Holy Trinity

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I Am Not A Believer

The Holy TR

Feast Of The Most Holy Trinity

Fr. Mark Gatto

Preached: June 4, 2023

I am not a believer! During a recent trip with family to Europe I noticed something among many of the people I met. Many would say “I am not a believer.” It is definitely a legitimate position to not believe, in fact, none of us should just believe anything. But, as I heard this I was wondering inside. What do you not believe? Saying that I am not a believer is not very helpful. Do you not believe in anything? What do you not believe in? Which image of God do you not believe in?

To say that I am not a believer is not very meaningful unless you clarify what you do not believe in. There are many images or ways of seeing God that I do not believe.

As Christians, our image of God must be rooted in the Holy Trinity. This is not actually one image of God, but a way of understanding the deep mystery of God. God is a communion of love. God is not a solitary figure, but a living reality of love and connection and relationship.

Therefore, any Christian vision of God should never see God as a terrifying dictator or as an overpowering figure wanting to control our lives. Our Christian vision of God should not be a frightening force whom we need to fear.

A Christian vision of God in the Holy Trinity sees God as a mystery of love. Actually the best description of God found in the early church and New Testament is simply, “God is love.” This is the God who intimately and passionately loves all creation and each one of us. A God, who in coming among us in Jesus, has invited each one of us to enter that communion of love that is the Holy Trinity. Jesus is God opening a door and inviting you in. God is saying to you, come in and join us.

The mystery of the Holy Trinity teaches us that every true experience of love that we have in this life is a glimpse into God. Each experience of true love is grace.

For this reason, any evangelization, any sharing of our faith, can never use fear or power or force to bring people into the faith. Evangelization cannot use manipulation to convince people to enter into the faith. Before we can evangelize any person we must first of all love them. We love them and then we can invite them into the mystery of the loving communion of God.

There have been many images used through the ages to try to express the mystery of the Holy Trinity. One of my favourites is by St. Columban who would compare the Trinity to the depth of the sea. We see only the surface of the sea and so much remains deep below.

Also, with the Trinity, we only glimpse the surface of God and there remains so much deep below the surface that we continue to discover throughout our lives. So much of God remains beyond our sight or experience.

St. Catherine of Siena said something similar in one of her prayers, “Eternal Trinity, you are like a deep sea, in which the more I seek, the more I find; and the more I find, the more I seek you.” Our language cannot express the mystery of the Trinity, there is always more that is beyond anything we can imagine.

I am not a believer. This statement is meaningless unless we clarify what it is that I do not believe. We Catholics when we express our faith in the Holy Trinity are really saying that we believe that God is the mystery of love. We believe that anything we say about God is just touching the surface and that there is so much below the surface that we can never fully grasp.

The sign of the cross says that I believe in the God that I cannot capture or grasp.

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Holy Trinity

The Trinity: Diverse But United

Holy Trinity

Trinity Sunday

Fr. Paul Patrick, O.M.I.

Posted: May 29, 2021

  • Intro:

Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday. This Sunday was formally added to the Church’s liturgical calendar in the year 1334 by Pope John XXII. It stands out among many of the other special days which we celebrate in the Church since it is not linked to any specific historical or theological event. It is instead a day not unlike a birthday: a day in which we celebrate a person and reflect on our relationship with them. In celebrating Trinity Sunday we celebrate God in 3 Persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit and reflect on our relationship with God.

  • What is the Trinity?

It is important to realize that the Trinity is not a logical explanation of God. It is rather a description of who we know God to be. It is a mystery which we can appreciate, even while failing to understand it. The Church teaches us that God is 3 persons in one nature: in other words, that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit together are God. Anything more or less than that is mere speculation on our part.

  • Relationship between the Trinity and the Church:

I had a Jesuit professor at the Gregorian University who used this quote from the French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery (b.1900) to help understand the relationship of the Trinity to the Church: “If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

The relationship we as a living Church have with God in the Trinity is in some sense a longing to deepen and explore the unknown. This endless mystery draws us in and fascinates us. The desire to know and deepen our relationship with God is ultimately what drives our “shipbuilding” or our life of faith in the Church.

  • What can meditating on the Trinity teach us?

In today’s Gospel according to St. Matthew, we read about the Great Commission (Mt 28:16-20). In this scene, the disciples are sent to all nations (cf. Mt 28:18). This command is preceded by a revelation (cf. Mt 28:17) and followed by a promise (cf. Mt 28:20) all of which are prefaced by the word “all” giving it universality. Jesus has been given all authority, the disciples are to preach the Gospel and make disciples of all nations, and Jesus will be with His followers through the Holy Spirit all the days.

