Readings for Most Holy Trinity Sunday
If the Trinity’s place in the liturgical schedule is a puzzlement, try finding ways to preach about it! I joke that it’s good to give homilies to the oldsters at St. Paul’s because they forget from year-to-year what I talk about!!
But one really can’t preach about the Trinity. Even the great theologians of the Church have trouble explaining the concept. But more and more I believe that it is good to simply celebrate the presence of the Persons of the Trinity in our lives.
Look at the Father, the source of all life, the Creator of all the wonders that surround us. The Father is merciful and faithful, always ready to embrace, comfort and support us. This embrace allows us to surrender our doubts and fears, our wants and needs, even our wounds, our judgments and our angers.
Jesus is God’s love come to earth in the form of a human being. We simply are not able to say that God doesn’t understand what it is to be human. Jesus is the one who tells us what God is really like, the One whose words and actions point the way to the deepest possible human fulfillment.
Jesus promised that He would not leave us orphans. We all know that we can orphan ourselves by clinging to independence and the illusion of “freedom” and identifying ourselves with what we accomplish and what we possess. But the Holy Spirit offers gifts to heal our wounds and brings us a peace the world can’t give. We celebrate the work of the Spirit within us and among us. Sometimes it is a small movement, a simple awareness or an inner peace that washes over us. The Spirit speaks the words, the feelings, the deep desires we can’t get out and express. The Spirit helps us discern the small and great choices we make each day the choices identified by mercy, reconciliation and care for those on the margins. The Spirit transforms our listlessness into passion, thus inspiring us to be part of the Spirit’s work of renewing the face of the earth.
Realizing all this, it’s easy to be God’s smile for someone today!
Fr. Herb Yost, C.S.C.
