The Most Trinity, Year C – Homily

The Most Holy Trinity, Year C
Proverbs 8:22-31
Psalm 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9 (2a)
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15
June 16, 2019

In a world where science has /definitive answers for many things, many people come to expect the same type of answers for everything.

This leads some to deny the existence of God, claiming people only used God to explain what they didn’t understand.  Others expect definitive answers for all their questions about God. 

Believing in God is not about getting scientific answers.  Faith is not about proving everything.  In fact, the word “faith” means to believe in what cannot be proven. 

Through study we can come to understand much about our faith.  Led by the Spirit, we can come to know why many of the commandments are good for us.  Even so, there are aspects of our faith that remain a mystery.

When we hear the word “mystery,” we might think of a mystery novel or movie where a crime was committed and the book or novel tells us how they capture the criminal.  As such, a “mystery” is something to be solved.

God wants to help us know the Truth.  Jesus came to bring us the Truth but He didn’t teach us everything.  He told his disciples, “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.” 

Jesus knew we are limited by our humanity.  God is all-knowing and all-powerful.  How can we expect to understand all that God is? 

We can continue to learn.  That is why we receive the Holy Spirit in Baptism and are sealed with it in Confirmation for the Spirit “will guide you to all truth.”  Yet the Spirit does “not speak on his own.”  The Spirit comes not to deliver his own message but what He hears from the Father and the Son.  In this way, we recall how the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son.”

This brings us to the “mystery” that we celebrate today.  Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity.  Today we celebrate the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit who are three persons united in a perfect unity as one God.

It is a mystery how the three are one but it is our faith.  All three are eternal.  Jesus did not come into existence when He was conceived in Mary’s womb.  The Holy Spirit did not come into existence at Pentecost.  Both Jesus and the Holy Spirit have always existed with the Father. 

Our lives have a beginning and an end and we often try to fit God into this picture.  This falls short of believing God is who He is.  It fails to appreciate the awe and wonder that is God as He transcends human existence. 

The Trinity is a mystery of a perfect relationship.  The Communion between the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit is something for us to model, appreciating that “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” and that the “love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”

We may not understand the Trinity but we can believe through what Jesus and the Holy Spirit have revealed to us. 

The future is not certain.  It’s graduation time.  Graduation marks an end to one stage in education.  We plan for what comes after but there are no guarantees.  We also celebrate Father’s Day this weekend.  Being a father comes with uncertainity.  A father does his best in raising his children but there is no guarantee of how the child will turn out.  Parenting includes teaching one’s child to believe in God and to follow Jesus.  It also includes praying for your child, commending them to God’s care.

We can never be sure how life will turn out.  There is always “mystery” in what the future will bring.  What you can be certain of is that no matter what happens, God is with you.  God protects us as our Father.  Jesus loves us as his brother.  The Holy Spirit guides us “to all truth.”