Feast of the Blessed Trinity, June 3, 2012
Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40 Romans 8:14-17 Matthew 28:16-20
Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40 Romans 8:14-17 Matthew 28:16-20
Second reading from Romans
Brothers and sisters: Those who are
led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. And so we should not be like cringing
slaves, but we should behave like God’s very own children, adopted into the
bosom of His family, and calling to Him, “Father! My Father!”For His Holy
Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts, and tells us that we really are God’s
children. And since we are His children, we shall share His inheritance, and
all that Christ inherits will belong to us as well! Yes, if we are to share His
glory, we must also share His suffering.
The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Alleluia,
alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to
Matthew
Glory to you, Lord.
The eleven disciples
went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they all
saw Him, they worshiped Him, even though some of them doubted. Then Jesus
approached and said to them, "All power in heaven and on earth has been
given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit[1],
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord
Jesus Christ.
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Introduction
Liturgical cycles
The
Nation’s liturgical cycle begins with Memorial Day summoning us to memorialize
our war-dead, and to initiate the summer season with picnics in parks. The
cycle peaks with the Fourth of July, celebrating our freedom. It wanes with the
falling leaves of Labor Day, and finally ends with Thanksgiving Day, giving
thanks for the abundance of fall harvest.
The Church’s liturgical cycle begins with the Father sending
the Son at Christmas. It
continues with the Son returning to the Father in Ascension, and it
peaks with the Father and the Son sending the Holy Spirit on
Pentecost. So on this Sunday after
Pentecost, the Church positions a feast dedicated to the mystery of Three
Persons in one God.
A tug of
war
Theology is the human attempt to fathom God.
So there’s Islamic theology: the Muslim’s attempt to fathom God. There’s Jewish
theology: the Jew’s attempt to fathom God. And then there’s Christian theology:
the Christian’s attempt to fathom God. The theology of most Christians is
encapsulated in the formula `God is a Trinity of Persons -- Father, Son and
Holy Spirit.’ We call it the `Mystery of the
Trinity.’ There’s
obviously a tug of war between `mystery,’ which says God cannot be fathomed,
and `theology,’ which says that might be true but let’s try fathoming God anyway. St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the Church’s most renowned theologian, tried to fathom
the mystery of God, as he wrote volume after volume about the ineffable God.
But as he was offering Mass on the feast of St. Nicholas, December 6, 1273, a
profound mystical experience came over Thomas, and referring to all his
writings he declared to his long-time secretary, “They seems like straw to me.”[2] And he
could write no more.
Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968) also tried to fathom the mystery of God, as he prodigiously
wrote volume after volume about the ineffable God. But at the sunset of his
life he made sport of his theological pretentiousness, saying "The angels
are laughing at old Karl Barth."
A Muslim who had his God Allah down pat
The best thing God has going for Himself
(and the best thing we have going for
God) is His mystery. But when we have God down pat, when we have Him neatly
figured out, when we know in great detail what He likes and what He hates, then
we have destroyed the mystery of God.
Osama bin Laden (1957–2011), the world’s most notorious
Muslim, had his God Allah down pat. Bin Laden was an ardent Islamic believer
who daily professed Shahadah:
“There is no God
but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.” [3] But motivated by a conviction that U.S.
foreign policy had killed or oppressed Muslims in the Middle
East, this ferocious
Islamic believer masterminded the horrific event of 9/11, 2001. On that
infamous day two 747s slammed into the World Trade
Center in Lower Manhattan, bringing down two signature towers and three
thousand innocent `infidels.’
A Christian who has God down pat
Not
only some Muslims but also some Christians have their God down pat, and they
destroy His mystery. The Rev. Phelps is such a Christian. On October 12, 1998, Matt Shepard (a gay
man and a student at
the University of Wyoming)
was beat to a pulp and chained to a wooden fence out in the country, by two homophobes.
There they left Shepard to die in his tears and blood. The Reverend (who is of
the same ilk of the two homophobes) irreverently picketed
Shepard’s funeral with a sign which read: “God hates fags and buries them in
hell—Romans 9:13.”
Rev. Phelps has his God down pat, and has
destroyed His mystery.
Scripture
says that in the beginning God said, “Let us create man according to our image
and likeness.” (Gen. 1:26) Phelps has it all backwards: instead of God creating
him according to His image and like, Phelps has created God according to his
image and likeness.
A Church which has God down pat
Phelp’s
case is extreme, and is easily recognizable for what it is. There are less
obvious and more refined cases. When preachers and other `pious people’ claim
that AIDS is God’s pay-back upon immoral sinners, they have their God down pat.
They too create God according to their own image and likeness.
When
the magisterium[4] of the Church
claims to know that God prefers male priests over female priests, or celibate
priests over married priests, then the Church has God down pat and has
destroyed His mystery. When the magisterium quite definitively spells out God’s
position on issues like birth control, divorce and remarriage, homosexuality
etc., then the Church has God down pat and destroys His mystery.