This universality of the Trinity – which St. Paul speaks about in today’s 2nd reading allows us to recognize God as our Father and to recognize that just as the Trinity are diverse Persons, they are united by the bond of love (cf. Rm 8:14-17). This unity in the midst of diversity is what every baptized Christian is called to. We are all diverse and quite different as individuals, but we are all united and are all one people through our faith.

Thus, Trinity Sunday celebrates what we know to be true: God does not live in isolation but rather in a community of love, a community of relationship. God by His nature is not a recluse. The Trinity inspires us to develop a personal theology which does not run from others into isolation but rather one which seeks to build communion with society. Following the Most Holy Trinity leads us to a worldview which seeks not to retreat away from the world but rather enter into it, with a mind set on transforming what is dark and negative into light and truth through the power of love.

 

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A Mad Lover

holy trinity

Feast of the Holy Trinity

Fr. Mark Gatto

Preached: June 7, 2020

We do not understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity, we experience it in wonder and amazement.  Nice explanations, though perhaps helpful, always fall short of capturing this mystery of God who is communion of life and love.

This is reflected in the prayer of St. Catherine of Siena.  As one author says, “Catherine is so struck by the thought of God’s love that she is stunned into prayer.”  (Murray, p. 111)  Listen to the language she uses in describing this mystery in her Dialogue:

“Let our hearts explode wide open, then, as we contemplate a flame and fire of love so great that God has engrafted himself into us and us into himself!  O unimaginable love!”

“O mad lover!  It was not enough for you to take on our humanity, you had to die as well!”

“He gave his life with such blazing love.”

Catherine uses the image of fire to capture this passionate love of God, “blazing love”, “that the fire of his charity may warm your heart and soul”, “you are nothing but a fire of love.”, “the extravagant fire of God’s charity.”

Fr. Ron Rolheiser tells a story based on thoughts of G.K. Chesterton that leads us into this mystery.

“A man who was entirely careless of spiritual things died and went to hell.  And he was much missed on earth by his old friends.  His business agent went down to the gates of hell to see if there was any chance of bringing him back.  But, though he pleaded for the gates to be opened, the iron bars never yielded.

His priest went also and argued:  ‘He was not really a bad fellow, let him out, please!’  The gates remained stubbornly shut against all their voices.’

Finally his mother came, she did not beg for his release.  Quietly, and with a strange catch in her voice, she said to Satan, ‘Let me in.’  Immediately the great doors swung open upon their hinges.  For love goes down through the gates of hell and there redeems the damned.” (Rolheiser.  Forgotten Among the Lilies.  p. 163)

It is not that we understand the Holy Trinity, we have to surrender and fall into this communion and be embraced in passionate love.  God’s love is not efficient nor practical.  When experienced, it changes us and sends us out to live in connection with all creation and with all humanity.  That communion of passionate love which is our God revealed in Jesus, is the mystery of the love we are called to live in our lives.

But, be ready to be set on fire, to be burned, to be led where you would never have imagined.

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The Holy Trinity: A Vision Of How Humanity Should Be

Holy_Trinity

Feast Of The Holy Trinity

Fr. Mark Gatto

Preached: June 16, 2019

Do you believe in God?  A More valuable question is, who is the God that you believe in?

When we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Trinity, there is a vision of God that is seen. This vision tells us something about God, but also tells us something very important about ourselves.  For we were created in the image and likeness of God.  So, our vision of God is also a vision for how we are to live as human beings.

God is a Trinity.  God is one, yet a communion of persons, unity in diversity.  We human beings are also very diverse.  Different races, different cultures, different ages, different languages, different in many many ways.  Yet, to be like God we are called to live in unity with our fellow human beings, to see ourselves as one human family.

This says something about our politics, about how we see refugees, how we see people of other countries, people who are different from us.  Despite our differences, there is something deeper that unites us.

God is a Trinity.  God is not another being but embraces all.  God is not a distant separate being, God is near to us, among us, embraces everything.  You cannot be away from God.  You might feel far from God, but that does not change that you could not even breath for a moment without the presence of God.

This is the God who came among us in Jesus, suffered, loved, cried, and died.  This is a God who understands intimately the suffering, the struggles, the hungers we human beings have.  This is why you can always turn to God with complete honesty, cry with God, be angry with God, laugh with God.

