The Most Holy Trinity: A Celebration
In this short homily for The Holy Trinity, Year A, Father Hanly celebrates The Holy Trinity.
Readings for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Year A
- First Reading: Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9
- Responsorial Psalm: Daniel 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56
- Second Reading: Second Corinthians 13:11-13
- Gospel: John 3:16-18
Written Homily
All hail, adored Trinity;
All praise, eternal Unity:
O God the Father, God the Son,
And God the Spirit, ever One.
A warning: “God dwells in inaccessible light” (1 Timothy 6:16).
A young man climbs the sacred mountain and finds at the summit the aged guru in deep meditation. He wakes him.
“What do you want?” the guru asks.
The boy answers: “I want you to explain God to me, that I too may learn how to worship Him properly.”
The old man smiles: “A God that can be explained is not a God that should be worshiped.”
The awesome God is beyond our grasp, and His ways are beyond all telling. Inexplicable, incomprehensible, inaccessible… He divine and we merely human.
There is an old saying written in the Holy Book that in the Garden of Eden God made man in his own image and likeness, and ever since the Fall man has been trying to return God the favour.
But it is also written: “God so loves the world that he gives his only Son that everyone who puts their faith in him may have eternal life.”
Where does God live? And where is this Hidden Treasure to be found?
A gypsy-man stopped at the well in the town square for a drink. After he drank, he continued gazing into the well, as if he was looking down at someone.
The little boy saw that though the gypsy man was big and tall but he had a kindly face, and so he approached him. “Who lives down there?” the little boy asked.
“God does,” answered the gypsy-man.
“Can I see him, too?” asked the little boy.
“Of course you can,” said the gypsy man, picking him up in his arms.
The little boy looked down deep into the well but all he could see was his own pale reflection in the water below. Disappointed, he turned to the Gypsy-man: “But all I can see is me!”
“Ah,” said the gypsy-man looking into his eyes: “Now you know where God lives. He lives in you!”
Blessed be God: the God of power and might.
The Indwelling: A Triune God
God is Father, God is Son, God is Holy Spirit. A caring Father who creates us; a Brother who dies and lives for us now and forevermore; a Holy Spirit who inspires us, comforts us, and guides us safely home.
Blessed be the Trinity: a community of love.
The little girl of five hears the Good News from a teacher in her Sunday school and writes in her prayer pad: “Thank you, God, for coming inside me, right into my heart… so that I’ll never be alone.”
Blessed be the Trinity: a community of love shared.
On Calvary’s hill, the secret is out: God, “who dwells in inaccessible light,” wants to be, needs to be, loved by us. It is this vulnerability of His that we cherish most of all.
He “opens the heavens and comes down,” meeting us on our own terms, revealing Himself to us first, that we may come to know Him later, and in the knowing of Him love Him, and in the loving of Him serve Him.
For thus it is that in the knowing, loving and serving of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we enter into the ebb and flow of the very life of God.
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!