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Trinity Sunday
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Today is Trinity Sunday. Our faith tells us
there is but one God, and in thy one God there are three persons -
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The three persons are really distinct: the
Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, and the Holy Spirit
is neither the Father nor the Son.
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Each of these persons is really and truly
God, and still there is but one God. We cannot understand it, we could
not believe it if God had not told us, however Jesus told us a great
deal about God. He told us that God is love, life, and goodness.
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To be a whole person, we must have a
relationship with our God. We humans do not like being out of
relationship with those around us or our God. Think of the worst moments
of your life, when you were rejected by someone, when you were cut off
from family and friends. Perhaps you felt betrayed by a friend, or you
felt isolated. We do not even like to go to the movies or out to dinner
by ourselves, do we? Why is solitary confinement such a horrible form of
punishment? We human beings are in desperate need for union.
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Rejection is such an intolerable hurt
because we need to be connected. The question is why, why this
existential driving need for union? Why are the best moments when unions
occur, and the worst when it is absent? The answer simply and
profoundly is today’s feast.
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We are made in the image and likeness of
God, and God is communion, is relationship, and therefore so are we.
Humans strive for union with God and with each other. We reach out for
companionship. Every hug or embrace gives indirect testimony to the
Trinity.
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The Trinity says that God is relationship,
and so we search. The Trinity says that God is community, and so we
seek. The Trinity says that God is love, and so we love, we cannot help
ourselves. We are made to that image and likeness, we mirror our
origins.
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God is love and unity undivided, and we
strive for the same. Think of the most satisfying moments of your life. I
would suspect that they were times when you felt safe and loved and
cared for. When you sat on your mother’s lap, when you were held or
hugged. When you were affirmed, when you were simply in the silent
presence of someone you loved. When you had someone in your life.
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So it is no wonder that we, who are made in
God’s image and likeness, are also essentially about relationship.
Relationship is what God is all about: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
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A missionary bishop had to celebrate
confirmation for a group of handicapped children. He was asked to avoid
any difficult language, he was nervous. He noticed the parents stroking
their children. He spoke this message to the children: “Dear children,
your Mom and Dad, brothers and sisters love you. That is why they gently
stroke your head, your hair and face, and that is what happens when I
confirm you today: the good Lord gently strokes you because He loves you
so much. So when I make the sign of the cross on your forehead with the
oil, our heavenly Father is stroking and caressing you.”
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A few minutes later, as he touched a
cerebral palsy victim’s forehead, the little boy said with great
difficulty the words, “Stroke me, God.” The boy had gotten the message:
God was stroking him. The Bishop said, “I do not know what some might
think of that theology, but basically this is what God is all about.”
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God stroked the people of Israel. The Father
stroked the Prodigal Son. Jesus stroked the children, and stroked the
lepers, and laid His hands on the eyelids and heads and ears of those
who were handicapped or afflicted. In brief, the Bishop did not try to
explain the Trinity. He summed up the message of Christianity in one
word: that God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is love. And we all
need that love and depend on that love if we are to be whole and
complete.
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| Yours in Christ, |
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| Fr. Bob Warren, SA |
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