A mystic who didn’t have God down pat
Theological
pride delights in the pretense of having God down pat. On the other hand,
theological humility delights not in having God down pat, but delights rather in
His mystery. Theological humility makes the strange claim that the very best
thing we have going for God is His mystery. Meister Eckhart (1260-1328), a philosopher, theologian and mystic did not have his God
down pat; mystics never do. Eckhart was, in fact, a devoted `apostle of the
Mystery of God.’ A friend writes:
Eckhart had an
insight which
most Catholics and worshippers of all types fail to grasp. The insight was that
God is MYSTERY. When it comes to God we
simply do not know. That stance, however, is beyond the ken of most
people. It thwarts their desire for certainty. It pains them not to be certain
about and cozily comfortable with an easy list of the things to believe.
Anybody who insistently calls attention to God’s mystery will be hated by those
who need to have their God down pat. You know what they did to Meister Eckhart[5].
At
the end of the day, Eckhart was a mystic, and mystics specialize in not having
God down pat! What a strange specialization is that! What a blessing it is when a Church
specializes not in having God down pat but rather in His Mystery!
A Muslim & a Christian who hated
In his first epistle John writes these
simple words: “The one who does not love [but hates] does not know God, because God is love.” (I Jn 4:8) The `devout’ Osama
bin Laden religiously professed that “There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.” At
the same time, filled with hate of the West, Osama masterminded the horrific event
of 9/11, which brought down two signature towers and three thousand innocent
human beings. Bin Laden didn’t
know God, for Scripture says, “The one who
does not love [but hates] does not know God, for God is love.”
The `devout’ Rev. Phelps religiously professes
belief in
God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. At the same time, he wallows in homophobic
hate as he pickets the funeral of Matt Shepard and buries him in hell. Like bin
Laden, Phelps doesn’t know God, for
Scripture says, “The one who does not love [but hates] does not know God, for
God is love.”
A Muslim who loved
But John’s words are a two-edged sword, as
he writes, “The one who loves is a child of God and knows God.” (I Jn. 4:7) Mohammad Sohail, a Muslim and immigrant from
Pakistan was closing his Long Island convenience store just
after midnight on December 3, 2009, when a man in his 40s
entered with a baseball bat in his hand. Sohail grabbed a rifle he kept behind
the counter and ordered the man to drop the bat. Then to his surprise the
would-be thief dropped to his knees, and begged Sohail, '”Don't call police,
don't shoot me, I have no money, I have no food in my house.” Feeling bad for
the would-be thief, Sohail
gave him a loaf of bread and $40, and sent on his way. This wonderful Muslim Mohammad Sohail died on August 20, 2010 of a
heart attack in the 48th year of his life.
Scripture says, “The
one who loves is a child of God and knows God.” (I Jn. 4:7) Muslim Mohammad Sohail was a loving human being, and therefore a child
of God, and he knew God. He’s dead now, but his wonderful story lives on in
Long Island.
A Unitarian & Trinitarian who loved
Then
came a real shocker at this remarkable event which didn’t have `God down pat’
in any shape or form: the preacher wasn’t a he! The preacher was a she -- the
Rev. Linda Hansen! What’s more, the preacher wasn’t a Trinitarian; the preacher
was a Unitarian! Born and raised a
Catholic, Hansen left the Catholic Church for various good reasons of her own, and
became an ordained Unitarian minister. As a Unitarian Hansen does not espouse
the idea of Trinity. She doesn’t place it up there on the top of her list of
truths in her head to be firmly believed or even, for that matter, to be
soundly rejected.
And
then there was Sr. Barbara - a good Roman Catholic and a Trinitarian, who professed belief in Three Persons in One God. Despite
their varying theologies, the two had a long personal relationship. Because of
that, the Rev. Linda was chosen to be the homilist for Sr. Barbara’s funeral. Linda’s
homily was carefully crafted. It softly alluded to the strange twists and turns
of the human journey, and it spoke eloquently about the warm and human side of
Sr. Barbara. She mentioned a visit to Sr. Barbara in the early 1980s in the San
Francisco Bay area. Though she had a major paper to finish, she took the time
out to show Rev. Linda the Bay Area which Barbara loved so much.
At the end of the day, we ask which one of these two ladies knew God?
Sr. Barbara, the Trinitarian? Or Rev. Linda, the Unitarian? Answer: they both knew
God because they both loved much, for Scripture says, “The one who loves is a
child of God and knows God.” (I Jn. 4:7)
Conclusion
Trinity – a good attempt
At
the end of the day, Trinity (the Christian attempt to fathom God) is a good
attempt. It
speaks of God as a loving Father.
That lays an axe to bin Laden’s god who hates infidels, and to Rev. Phelps’ god
who hates `fags.’ Trinity also speaks
of God as a loving Son who was born into the human condition to become Emmanuel
– God-with-us. That lays an axe to
the gods of ancient Greece and Rome, who were more often gods-against-us, than gods-with-us.
Trinity also speaks of God as a loving Holy
Spirit who dwells within us, and assures us that on life’s arduous journey
we are not alone.
[1]
Scholars
agree that this very obviously Trinitarian and ritualistic formula comes more
from the liturgical life of the early Church than from the mouth of Jesus.
[4] Magisterium:
teaching authority of the Church
[5] Mystic Meister Eckhart was tried as a heretic in 1327.
Before the verdict was handed down Eckhart disappeared!
