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| Rublev's Icon of the Trinity |
Monday,
Memorial Day, we remember over 1.2 million men and women who died in the wars of our country so that we can enjoy our freedoms. Let us pray for these brave men and women who gave "the last full measure of their devotion" to the cause of freedom, to quote Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address in 1863.
This Sunday we celebrate
the awesome mystery of the Holy Trinity: one God in three; a God of three distinctive movements: Father; Son; and Spirit. Yes, the God of the universe became flesh in Jesus and is alive among us by the power of the Holy Spirit.
One of my favorite
Broadway plays was Godspell. Especially the song: “O dear Lord,
three things I pray:
to see thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, follow thee more
nearly, day by day.”
I
would argue, as the mathematician/philosopher Blaise Pascal did, that
within each one of us is a space which “can
be filled only with the infinite.... God himself.” (Pensées
VII)
That's
what today's feast highlights. God
completely beyond us and yet completely
within us.
In
the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus sends us forth by the power of the
Spirit to continue his saving work: “In the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Spirit.”
The
mystery of the triune God-- beyond us and yet within us, one as well
as diverse, a God of distinctive relationships--invites us to ask
ourselves: What kind of a relationship do we have with God?
In
our better moments, or in moments of crisis, we try to find answers.
People often ask: Where is my life going? Does anyone care what
happens to me? These are religious questions that we cannot
help but try to answer.
As we
grow old, we may wonder: what was my life all about? We appear to
have accomplished so little. But we also have occasional experiences
that shake us out of our routine—moments of awe and wonder. Such
experiences can lift us into the presence of a power beyond us. We
begin to experience the transcendent dimension of our lives.
Yes, we say, there must be a purposeful, gracious and
compassionate God who is responsible for this incredible universe and
also for our own lives.
Catholic
Christianity says that our God is indeed an all-good, merciful God who can heal
the brokenness of human life. This God became flesh in Jesus and is
alive among us by the power of the Spirit. This is the same God who
freed the Hebrews, who renewed His covenant with them. This God
showed his face to us in Jesus. Through Him, with Him and in Him, we
live in God’s life and God lives in us. This triune God, the model
of self-giving love, empowers us to reach out in love to one another with compassion, forgiveness, a smile, a kind word, a helping hand. And in reaching out to one another in love, we become like the triune God in self-giving love.
God so
loved us that he promised to be with us always, until the end of the age.
