God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (John 3.16-18)
Each year as summer gets underway, the Roman Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, one of the highest ranking feast days on the calendar. The celebration has nothing to do with summer, but instead is placed where it is because it always falls on the first Sunday after Pentecost. Why so? Probably because Pentecost observes the gift of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles after the ascension of the Risen Jesus.
So, with the gift of the Holy Spirit now resting upon and within the apostles, the fullness of the Trinity has been revealed, beginning with the Father whom Jesus, the incarnate Word spoke of as the One who had sent him into the world, and ending with the Spirit that Jesus promised would be sent as a gift from the Father after his return so that his presence might continue to be known in their lives, even as his physical presence was no longer among them.
The Eastern Church, on the other hand, combines the two feasts of Pentecost and the Holy Trinity, emphasizing both realities in the same celebration, not inserting a week between the two observances, in this way keeping more tightly bound the bond within the Trinity. Regardless, both churches recognize that the life of the believer is always lived under the light and the guidance of the Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Having stressed its importance by way of its placement on the liturgical calendar, it also needs to be stated that it is not one of the more popular feast days, at least not among those who have the duty to stand before the people and attempt to explain its meaning. As one prominent theologian in current times once openly admitted, “This might be one of the most dreaded Sundays for preachers.”
The problem, of course, is that on one hand the Church is emphatic that the Most High God is a mystery beyond our understanding and at the same time calls upon preachers to explain the Godhead, that is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the resulting conundrum forcing an explanation upon an inexplicable mystery.
I, for one, have always found safe haven in the twentieth century German theologian Karl Rahner’s approach, now known as “Rahner’s Rule.” It states, “The economic Trinity is the immanent Trinity, and vice-versa.” To understand the rule, we first have to understand that the economic Trinity refers to God’s actions in human history and the immanent Trinity is who God is in himself.
Before Rahner came on the stage, traditional theology often separated the two, arguing for a hidden God that was unknowable and a God who had been revealed to us. Rather sensibly, Rahner argued it’s ridiculous to separate the two. After all, if God’s self-communication is real, then his actions in the world must be a true reflection of his reality. In other words, looking at the Heavenly Father, the Beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit should tell us who God is in his essence, that which without which he could not be God.
Here, we want to recall the words of the Lord God spoken to Moses in the Book of Exodus when he says to Moses, “You cannot see my face, for no man shall see me and live.” Accepting that as true–and it makes perfect sense that weak, fallible flesh-and-blood persons would be consumed by looking upon the face of God–then we have to come to know him in ways that our human senses can take in.
So, for example, the first reading for today’s celebration is taken from the same Book of Exodus and it begins with stating that when Moses went up Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, the Lord stood with him there, “having come down in a cloud.” While his face is hidden, his presence is made known in a cloud. We will see the same thing in the Christian scriptures when Jesus is baptized in the Jordan and a cloud rests over him or when he is transfigured on the Mount and a cloud again appears.
Of course, Jesus also will make clear to his disciples at a later point, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Much the same can be said of his promise that “The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name–he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” In other words, the God hidden in the cloud has shown his face to humanity in a way that allows us at one and the same time to continue to live.
If we accept, then, Rahner’s Rule that God’s actions in human history tell us who God truly is, it seems sensible to put our attention on those actions since, after all, they will be the pathway to a greater understanding of God. I find the passage from John’s gospel that we have today especially helpful to this understanding because it contains the core principle of our Christian understanding of God.
It is found in Jesus’ words to Nicodemus, a leader of the Pharisees, when he says, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” That short verse reveals the heart of God to us. It is a heart that loves the world. We find the same truth told to us in the First Letter of John when the writer of that letter states, “God is love.” It could not be put more simply. God in his essence is love.
We should not be surprised to hear then, as we do today in the first reading, the same thing coming from the mouth of the Most High God when he passes before Moses on Mount Sinai, his face hidden, but his words spoken from the cloud, identifying himself to the leader of the Hebrew slaves. We are told that as he passed before Moses, he cried out, “The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.”
