Trinity Sunday - Homily 3

Homily 3 - 2014

Today, on this Feast of the Trinity, we are going to baptise young Angus into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We are going to launch him on the adventure of his life.

Did you notice how I greeted you at the start of Mass today? I was in fact quoting what Paul wrote to wind up his letter to the Corinthians, as we heard again in today’s Second Reading, May the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. What is that all about? Does it matter? It does indeed matter – because we are made in the image of God; and the more we know God, the better we can understand ourselves. So, hold on to your seats!

Do not worry that you have been told that God is a mystery. We are used to mysteries. Mysteries are not problems to be solved but realities that we never come to the end of exploring, realities that we can learn to experience and to enjoy more and more. We are all mysteries. Every human person is a mystery. Not surprising, then, if we are made in God’s image, that God is mystery, too; but infinitely more wonderful, more beautiful, more exciting.

I want to start with Person number Three, whom we call Spirit, Holy Spirit. Paul talked about the communion of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the love that the First and Second Persons have for each other. It is the energy that draws them together, the love that leads them to rejoice in each other … and to enjoy being God. The same energy flows out into the world of created persons – to you and me. It is what draws people together. It is that source of almost tangible delight when two persons find themselves really loving each other. 

More than that, the Spirit draws us into the risen humanity of Jesus; and so, in and through Jesus, into the very heart of God. When we baptise young Angus today, we are going to christen him, that is, set him up to be drawn into the experience and reality of the risen Jesus. Sacraments are not magic, however. He will have to cooperate as he grows across life – but the wherewithal will be there.

Persons One and Two – How are we like them? They are the two who love each other. But before that, there is more to say. We call Person One Father – which is helpful and not helpful. Helpful in that Father suggests origin and life-source – where everything starts; and it is also personal. Unhelpful, in that the name suggests gender, authoritarianism, judgmentalism and perhaps violence.

The dance of the Trinity gets moving as Person One expresses the divine reality, reveals it completely, by giving birth, as it were, to Person Two – whom the Gospels call Son or Word. In revealing that divine reality, Person One had to surrender, give, totally; and Person Two had to receive that gift, and give it back. We get some sense of that experience to the extent that we know true intimacy. One mediaeval author described intimacy as “All that I am, just as I am, offered to all that you are, just as you are.” When intimacy is truly real, and adult, both partners share in the delight of God. And somehow, Person Three, the Holy Spirit, the love energy of Persons One and Two, is there in the middle of it, making it all possible.

So, Angus, baptised into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit! A wonderful adventure opens up before him. In it, he will need to be supported by you, family and parishioners, as, with him, you keep on opening yourselves to the unifying love energy, the communion, the unity, of the Holy Spirit of God.