Rejoice with Me! Up Close and Personal

The Solemnity of

 THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

Saturday, 11 June 2022, St. Lambert

 

Prv 8:22-31

Rom 5:1-5

Jn 16:12-15

Praised be Jesus Christ!

On today’s solemn feast it is proper to make some mention at least of the Doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity: One God in Three Divine Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! There is no other day in the year quite like Trinity Sunday, prone to lead us into theological and even philosophical discourse. It would be the appropriate day to offer outside of Mass some kind of educational, catechetical content on the nature of God. I say outside of Mass, because homilies were never intended for lectures, but they should kind of point us toward where we ought to be going. Study, reflection, meditation should be an integral part of our Christian life, for both priests and religious, but no less for all the lay faithful, for all the baptized. Repurpose some of your Sunday, if you will, for the things of God! Make it truly the Lord’s day!

So not having a Sunday afternoon lecture on the calendar, if I can leave you with nothing else, it would be that we are duty bound to be aware, to reflect on the place of God in our lives. Not God in any generic sense of the term but as God the Most Holy Trinity: One God in Three Divine Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

        Personally, I am a firm believer that even as we grow older, we never stop learning. For instance: one of the things I have learned in the last year is that among the general non-churched population, especially in the world of scientific research, you don’t have to be an atheist anymore. Believing in God is back in fashion among scientists and mathematicians. I would say it this way: Atheism is no longer a viable or reasonable option for serious, grownup people. Granted, there are people who may not be all that sure about God. They may have doubts, but they do not deny His existence, that is, if they have anything intelligent or intellectual going on in their lives, they admit God even if they fail to name Him.

Atheism has become what it always was: it is or was either an attitude held by angry people, or it is or was a political stance. The tenets of atheism cannot be held in good faith by people of good will. At some point in recent history, the questions which thinking people tend to ask on an ultimate level have changed. “Does God exist?” “Is there a Creator, Who brought all things into being and holds them in existence?” These are not the big questions anymore. Serious science seems to be aware of its limits in describing reality. People have moved beyond much of the pretense of the 19^th and early 20^th Century. In the face of its own discoveries and a clearer understanding of the limits its methods impose upon it, science seems to have become more respectful especially when it comes to speaking about matters of faith.

        The question of the day seems rather to be: “Who is God?” And we respond, God is Trinity in Unity. We can know God clearly in the Person of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus has shown us the Father and sent the Holy Spirit forth into our midst.

I was watching a year-old video the other day. It was a discussion between the very popular Jordan Peterson and Bishop Robert Barron. Jordan though a clinical psychologist is not an atheist. Nonetheless he has not yet succeeded in making a faith commitment in life, at least not one which goes beyond generic Christianity. Most people who know and admire Peterson expect that at some point he will take that final step and will probably convert to the Catholic faith. For now, he speaks about Catholic faith with respect, but also as a friendly critic, as an outsider who wishes us well. In the video he makes a general statement noting all the people, especially young people, who are walking away from the Church, who are abandoning the Catholic faith. They are the same people whom Bishop Robert Barron and many others refer to as “nones” (people who on a questionnaire when asked about their religious affiliation say they have “none”). Peterson places the blame for this exodus or abandonment by the young of Catholicism in our day on the leadership of the Church, on the hierarchy. His thesis would be that the Church has failed the young in particular for not really demanding enough of them, for not espousing high enough ideals. He thinks being a Christian and fulfilling the demands of the Church has become too easy.

        Peterson makes that accusation despite a deep respect for the things of God and of His Church. I suppose it could be true, that the Church is not demanding enough. Personally though, I think young people falling away from the Church has more to do with their failure to grasp the uniqueness of our faith. I doubt if Peterson would disagree with me, but I would challenge his analysis from outside of the Church which complains that faith practice today is not demanding enough. Granted: the goal of getting everyone in and out of church on Sunday in less than an hour is slack; it does not inspire. Doing away with abstinence from meat on Fridays except in Lent is slack; it is not serious. I won’t deny the relevance of Peterson’s observations. He has something to say, but I think more central to the abandonment of church life is the failure to grapple with the question of God’s personhood, that He can be named. We are not just talking about God in any generic sense of the term but of God as the Most Holy Trinity: One God in Three Divine Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

Sadly, most folks’ commitment to the Church is not one which goes beyond generic Christianity. I remember back in high school already learning about the teaching of the II Vatican Council, which warned against the temptation to a false irenicism in areas of interreligious dialogue or even ecumenism. For all the warnings, that seems to be the trap we have fallen into. Our respect for others who do not share our faith ends up in promoting religious indifference: one church, temple or house of prayer ends up mistakenly being considered equal to another. The notion of the fulness of truth in Jesus Christ in His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church gets emptied of its meaning. The gift of the Holy Spirit no longer seems to be grounded in such an urgent call to Baptism in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Our first reading today was from Proverbs in the Old Testament. It starts out: “Thus says the wisdom of God.” Not only is there a God, Who brought into being all that is and holds it in being, but He saved us from everlasting death in and through His Son. God showed us His Face. Our faith is in Jesus Christ alone. As St.  Paul says in his letter to the Romans: “…we boast in hope of the glory of God.” We usually use Luke’s Gospel Chapter 15 to illustrate the Church’s teaching on penance and reconciliation. On Trinity Sunday we could apply it as well to God’s love for us and His eagerness to bring us to share in His joy: rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep… rejoice with me because I have found the coin I lost… but, son, we had to rejoice because the brother of yours who was lost, who was dead, has been found and has come back to life within the circle of the family.

If our notion of God is not shot through with our awareness of the Almighty as Person, who created and saved us out of love, then we might as well check the box which puts us in the “none” category. Glory then be to the Father, God, to the Son, God, and to the Holy Spirit, God, one in Being and threefold in Person. To Him be glory now and for ages unending. Amen. 

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI