Homily for the Vigil Mass of Trinity Sunday

Readings for Year A: Exodus 34:4-9; II Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18

You could argue that preaching a homily for this feast needs the skills of a poet more than those of a theologian; or, better still, the skills of a theologian who is also a poet. Because in many ways we can best approach the idea of the Trinity not by mathematical analysis but by a contemplation of images. I’d invite you, then, to notice what memories, associations, and feelings some of the images associated with the Trinity stir up in you – how they move you. Become aware of them touching your heart, even your gut (we speak, don’t we, of “gut feelings”?), as much as they prompt your appetite for intellectual speculation. Let’s then take a minute or two here to explore two images in this way: the images of dance and of community 

 I am a hopeless dancer – to speak of having two left feet doesn’t begin to capture how I look on a dance floor. But even I can appreciate good dancing in others when I see it, whether in ballet or in TV’s Strictly Come Dancing. The grace and style of two people perfectly in tune with each other, synchronised and united in their movements and actions; this image of the dance, called in Greek perichoresis, has long been used as an image of Trinity. We can contemplate the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit perfectly attuned to one another, working gracefully together in the world. 

 Another traditional image that can help us appreciate this feast more fully is that of community. The doctrine of the Trinity insists that there is community at heart of God – that it is not good, even for God, to be alone, as GK Chesterton said. To know God is to know of the eternal relationships of love between the Father, the Son and the Spirit, just as I come to know you better when I know something of the key relationships that you have with others that together make up your life. This shouldn’t be surprising if, as Genesis tells us, we are each of us made in the image and likeness of God. 

 We can go further in our exploration of the Trinity by bringing these two images of dance and community together, as the song-writer Sydney Carter did in adapting a Hindu idea in his hymn, The Lord of the Dance. We are called not simply to passively watch the grace-filled dance of the Trinity as seen in their action around us, but to join that dance, join them in community, and bring others an invitation to do the same. This is a dance that even those of us with two left feet can find our proper place in. 

 Deeply embedded in these images is the sense of God’s longing for us to join him – something seen forcefully in today’s Mass readings. At Sinai Moses meets “a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness”. In the gospel John bears witness to a God who “loved the world so much that he gave his only Son”. Paul speaks to the people of Corinth about the Trinity in terms of gracefulness, love and fellowship, offered to us to share. How better to celebrate this feast than by letting your heart be touched by the invitation to join God’s dance?

Fr Paul Nicholson SJ