands that we can\u2019t handle it all at once.\u00a0 God gives us knowledge about our faith in steps.\u00a0 First, come the rules, and then understanding, and then living it.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it the same way that we learn everything?<\/p>\n

God gives it to us in ways we can understand.\u00a0 We don\u2019t get all the answers but God always walks with us.\u00a0 We know God\u2019s love because of what we see Jesus do for us on the Cross.\u00a0 We feel God\u2019s presence because the Holy Spirit dwells within us.<\/p>\n

For all that we don\u2019t know, God gives us faith.<\/p>\n

Three persons yet one awesome God.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Most Holy Trinity, Year C Proverbs 8:22-31 Romans 5:1-5 John 16:12-15 May 26, 2013 Today we honor the Trinity, a nice simple topic to talk about right? All I need to do today is explain the Trinity right? No, it isn\u2019t.\u00a0 Three persons yet one God.\u00a0 What does that really mean?\u00a0 Some people try …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Trinity Sunday’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-hN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1103"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1105,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103\/revisions\/1105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}