{"id":1615,"date":"2015-05-31T13:34:42","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T17:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1615"},"modified":"2015-05-31T13:34:42","modified_gmt":"2015-05-31T17:34:42","slug":"trinity-sunday-year-b-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/trinity-sunday-year-b-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"Trinity Sunday, Year B – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Most Holy Trinity, Year B<\/a>
\nDeuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40
\nRomans 8:14-17
\nMatthew 28:16-20
\nMay 31, 2015<\/p>\n

As a group of young children were preparing for Confirmation, the bishop had the opportunity to come and speak with the children.\u00a0 He was asking them questions about our faith and he came to a young girl who was quietly sitting in the back and asked her to explain the Trinity.\u00a0 The girl was afraid that if she gave the wrong answer, she might not be allowed to be confirmed.\u00a0 Nervously, she stood up and said, \u201cNo, bishop, I can\u2019t.\u00a0 You see, it\u2019s a mystery<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trinity truly is a mystery.\u00a0 It is officially called a \u201cmystery\u201d of the Church.\u00a0 We struggle to understand the Trinity.\u00a0 God created us with the use of reason and we like to understand things and when we don\u2019t understand, it can be troubling for us.\u00a0 We might equate not understanding with doubting.\u00a0 When we doubt, we might think we have lost our faith.<\/p>\n

Today we hear how, when the disciples saw the Risen Jesus, they worshipped, but they doubted<\/em>.\u00a0 They had never seen anyone rise from the dead before.\u00a0 So they wonder if it really was Jesus or were they imagining something?\u00a0 That\u2019s their doubt but even with wondering how this could be, they realized they were in the presence of something wonderful and so they worshipped.<\/p>\n

Today we celebrate \u201cThe Most Holy Trinity\u201d but if you think I am going to explain<\/em><\/strong> the Trinity to you, I refer you back to the girl\u2019s answer, \u201cI can\u2019t.\u00a0 You see, it\u2019s a mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n

I emphasis \u201cexplain\u201d because I don\u2019t understand the details.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how<\/em><\/strong> the Trinity is one but I know it is one<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 I know that God is so awesome that I can\u2019t expect to explain it all but when I recognize how awesome God is, I can believe.<\/p>\n

We hear Moses describe some of the \u201cawesomeness\u201d of God.\u00a0 He speaks of how God spoke from the fire, how God set the Israelites free from the Egyptians.\u00a0 We can think of Jesus\u2019 death and Resurrection for us.\u00a0 How could any being except for an awesome God who loves us\u00a0 enough to do these things?<\/p>\n

God gives us the gift of reason to learn things.\u00a0 God gives us faith to believe in what we cannot understand.\u00a0 Are we willing to make the leap of faith?<\/p>\n

When things are going well, we generally don\u2019t question God.\u00a0 Say, if a loved one is sick and inexplicably gets better.\u00a0 We thank God and don\u2019t question why.\u00a0 However, if instead of getting better our loved one gets worse, we ask why.\u00a0 That\u2019s based on reason.\u00a0 Relying on the gift of faith, we find reason to trust in God even when we don\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n

Now, before it seems like I am completely avoiding talking about the Trinity, what do we know about the Trinity?<\/p>\n

The Bible does not use the word \u201ctrinity\u201d because that came later but that doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t find the Trinity in the Bible.<\/p>\n

We see the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit all together as one at Jesus\u2019 baptism.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 farewell discourse in John\u2019s Gospel, we hear Jesus speaks of how He and the Father are one, working together towards the same purpose.\u00a0 Jesus also speaks of how the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete will be sent by the Father and Him to continue to work of God.\u00a0 So clearly we hear of how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit work together<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We hear Jesus tell us of how we need all three as He sends out the disciples, \u201cIn the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

The Bible also tells us of how we relate to God in the Trinity.\u00a0 Paul tells us of how, led by the Spirit of God<\/em> we are children of God.\u00a0 As children, we call God Father<\/em> but it is only by the Holy Spirit that we can know this.<\/p>\n

The Holy Spirit gives us knowledge, understanding,<\/em> and wisdom <\/em>so that we can know God.\u00a0 This in turn helps us to see the \u201cawesomeness\u201d of God to make it possible for us to trust Him.\u00a0 I\u2019ve being saying \u201cawesomeness.\u201d\u00a0 Another word might be \u201cmagnificence.\u201d\u00a0 Yet another way of looking at it is \u201cfear of the Lord\u201d but it is not fear as to simply be afraid.\u00a0 It is \u201cfear\u201d in the sense of recognizing how great God is.<\/p>\n

The Trinity is about relationship.\u00a0 First, the relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three yet perfectly united as one.\u00a0 In faith, we enter into relationship and the perfect love of God, three persons yet one God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Most Holy Trinity, Year B Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40 Romans 8:14-17 Matthew 28:16-20 May 31, 2015 As a group of young children were preparing for Confirmation, the bishop had the opportunity to come and speak with the children.\u00a0 He was asking them questions about our faith and he came to a young girl who was …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Trinity Sunday, Year B – Homily’ »<\/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-q3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615"}],"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=1615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1616,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615\/revisions\/1616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}