Already at that point in human history, God is telling us that he is a God of love. And how is his love revealed to us? Through mercy, graciousness, peace, kindness, faithfulness. So, we know who God is eternally within himself. He is love. And because love is at the center of his being, God cannot not love. The Book of Wisdom beautifully expresses this same belief about God when the writer of the book says to God, “You love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for you would not fashion what you hate.” Or, as Saint Augustine said in his own way, “You love us like there is only one of us.” Or, again, as the Jesuit priest Gregory Boyle likes to say, “God doesn’t have enemies. He has children. “
If, then, this is who God is, what does it say about who we are? The answer to that question is where this feast comes home to roost. The answer should be obvious. If our God is love, then not only are we beloved sons and daughters of God, but we also are called to pour that same love into a world that is dying of thirst for love.
It is the same answer that Jesus gave to his disciples at the Last Supper when he says to them, “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” He could have just as easily said, “This is how all will know that you are children of God, if you have love for one another.”
It is when we love openly, completely, and unselfishly that we have shown the face of God to others, his love becoming visible to those in the world who are without love, especially the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner, a phrase often found in the Hebrew scriptures to denote those little ones whom God especially loves.
They represent the most oppressed, the most ostracized, the most overlooked. As Moses instructed the Hebrew people before his death, “The Great God executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and loves the resident alien, giving them food and clothing. So you too should love the resident alien, for that is what you were in the land of Egypt.”
An important truth follows. A failure to follow the command to love means we have not come to know God. If our lives do not reflect divine love, then whatever God we claim to worship is an idol, a golden calf of our own making, a God whom we have fashioned in our own image, not a God in whose image we have been created. Somewhere along the way, we have abandoned the one true God, choosing to fall at the feet of wooden idols.
I find this to be the real meat and potatoes about this feast of the Holy Trinity. First, we must have an understanding of our God. And, as I have argued, that means we come to see our God as the God of love. Then, we must do something with that understanding, implying we shape our lives in his image and likeness, our actions reflecting his loving acts.
The truth of the matter is that our understanding of God shapes who we become. And that can be for the better or for the worse. If we believe that our God is someone who continually breathes into the world living words of love, then we also will seek to imitate that same self-giving love. If, on the other hand, our understanding of God is someone who is petty, prejudiced, and partial to people like us, then our lives and our actions will be molded accordingly.
Put bluntly, this feast deserves more than a theological treatise that might be found in a tome on a bookshelf in a stuffy library. While theology might get us to the starting line, it fails us if we do not run with it, taking it into the streets and alleyways of this world, or as Jesus tells his disciples before returning to the right hand of his Father in heaven, “Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
And, I daresay, the baptism that he is speaking of cannot be limited to a sprinkling of a few drops of water. No, he calls us to baptize others with an effusion of self-giving love, opening the floodgates of our own hearts, pouring love into empty lives, replenishing and revitalizing others so that they might see themselves once again as beloved sons and daughters of the Most High God whose love is everlasting.
One of my favorite passages from scripture is found in Psalm 77. It tells of God’s mighty works. As the Psalmist writes, “You are the God who does wonders; among the peoples you have revealed your might.” In the next few verses, the Psalmist enunciates these wonders and he ends with this beautiful and powerful line, “Through the sea was your way; your path, through the mighty waters, though your footsteps were unseen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.”
Today, we remind ourselves that our God wants to reveal his awesome wonders and great love for his children. And he continues to lead us on his path, even if his footsteps are unseen. The only question is whether or not we follow, or do we go our own way, abandoning the God of love for idols of our own making.
If so, the Psalmist offers us a word or two of caution, “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths but do not speak, eyes but do not see. They have ears but do not hear, noses but do not smell. They have hands but do not feel, feet but do not walk; they produce no sound from their throats. Their makers will be like them, and anyone who trusts in them.”
–Jeremy Myers
Sunday Brunch 