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May 30: Solemnity of the Holy Trinity
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Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40;
Psalm 33:4-6, 9, 18-20,21
Romans 8:14-17;
Matthew 28:16-20
With much of the human race hungry and many at war, we know the absence of love. Then we look at people who love unconditionally and we catch a glimpse of God’s love. Multiply any love you’ve seen and give that love massive doses of steroids and we still cannot fathom the fullness of God’s love. Theologians have used the term, the Trinity, to describe God as perfect love between Creator and Son and the Spirit generating a perfect relationship. We are graced to share God’s love in our every relationship. We live in the love of the Trinity!
In Wisconsin, there’s a Catholic hospital chaplain who for a while counseled people with disabilities & taught drug and alcohol counseling. I’ve known Kathy for 36 years and her job changes were made so that she could better care for her troubled grandson while his mom worked. Kathy said, “There was a time when I’d see an out-of-control kid and I’d wonder, what are those parents thinking? Now it’s all right here. Tom is a handful and I love him.” Kathy has long advocated for her grandson, empower his mom, and provide a launching pad for both her daughter and her grandson. Kathy’s love faces humongous obstacles. You see, her grandson Tom’s dad is a violent alcoholic and drug addict who shot into their house, broke doors, and stalked her daughter. Despite orders of protection, he violated them again and again. Kathy found strength she did not know she had all these years. Tom is now 29 and still having troubles. Kathy does not enable; she knows what she is doing as she teaches, coaches, cajoles, guides, directs, sets limits, and enforces them again and again. When I think of God’s relationship with us, I think of Kathy. Kathy’s a model of God’s love. Now I am not trying to make Kathy the 4th person of the blessed Trinity but, she does show me a glimpse of the Trinity at work.
God doesn’t just sit up there in a heavenly paradise watching us botch and heal our relationships. God is actively healing our relationships and ourselves as we cooperate with grace and do what needs doing, even when it is difficult.
Some think God is a judge walking through our lives like Mr. Clean exposing all the messes we have made. Scriptures show us God as a shepherd looking for lost sheep, fending off our enemies, feeding us by hand. Scripture shows us God as a whirlwind blowing our certainties away. And Scripture describes God as a mother hen who hides us in the shelter of her wings. The prophet Isaiah when attempting to describe God, wrote, “Can a woman forget her suckling child that she should have no compassion on the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet, I will not forget you.” We may have an image of God as dazzling royalty. If we were to name all the ways God comes to biblical characters and to us, the list would go on forever: God the teacher, the challenger, the helper, the stranger, the lover, God, the hungry, the ill, the prisoner. Try as we may, no creature can paint the full portrait of their creator. Depending on what part of the Bible we read, God is our father; rock, breath, light; God is a woman sweeping her home in search of a lost coin, a baker woman kneading the dough; God is a boss who pays late employees generously. God is a host who must have dinner guests; God provides our daily bread. The first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis says human beings were created in the image of God. Look at the people in this great wide world and see how wonderfully diverse God is! We, with a lot of help from God, create humanity in God’s image, not only in birthing our babies but in raising all children, in creating with their cities and communities, technology, and toys, and weaving words that both wound and heal. Like God, we are free to breathe yes to all that is good and beautiful and true. We are able to say, “no” to what is less than human, unworthy of God’s image. Fr. James Smith writes that our own blood mingles with the blood in the veins of Jesus. From there it spills over into the circulation of the Trinity and we are absorbed into the life of God continually being created, redeemed, and sanctified by the Father in the likeness of the Son through the Holy Spirit.
Let’s quit selling the Holy Spirit short; the Spirit can and will work through us doing what we might have thought impossible.
God did not just drop us in this world to see how we’d do. God is encouraging us, living and loving through us. That’s what Kathy models for her daughter and for her grandson, Tom. Kathy believes in God. She shows it by believing in Tom. Kathy puts into motion the love of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. We see a hint of God’s Trinitarian love when people believe in the people around them. Some parents show their children they believe in them. Some teachers show their students they believe in their potential. Great coaches believe in their teams. Good counselors believe in their clients; bosses get so much more out of employees when they believe in them. And when we settle down to pray and we pick up the Gospel, there is God creating, saving, renewing us not with just a feel-good love but a tough, realistic love. Jesus gives us his power to love in what may seem to us to be impossible situations. God’s Spirit is alive in us. Yes, us! Jesus pours his Spirit into us and loves us into making disciples of all, simply by loving all.
Blessings,
Deni Mack, DMin.,Pastoral Associate Emerita
