Trinty Sunday 2007

Trinity Sunday – 10:30 2007 A family was hosting an eleven year old girl from India. One Sunday the little girl decided on her own to go with the family to Mass. When they arrived home, the husband asked her what she thought about the Mass. “It was okay,” she said, “but why don’t they pray for the West Coast too?” When they inquired what she meant, she said, “You know, in the name of the Father and the Son and whole East Coast.” How often do you make the sign of the cross without even saying the words, Father, Son and Holy Spirit? When you say the words, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, this puts you into immediate contact with the mystery of the Trinity. You will never understand the mystery of three unique persons sharing the same divine nature. Stephen Kendrick in his book, Holy Clues: The Gospel According to Sherlock Holmes, says, “We cannot solve life’s mystery but we can become more and more aware of how we live within mystery and how mystery dwells within us.” But what you can understand is that God is not just God in himself, God is God for us. All you have to do is look at the gospel story. There Jesus is revealing God to you. He reveals a God who is for the people: forgiving the woman taken in adultery, healing the eyes of the blind man, feeding the 5,000. Jesus reveals a God who is God for us. Even more, you can understand that the three Persons of the Trinity who share the same divine life, share that divine life with you. And where God’s life is, there is God. Our God is so infinite for us that he dwells within us. In the movie, The Color Purple, one of the characters says, “You came into the world with God but only those who search inside find him.” The indwelling of God the Trinity is the most treasurable gift you have. Yet how often do you stop and remember that God the almighty, eternal, all-knowing, all-loving Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit, lives within you, closer to you than you are to yourself? How often do you direct your prayers to God up there instead of to God within you? How often do you make yourself aware that God the Trinity is dwelling in your wife or husband, in your children, in your co-worker, in the stranger next to you? It’s one thing to have the Trinity dwelling within you but what good is it if you are seldom or never conscious of the Father, Son and Spirit making their home within you? Jesus says, “My Father and I will come and make our home within you.” And where the Father and Son are, there is their Holy Spirit. Three persons but one God. If the Trinity is already dwelling within you, why do you need to receive Jesus in the Eucharist? Susan Muto & Adrian van Kaam in their book, Commitment: Key to Christian Maturity, offer you an answer. They wrote: “The Eucharist raises our calling to the highest level of active communion with the Indwelling Trinity.” You need to make an effort. The effort to become habitually aware of the Trinity’s indwelling within you. You begin by stopping mentally several times a day and saying to yourself, Now I am aware that the Trinity is living within me, loving me. Now I am aware that the Father is within me calling me to become all that he wants me to be. Now I am aware of the Son dwelling within me saying to me, “I call you my friends.” Now I am aware of the Holy Spirit within me enlightening, guiding and motivating me to become holier. In the novel, The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russel, Sandoz, the Jesuit, is described this way: he could feel sometimes the tidal pull in some deep stratum of his soul. That deep stratum of the soul is God the Trinity dwelling within you. And the more aware you become of the Trinity’s indwelling, the more you will experience the Trinity’s tidal pull, luring you deeper and deeper into the life and love of the Father, Son and Spirit within you. As you continue developing this habit of being aware of the Trinity dwelling within you, you begin to have a genuine mystical experience of God. You are becoming a mystic. No longer is yours a religion of obligations and duties. Now you are mystically one with the God who so loves you that he makes his home within you. Obligations give way to enthusiasm. Duties become energetic zeal. And living your faith becomes boundless joy not paralyzing drudgery. Resolve today on this feast of the Holy Trinity to make the effort to become more aware of God the Trinity living in you, closer to you than you are to yourself. Humorous story about awareness: Jim and Edna were both patients in a mental hospital. One day while they were walking past the hospital swimming pool, Jim suddenly jumped into the deep end. He sank to the bottom of the pool and stayed there. Edna promptly jumped in to save him. She swam to the bottom and pulled Jim out. When the medical director became aware of Edna’s heroic act he immediately ordered her to be discharged from the hospital, as he now considered her to be mentally stable in her awareness of what to do in a crisis. When he went to tell Edna the news he said, “Edna, I have good news and bad news. The good news is you’re being discharged; since you were able to rationally respond to a crisis by jumping in and saving the life of another patient, I have concluded that your act displays sound awareness.” The bad news is Jim, the patient you saved, hanged himself with his bathrobe belt in the bathroom. I am so sorry, but he’s dead.” Edna replied, “He didn’t hang himself, I put him up there to dry out. Now... How soon can I go home?” Thought: Always be aware of the Trinity dwelling within you.