In these two Sundays after Pentecost the Church asks us to meditate over the deepest mysteries of the Faith: the Holy Trinity and the Eucharist. The Trinity is probably the most difficult to speak about because it is almost impossible to try to define it without falling into some kind of heresy, albeit unintentionally. So, I will keep out of the doctrinal thicket for the most part and simply offer a few spiritual reflections on the theme.
We are not pagans. We do not believe in three gods. As was revealed to the Old Testament Patriarchs, God is one. But in light of Jesus Christ's words on the matter, we would say that God is one nature or substance, but in three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are distinct, but united by the same divine nature. They act together, and so while we may commonly identify God the Father as the creator, the Son as the redeemer and the Spirit as the sanctifier, all three Persons perform these actions but always in relation to one another and "according to their unique personal property," as the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it. So while I'm about to connect certain qualities to the individual members of the Trinity, in truth all these could be attributed to any of the three Divine Persons, but maybe in a different way.
God is Wisdom
In the first reading for today's Mass (Proverbs 8:22-31) God is spoken of as the Creator (commonly attributed to the Father), and that this act of creation was done with Wisdom. In fact the words are delivered by the personification of the Wisdom of God, presented as a wise woman who was with God at the creation. All was done with order and a purpose. God then is Wisdom. we may not always understand his plan and why bad things happen to good people, but it all does fit together in the big picture.
God gave us freedom to cooperate with his freedom, but we don't always. Because of the presence of sin we can frustrate God's plan by not trusting in His wisdom. But his plan will not be frustrated forever; God's will will be done one way or another; if not now, at some later point with people who are more open will trust and say yes.
I am asked sometimes, "Since Mary had free will like the rest of us, what if she had said no to the angel when she was asked to be the Mother of the Savior? Would Jesus have never came and redeemed us?" Mary's singular gift of being conceived free of original sin did not destroy her freedom, this is true. It actually perfected her freedom, so I would argue that she was more likely to say yes as opposed to no. But on the chance that she did reject God's request, we simply would of had to wait a little longer, maybe a lot longer, for God's saving plan to be put into motion. Either way God's wisdom would prevail, maybe not in the way and at the time he would have originally wanted, but it would be completed.
God is Truth
In the Gospel from today (John 16:12-15) Jesus assures his disciples that, though he is going, he will send the Holy Spirit to guide them into the fullness of truth. He had preached, worked miracles and instructed them privately, and now he was going to fulfill his mission of salvation by going to the cross. But there was so much more to say, and so little time to communicate it. He promises the Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, which can not lie, who will lead them into the fullness of truth.
That Spirit continues in the Church still. We have a hard time recognizing it sometimes because God uses weak instruments to communicate his truth, but we can be assured that the Spirit didn't return to the Father when the Apostles died. He remains with the Church, in a special way with the bishops in union with the Pope (remember those weak instruments I made reference to?). Scripture gives us the basics of what we need to know, and the Spirit continues to lead us into a deeper understanding of that Word, and how we are to live the eternal truths of the Faith in the ever changing landscape of the here and now.
God is Love
In the second reading at Mass (Romans 5:1-5) Paul writes that the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. But all that grace and love that God gives us through the Spirit was made possible by the actions of the incarnation of love itself; Jesus Christ.
We are flesh and blood people. We have eyes and ears, and learn through our senses. We can be told that God is love; that he cares for us and wants the best for us. But he sent his only Son into the world so that we could see it, touch it and taste it. Jesus is the sacrament, the external sign, of the invisible love that God has for us, and this was manifested in full on the cross.
If you notice, every Catholic church has a crucifix in it. Most of our separated brethren will have a cross in their houses of worship, sans corpus. I never gave it too much thought, chalking this difference up to the general Protestant unease with statuary and icons. But when I was working at an inner city parish school in Newark, New Jersey I got a different insight. This school was predominantly African American, with a majority of non Catholic students. We would have a prayer service modeled on the Liturgy of the Word from Mass. The music was taken from the traditional African American spirituals, and the music director wasn't Catholic. We were in the church one day talking before the kids came, and he pointed to the huge, life like crucifix, that was in the sanctuary. He said, "You know Brother (I was still in formation then), I don't know how I feel about that crucifix."
"What do you mean?"
"Many of us don't think you Catholics believe in the Resurrection because you still have Jesus up on the cross. I mean, he's not on the cross anymore. He's risen. That just seems like a denial to me, to still have him there."
I replied, "Well, you know Melvin, we do believe in the Resurrection. Without that there's no point in calling yourself a Christian. It's the center of our Faith." He started nodding his head. "But the crucifix is there to remind us of what he had to go through in order to get there. He didn't die of a heat attack, or get hit by a bus. He went to the cross, the just man who died for the unjust. It's to help us appreciate how much he does love us, to remind us that he gave his all to us."
I'm not sure I convinced him of the importance of the crucifix, but at least I dispelled the notion that Catholics don't believe in the Resurrection.
All the members of the Trinity are Love, but the Son showed this in a particular way. He gave himself to the last drop of blood for us, holding nothing back. That is what love is, and we are challenged to imitate that love in our lives, no matter what station of life we are in.
That love is memorialized in the Eucharist, the mystery we will meditate on next week. Until then, let us have faith in God the Father who brought us into creation with Wisdom and purpose, in the Holy Spirit which continues to lead us into the fullness of Truth, and in the Son who loves us to the very limits of his life and continues to nourish us with his Body and Blood.
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