Weekly HOMILY for June 3: A Promise to Fulfill a Yearning

Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, Cycle C
Our Lady of Grace
June 3, 2007

The Trinity: A Promise to Fulfill a Yearning
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


The Trinity

I was in the Major Seminary studying theology from 1966 to 1970.

One of our core courses was titled “The Triune God.” Imagine that: a three-credit graduate course for five months solely on the Trinity!

We studied the roots in the Scripture of our belief in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We studied the development of that belief that led to the declaration of the doctrine of the Trinity in the year 325 at the Council of Nicaea.

And then we studied the insights of theologians from that time for 1,700 years to the present day all attempting to explain how there can be three persons in one God. And I must admit, even with all of this insight and study, the Trinity remains a mystery.

It is a mystery because we humans can never fully understand God or the Trinity. It is a mystery because there is always something more to be said about God or the Trinity.

About God and Us

Over my 37 years as a priest, I have shared many ideas on Trinity Sunday, and this weekend, I have yet another insight or approach. You might say I’m still uncovering the mystery.

My idea is that God through Jesus has promised us: “I will be with you always.” For our part, as human beings, we have deep within us the yearning to be close to God and to be like God.

So, how can God’s promise to “be with us always” and our yearning to be close to God and even God-like ever be satisfied? I have discovered that the Scripture reveals a threefold or three-step process for this “promise” and “yearning” to come together.


1. Created in God’s Likeness

First, in the moment of creation, God says: “Let us create humans in our own likeness.”

And that is what God does. What is this likeness between God and us?

The consensus is that since we have bodies and God does not, flesh is not the likeness. It seems more likely that our higher faculties, our spiritual powers of intellect and will, they are what make us like God.

So, our ability to reflect and be conscious of ourselves, and our ability to think and arrive at an understanding about things – these functions of our intellect make us like God who knows all that is.

In addition our ability to choose to sit or stand, to say or do something that is helpful or hurtful – our free will makes us like God who wills to create us.

The conclusion then is that there is something of God within us, something that is part and parcel of our very being. So you might say that at birth we begin with a fundamental closeness and likeness to God.


2. One of Us

As a sort of second step in the process of “promise” meeting “yearning,” God actually becomes one of us.

From God’s point of view, the choice was automatic. Since God does not make rocks, rhubarb, or and rabbits in his image, God would not become a mineral, plant, or animal.

God could express himself only in something that already images him. And that is us human beings.

From our point of view, the Incarnation of God is an amazing feat when you think about it. God has become human and one of us humans has become God!

God takes on our humanity and one of us takes on God’s divinity.

So, in a second way, God is with us and we are close to God and even like God. That union of “promise” and “yearning” gets more and more intense.


3. Through the Spirit

And yet, how in fact is God with all of us, and how in fact are all of us close to God and like God?

After all God – the Son – could become only one person because human flesh is limited. We need a manifestation of God that is not bound by human flesh. Enter God’s Spirit for a spirit is not limited.

So God – the Father or Creator and God the Son or Jesus – so God breathes his very Spirit into each of us. And this invisible Spirit comes to us through the visible water of Baptism and the visible bread and wine of the Eucharist.

And we call this Spirit, spelled with a capital S, the Holy Spirit. It is God actually dwelling within us.

It makes us close to God and little by little over time, it transforms us more and more like God himself.


Conclusion

On today’s Solemnity, after 37 annual reflections on the Trinity, I continue to have revealed to me the mystery of how God’s “promise” and our “yearnings” to be like God are being fulfilled.

It is my hope that some of that same mystery is being revealed to you.