{"id":1824,"date":"2016-05-22T13:38:35","date_gmt":"2016-05-22T17:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1824"},"modified":"2016-05-22T13:38:35","modified_gmt":"2016-05-22T17:38:35","slug":"trinity-sunday-year-c-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/trinity-sunday-year-c-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"Trinity Sunday, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trinity, Year C<\/a>
\nProverbs 8:22-31
\nPsalm 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
\nRomans 5:1-5
\nJohn 16:12-15
\nMay 22, 2016<\/p>\n

One day St. Augustine was walking along the seashore as he reflected on the Trinity.\u00a0 He came upon a young boy who was digging a hole in the sand.\u00a0 The boy then used his pail to get water from the ocean to pour into the hole.<\/p>\n

St. Augustine asked the young boy what he was trying to do.\u00a0 The boy said that he was going to pour the entire ocean into hole he had dug.\u00a0 St. Augustine told him he couldn\u2019t possibly do that.\u00a0 The young boy responded \u201cAnd you cannot fit the mystery of the Holy Trinity into your small brain.\u201d\u00a0 After that, the boy disappeared.<\/p>\n

Today we celebrate \u201cThe Most Holy Trinity.\u201d\u00a0 In past homilies I have tried to explain the Trinity but, of course, this is never easy.\u00a0 Do we really expect to be able to fully describe God in human words?<\/p>\n

The Trinity is a \u201cbasic\u201d part of our faith.\u00a0 It\u2019s in our creed as we speak of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.\u00a0 We profess that Jesus became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.<\/p>\n

Wait, how was Jesus first incarnate by the Holy Spirit and then the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son?\u00a0 It is a mystery.\u00a0 It is our faith.<\/p>\n

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three persons yet one God united in perfect communion.<\/p>\n

We seek the peace of God<\/em> through our Lord Jesus Christ<\/em>.\u00a0 We seek the love of God<\/em> which is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

Jesus and the Holy Spirit work to lead us to the Father.<\/p>\n

Jesus came to teach us and He had much more to tell his disciples but He knew they could not bear it all.\u00a0 So, Jesus assures them that Holy Spirit will come after him and continue to teach them in continuity with what Jesus has been teaching.<\/p>\n

As Jesus puts it the Holy Spirit \u201cwill not speak on his own but he will speak what he hears.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Jesus did not come to start something completely new and neither does the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

Jesus comes to do the Father\u2019s Will and so does the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 They are three persons who we relate in different ways but they are united with one Will as one God.<\/p>\n

Depending on what we are praying about, our prayers might be directed to the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit but even so, we begin and end our prayers with the Sign of the Cross, calling upon all three; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

We can use images like the three-leaf clover to try to explain the Trinity but we will never fully understand it while we live in this world.<\/p>\n

We aren\u2019t going to understand how they are three persons and one <\/em>God.\u00a0 We are just human beings.<\/p>\n

So, if we can\u2019t fully understand it, why talk about it?\u00a0 First, we need to know that \u201cfaith\u201d is defined as \u2018believing in what cannot be proven.\u2019\u00a0 If we could know for certain, we won\u2019t need faith.<\/p>\n

We need to talk about it because the nature of Trinity does reveal something to us.<\/p>\n

Some people today see everything as all about them.\u00a0 You ask them to do something and they want to know what\u2019s in it for them.\u00a0 If they have nothing to gain by it, they see no point in it.<\/p>\n

Jesus had nothing to gain for himself<\/strong> by what He does for us.\u00a0 Likewise, the Holy Spirit does not gain for itself.<\/p>\n

Jesus and Holy Spirit act in accord with the Father\u2019s Will for our gain.\u00a0 All three work together for our gain.<\/p>\n

So, in looking at the Trinity, we see an example we need to follow.\u00a0 We need to give up our self-centeredness.\u00a0 We need to stop thinking we know everything.\u00a0 We need to work together to help each other.\u00a0 We need to trust that God knows better than us.<\/p>\n

We need to be about doing the Father\u2019s Will.\u00a0 That\u2019s what I am trying to do as I prepare to leave for another assignment.<\/p>\n

We need to trust in God.\u00a0 That\u2019s what you need to do as the new pastor arrives.<\/p>\n

The Trinity is a mystery that reveals what it means to be in communion, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trinity, Year C Proverbs 8:22-31 Psalm 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9 Romans 5:1-5 John 16:12-15 May 22, 2016 One day St. Augustine was walking along the seashore as he reflected on the Trinity.\u00a0 He came upon a young boy who was digging a hole in the sand.\u00a0 The boy then used his pail to get water from …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Trinity Sunday, Year C – 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":[175,116],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-tq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824"}],"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=1824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1825,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824\/revisions\/1825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}