Homily for Solemnity of Holy Trinity

Homily for the Solemnity
of the Holy Trinity

May 28, 2023
Collect
John 3: 16-18
Christian Brothers, Iona University, N.R.
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Holy Name of Jesus, New Rochelle, N.Y.

Heaven's Glory (Titian)

“God our Father, by sending into the world the Word of truth and the Spirit of sanctification, you made known to the human race your wondrous mystery” (Collect).

No one can comprehend God’s inner being, that he is at the same time 3 Persons, 1 God.  Our opening prayer praised God for making known his “wondrous mystery,” yet he remains mysterious and, for the most part, unknowable.

But God the Son, in human flesh as Jesus of Nazareth, has revealed God to us.  Jesus said to his apostles at the Last Supper, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9) as well, so intimately united are they.

What Jesus reveals most intimately to us is that God is love, and God loves us.  Perhaps the most quoted verse in all the Scriptures is the 1st verse of today’s gospel:  “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Scientists tell us that the created universe, or at least the part of it in which we exist, is moving inexorably toward extinction, albeit millions of years in the future.  How they know that, or think they know it, is way beyond my grasp.  [At Iona: If Bob Novak were still with us, he might have helped us grasp it.]  But this we know:  our own individual material existence is moving inexorably toward a finite end:  toward death.

The Word of truth, God the Son, makes known to us the mystery of God’s love, a love that beyond death incorporates us into God’s inner life.  Christ brings to light God’s mysterious plan “hidden from ages past … according to his eternal purpose” (Eph 3:9,11), that we should have a share in God’s eternal love thru “the Spirit of sanctification” (Collect), the Spirit of holiness.

The Father loves the Son, his own perfect image, a love so intense that it’s personal.  The Holy Spirit is their bond of love.  Father and Son bestow the Spirit upon us, binding us to them.  Whoever, led by the Spirit, believes in the work of Christ has eternal life (John 3:16).  Tho all created things may pass away, Christ’s faithful will not pass away:  “his kingdom will have no end,” and “the Holy Spirit, the giver of life,” leads us into the kingdom “and the life of the world to come” (Creed).