The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
When it comes to the Holy Trinity, good and smart preachers ultimately end their sermons saying, “It’s a Mystery!” Not just the concept of the Trinity, but ultimately, God is mystery. Today, I am going where I have been hesitant to go before in my reflections on the Trinity. I am approaching this homily from the perspective of ‘mystery.’
A few years back, I composed a prayer for the parish as we observed the year of the Eucharist. The prayers began addressing God as Father, Mother, Creator, and Friend. For years, it is how I had addressed God in my personal prayer. The parish was fine with it, and we prayed it for a whole year. One day, though, we had an out-of-state visitor at one of the Sunday Masses. He had come to Dayton for his son’s soccer tournament. Being fervent Catholics, he made sure that they attended Mass. I think it is commendable. After Mass, however, he met me in the vestibule, and castigated me about the prayer. He said his son was now totally confused because we addressed God as father and mother. I offered every possible explanation, but he was not convinced. Finally, he left saying he was going to write to the archbishop. He did, but the actually went to Fr. Dave. You can imagine my relief. Fr. Dave replied to him backing my theological reasoning. That was the last I heard about it.
When we say that God is mystery, we recognize that we whereas we know somethings about God, we do not understand it all. When we say that God is mystery, we admit that our language fails to capture the totality of God’s being. Not merely our language, but also our intellect is incapable of comprehending the totality of God’s being. Ultimately, all our descriptions of God – Father, Mother, Creator, Friend, Savoir, Redeemer, Alpha and Omega – fall woefully short. To say that one can call God only, “Father” is to underestimate the mystery that is God.
God, the Ultimate Mystery
The concept of mystery is not alien to us. The universe, for example, is mystery. In spite of the enormous amount on information we have about the universe, we have discovered only four percent of the ever-expanding universe. After decades of study and research, even the closest planets remain a mystery. For that matter, life is a mystery. The human person is mystery. Couples spend decades together and yet never unravel the total mystery of their partners. Often, we are a mystery to ourselves. However, the Divine, God, remains the greatest mystery. I appreciate the idea of God as Trinity (three persons one God) in all its depth because it tells us that we cannot nail God down; that God is beyond any human imagination; that God cannot be captured by our limited understanding, but rather, that God can only be the object of our awe; that God is ‘GOD’. When I address God as Father, Mother, Creator, and Friend, it is my way of saying that each time I come before God, I stand before the Ultimate Mystery in total awe.
The Mystery of Many Religions
Let me take my thought one step forward. The other day, a high schooler asked me: “Do you think that the many religious of the world is God’s will?” Now that is a difficult question to answer. Perhaps, there is an answer from the perspective of mystery. The ultimate goal of every religious tradition is to offer a path to salvation to its followers. The emphasis of each religious tradition might be different, but the goal is the same. As Catholics we believe that Christ has revealed everything we need to know for human salvation. As a Catholic priest, I believe that my salvation is with Christ and Christ alone. I respect and honor other faith traditions, but they are not my path to salvation. And if Christ is my salvation, then I do not need another means of salvation.
But it would a very different claim, if I said, that as a Catholic priest, I have discovered the totality of God. It is not possible for me to even claim that Catholicism has unraveled the totality of the mystery of God. God is Trinity and more.
Here is the point I am trying to make – that even all the religions of the world put together cannot capture the mystery that is God. For this reason, the Church teaches: “Likewise, other religions found everywhere try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing "ways," comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites. The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men (Nostra Aetate, 2).
This is the Church’s way of accepting the mystery that is God.
The World – A Reflection of Divine Mystery
Let us draw some practical implications of today’s solemnity. If the Triune God has created the world and created human persons in God’s image and likeness, then the world and every person is a reflection of the divine and triune mystery. This means that when we approach creation, we approach it in awe. This means the whole earth is holy ground and we tread upon it carefully. This means that we live life with a profound sense of mystery and awe. This means that every human person is a reflection of divine mystery, and that approach every person irrespective of their race, ethnicity, nationality and status with a sense of awe. This means that our families and homes must be modeled around the trinitarian model of equality, reverence, and love. This means that we approach all the religions of the world with an attitude of respect and reverence. This means that God is a trinitarian community and thus the human race is a diverse but single community. This means that each time we come to the Eucharist, we tremble as we hold Bread and Wine in our hands.
Our understanding of God as divine and triune mystery has the potential to bring about a paradigm shift in our understanding of ourselves and everything around us. If we see ourselves, the world, the people around us as a reflection of the Trinity, then we are compelled to approach them with the same sense of awe as we approach the Most Holy Trinity.
Every Eucharist is a manifestation of the Holy Trinity. God sends the Holy Spirit upon the bread and wine and it becomes the Body of Christ. The same triune God invites us into this divine mystery. This is why we believe that our participation in the Eucharist transform us into the Body of Christ. Today let us approach this divine mystery in profound awe.
- Fr. Satish Joseph