Corpus Christi Blog

Trinity Sunday

05-22-2016HomiliesFr. Chad King

Trinity Sunday- Who God is.  Little Theology to appreciate what it means for us.  Unity of Trinity- 3 is 1.  Some think existence- Father, then Jesus, then Holy Spirit.  No, Eternal existence. Never a time the 3 did not exist.  Nicene Creed- Jesus is begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father.  Through Him all things were made. 

John- God is Love.  What does it mean that God is love? Who He is, not what he does.  We choose to love or not, God is love.  Complete gift of self.  Father gives Himself completely.  Fathers is a giver, his nature is to give- love.  Son so thankful- given Himself to me.  Gospel says “Everything that the Father has is mine”.  Son fully receives, chooses to fully give Himself in return. 

By doing so, Jesus glorifies the Father- give due recognition and honor to Him. By completely loving and obeying in return and giving of self to Father, Father is glorified.  Spirit likewise- Gospel- remind what Jesus said and did.  “Not speak on own, but Glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you”. 

Amazing 1st reading from Proverbs confirms- Wisdom of God says, “The Lord possessed me, the beginning of his ways, from of old I was poured forth, at the first, before the earth”.  When there were no depths I was brought forth, before mountains, before hills, before the fields of the earth, before the foundations of the world or the sea, I was brought forth.  When the Lord established the heavens, I was there.  I was beside him as his craftsman, as Colossians and Creed says, “Through Him all things came to be”. 

“I was his delight day by day, playing before him all the while, playing on the surface of HIS earth”.  Even in making of creation, Jesus or HS didn’t feel like they weren’t enough- know and loves Father- loves- nature is to give of self. 

Remember- 1st reading is the wisdom of God speaking. Wisdom- seeing from God’s perspective.  God- Trinity- could see all of creation and saw how good it would be.  They could foresee the beauty of the mountains, the sea full of life, the dolphins playing, the birds flying free in the sky, chirping a song of praise in the trees- all of creation in all the beauty gives praise to God.  All of creation, by its very existence, by being who they were made to be, give praise and glory to the Maker. Indeed Genesis says, after each of the first 6 days of creation, Trinity looked at creation they had made, and was pleased, how good it is.  And while that praise from creatures must have been good, it wasn’t fulfilling.

But yet, although Trinity created out of his nature, God’s nature is to give.  But what good is it if what is created has no choice but to give glory and praise in return?  Love is a free gift of self, and doesn’t a free gift of self, doesn’t love, desire the free gift of self in return? Gospel- God “found delight in human race”.  “Let us make man in our image”.  When God created humanity, male and female, he called it very good.   CCC 355 says: “Man occupies a unique place in creation, as he is in the image of God, and in his own nature he unites the spiritual and material worlds”.  “Of all visible creatures only man is able to know and love his creator.  He is the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake and to share in God’s own life”.  What a gift we have, and that we are! A creature who was free to share in his very nature to give, creature who could choose to receive, choose to give, could choose to love in return, one that could see the beauty of the creation and recognize its beauty is an image of its Creator, and thus choose to give God the glory. 

Driving home seeing sunset- beauty.  Commercial- Feeling of caught up in majestic beauty.    Beachfront bargain TV show- buy house for the view.  Recognize the Creator of that beauty?  Worship the view or the Creator of it?  But do we take it for granted?  Do we consciously give God the glory, or make up for those who don’t know the gift?

Trinity could foresee the beauty.  But they could also foresee the bad which would come about in creation, through the sin of humanity’s wrong choice.  The beautiful oceans would have hurricanes, the beautiful mountains would crumble in an earthquake.  The nice gentle breeze would turn into destructive violent winds. Cancers, diseases will become an epidemic in humanity.   Humanity would lose sight of the gift, and not recognize their dignity and not be an image and give glory to God. I’m sure there are many things we would change about the world.  The male and female joined in unity in marriage and co-created children through the love between them, who then perfectly imaged the unity of the Trinity, even though divorce would become an epidemic, God’s agreed it is still worth it.  But still, even with all the bad things, Trinity would not change anything, they knew it would be worth it.  Son or HS didn’t ask the Father to re-consider.  They knew it is worth it.  Even though there would end up being so much bad in creation, the good of creation is still worth it.  

Because Trinity was willing to continue to give of self to bring good out of the bad.  The Son was willing from the beginning of creation, before the Fall even happened, to become human and save and reconcile the created world.  The Holy Spirit was willing to be the instrument, to be the encourager, to be the reminder of humanity of the way God created the world, to be driving force to bring unity in the midst of the separation.  God was willing to let the bad happen so that a greater good could come from it.  And that greater good is God continuing to be God and giving of Himself for the good of us, to bring about good in the midst of bad, to re-teach us who God is- He is a giver who gives of Himself for the good of others.  It is worth letting humanity choose the bad for a while, in hope that we will recognize the truth, and choose the good, choose to glorify the Giver of the Good.  For we can only fully recognize and appreciate the good if we also know the bad.  We can fully say ‘Yes’ to the good only if we are also able to say ‘no’ to the bad.  Do you and I recognize the good, do we recognize God, in the midst of the bad?  Aren’t we able to appreciate the good a lot more when there is bad all around it? 

Also, there is another greater good in allowing the bad, and that greater good is bringing about the conversion of the bad.  We are made to share in the fullness of God, and God chose to bring about the fullness of the good through the bad, he chose to suffer and die to self in order to bring about the greater good, because that is what love does.  Are we willing to do the same?  I conclude with our 2nd reading- “affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us”.  The love of God is the greatest good, the love of God is worth the endurance through any bad.

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