Homily for the Morning Mass on Trinity Sunday
Readings for Year A: Exodus 34:4-9; II Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18
“I can’t breathe”. Those words have come to identify the mood of many in the last week. We’ve seen the human spirit on show, fighting for justice, for a recognition of the dignity of all in society. Here in London we pride ourselves on our diversity, our multiculturalism, but realise we are far from innocent here and want to embrace a new world which is more respectful of every individual regardless of race or anything else.
Pope Francis has, in the last few weeks, been calling us to reflect on the experience of the pandemic to commit ourselves to a new world where we live more in harmony with each other and with nature. It is, he says, not an era of change but a change of era we are experiencing. And surely we all want to work for that as Christians. For a new humanity marked by mutual respect, integrity, care, peace. A new truth. A new reality for our world. We’re seeing a huge paradox: the reality of violence, hatred, inequality, suffering, death, the abandonment of the most vulnerable. And yet at the same time the desire to embrace a new era of peace, care, justice, concern for the most vulnerable first, and with this signs of new life, of resurrection. What strange times these times are, and yet so clear, so real, so tangible is the human spirit desiring to make the world a better place.
So what about this feast day? Trinity Sunday. Why believe in the Trinity? At first sight it seems disconnected from the reality of life, taking us back into the realm of ‘mystery’, of the esoteric, of a religious belief which has nothing to do with what’s going on around us. Well, it depends how we look at our belief claims. It depends how we see our faith as a whole. For me through our belief in the Trinity we are actually professing that this God whom we worship and follow is truly present in the midst of the world. Truly present here and now in everything we experience – the anger, the grief, the suffering, the desire for something altogether more caring, more loving, more true to our calling as Christians. Rather than lead us into a reflection on a God who is hidden and inaccessible the belief that God creates, becomes human flesh and stays with us as our advocate, shows us a God who is truly present right under our noses in the world we inhabit.
And in fact more than that this is the God who is present in a special way in us, in human beings, baptised in his name, in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When we respond to his call in our lives we live out our baptism and our confirmation in the Holy Spirit when we are strengthened as adults to live the Christian life according to the virtues and gifts bestowed on us. We live out what is deep within us, the very presence of a God who is our origin and final end, who experienced every human emotion and thought but without sin, and whose power is a force of spiritual energy in the world. A force of energy which we are called to embrace in this new era, a new era, not simply an old era changed, but a new humanity which lives out of the resurrection, that is the call to be constantly renewed and to bring the presence of God’s spirit, the Holy Spirit which brings into our world always new life.
This week too the Holy Father spoke to the charismatic community, that is Catholics worldwide who pray in the spirit of the first Christians, in groups where they call on the Holy Spirit to share testimonies, to prophesy, to heal, and he called on them to refocus on bringing the new energy of renewal in the Holy Spirit to work for a more just world, to a world where the Spirit of justice is needed so badly. This is indeed a call to all of us, to the whole Church, in this post-COVID new world.
It’s not surprising to me that Pope Francis this week addressed the charismatic community. Because for the Christian social action is never in isolation. Above all at this time we are also called to pray more. We will shortly pray in the Lord’s Prayer that his Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. In our world here and now it’s very easy to see the gap between the values of the Kingdom and the values of our society. We see the widening gap of rich and poor, the destitute more and more abandoned, a counter-ethic of success, of scandalous wealth, of abuse of power, of the horror of persecution of human beings on account of race, religion, or whatever confines people to the margins. It’s sometimes very hard to find God in all things when we detect his absence right under our noses.
But this is where our firm belief in the Trinity comes in. We profess the mystery together as a community bound by a common experience of humanity, searching to discover where this mysterious God is real in the midst of a troubled world. We are a people of faith, in it together. Pope Francis, in The Light of Faith explores what having Christian faith means to people of today. “Faith is not a private matter, a completely individualistic notion or a personal opinion… Faith becomes operative in the Christian on the basis of the gift received, the love which attracts our hearts to Christ (cf. Gal 5:6), and enables us to become part of the Church’s great pilgrimage through history until the end of the world”.
Where in my life do I see the presence of the God who has created the world, who is present in it, and who sustains it? And how will my faith contribute to the common good of society? Pope Francis again is clear that ‘faith is truly a good for everyone; it is a common good. Its light does not simply brighten the interior of the Church, nor does it serve solely to build an eternal city in the hereafter; it helps us build our societies in such a way that they can journey towards a future of hope’. How much society needs to embrace this new hope. A hope that is real.
May Trinity Sunday lead us more deeply into the mystery of a God who is real and who calls us to be his light in a world yearning to embrace his loving mercy for all.
Fr Dominic Robinson SJ