God is a Trinity.  God is a communion of persons, exists in relationship.  Relationship, connection is the very reality of our universe.  We as human beings are to see ourselves in relationship to everyone and everything.

It is for this reason that we necessarily must care about creation.  All of creation is connected to us, from the smallest life form to the largest life form.  From the smallest plant to the life in the deepest ocean.  We are all connected to nature so must also care for it.

God is a Trinity.  Lives as a community.  So, we human beings are being most like God when we live in community, when we form family.  The family is an image of God the Trinity.  The Church is also called to be an image of God the Trinity.

This offers a big challenge to each of us to try to live in peace and harmony within our families, offers a big challenge to each of us to try to live within the church in peace and harmony like a family.  We are to support one another.

So, who is the God you believe in?  Each time we make that sign of the cross, we are expressing our vision of God.  The God who is a communion of persons, unity in diversity.  The God who is a communion of love.  The God who exists in relationship.  The God who lives in community.

This calls us human beings to be like this God.  Live in unity within one human family including with those who are different from us.  Live in faith, turning to this God trusting that this God is so close to you including in your suffering or struggles or joys.  Live in connection and relationship with all creation, caring for our environment.  Live with others in your family, in the church, always striving to be in peace and harmony.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  This simple prayer, expresses so much about God and calls so much from us.

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The Holy Trinity: A Loving Home, A Loving Family – Fr. Mark

Holy_Trinity

Feast Of The Holy Trinity 2018

Fr. Mark Gatto

Preached: May 27, 2018

Imagine the life of some young children in our world, especially in war zones or places of great poverty. Some of them at a young age are left alone, orphans, no parents nor family, homeless. Imagine now one of those children, orphaned and homeless, if someone caring and loving, who has a loving family and beautiful home was to come to them. If that person reaches out to take that child into their home and embraces them as their very own child. How wonderful that would be for that child.

In Baptism, this is what happens to us. God, the Holy Trinity, is not an individual solitary figure, but it is better to see God as a family. The very mystery of God is connection, love, relationship. In the Trinity, God is best seen as a loving home and family. A communion of life and love.

Jesus comes to take us by the hand and invite us to join this loving family and wonderful home, which is God, the Holy Trinity. We, like orphans and homeless, are invited into this wonderful home.  This is why the greatest gift a parent can give to their child is to bring them for baptism, so that this child is received into the loving embrace of the Holy Trinity and enters the path to an eternal home.

The Sign of the Cross. One of the most ancient prayers we have. Each time we make this sign of the cross, we are reminded of our true home in the very heart of God. We make our prayer that prayer of Jesus, Abba. As adopted children we are not alone, we are not homeless, united to Jesus we are held in that loving home which is God the Holy Trinity. Whenever you feel alone, just slowly make that sign of the cross, and imagine yourself being held in that Trinity, which is a family of love.

Baptism, The sign of the cross, each are reminding us of our true home, an eternal home in the heart of God. Like God, Heaven is a mystery beyond our imagination. But, a good image is connected to this vision of the Holy Trinity, as a wonderful loving home.

Imagine you have left home for studies or work to a place far away. After many years living alone in this distant place, you finally return to your home. When you enter that door, it just feels right. This is where I belong, this is my home, this is my family.

Heaven will be something like that. As we enter eternal life in heaven, we will be received by Jesus. Like a beloved child we will be embraced in the mystery of love, the Holy Trinity. We will feel – I am back home, this is where I belong. There will be no desire to go back.

The Trinity reflects the incredible hospitality of God. A God who welcomes all types into their home. You could say that God has an open door policy. Welcomes all and receives them as their very own children. God really wants to receive you. Jesus came to invite us and take us by the hand into this new and wonderful home, a family of love.

So, if we are to be like God then we need to have the same hospitality in our lives.  Do we welcome people or want to keep them out? Are we ready to receive all others as brothers and sisters or do we reject some?

This is a vision of a parish. A parish should in a sense have an open door policy. Ready to welcome and receive and embrace all types. That they feel welcomed and at home in this parish. The Trinity, as a loving family and home, should be the vision of a Catholic parish. This is my hope for this parish.

On this Feast of the Holy Trinity. We are reminded of our Baptism, when Jesus took us by the hand, orphaned and homeless, to enter the home and family of the Trinity. To be adopted as a beloved child and embraced in love. Each time we make that sign of the cross, we are reminded of that true home that is also our eternal home.
Our God, The Holy Trinity, is a beautiful and loving home and family with room for us all.

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