The Most Holy Trinity Sunday
On this Sunday after Pentecost, when we celebrate the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, we embark on a quest to know who God is. O Blessed Trinity, what can we know or say of you? Why does it matter to seek to know you? Why does it matter to celebrate the Holy Trinity? I'll answer these questions in my homily.
Can we know God in his essence? Can a finite being know the transcendence and infinite being that we call God? We cannot know God in his fullness. If we claim to know God in his fullness, then we must not be referring to the Alpha and Omega, the creator and redeemer of the world. "Si comprehendis, non est Deus (If you have understood, then what you have understood is not God), says St. Augustine. We are incapable of grasping the depth of God because God transcends the best of our human ability. Hence, in our quest for knowledge of God, we can never know everything, but we do know something about God from what He has revealed to us of Himself. St. Thomas Aquinas says, "Quidquid potest intelligi vel cogitari minus est Ipso Deo" (Whatever can be known or understood is less than God himself). The angelic doctor adds in De Veritate that "The essence of God Himself remains forever hidden from us. The most we can know of God during our present life is that he transcends everything that we can conceive of him."
But God revealed something of himself to us. He did this through Jesus and the Spirit of Truth. He revealed who He is as the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Jesus, we discover God, and in the Holy Spirit, he reveals more of Himself to us. In His incarnation and the Spirit of Truth sent to us, we can achieve knowledge of God that is possible for humans. It matters that we know God if we are to share in His life, worship Him, and love Him. This takes us back to the Baltimore Catechism, where the Church defined the purpose of our existence as knowing, loving, and serving God so that we may live right in this present world and in the world to come. When we know who God is in the way He has revealed Himself, we get to know that He is the creator of all things and the only one who can redeem us from sin and grant us eternal life where we shall see Him in His Triune fullness.
It matters that we contemplate the Holy Trinity on this Sunday and always. It is in doing so that His Spirit leads us to worship him in the right way and grow in love and service of Him. As a sign of our faith in the Blessed Trinity, we make the sign of the cross while saying the trinitarian prayer at the beginning and the end of our prayers. We immerse ourselves in the Holy Trinity by so doing. It indicates our hope that the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit dwell in us, and we are, in turn, inspired to live the life of relationship and communion that exists among the three divine persons, yet one God. This is truly the central mystery of faith from which other mysteries derive.
We will ponder on yet another mystery of faith next Sunday: the Solemnity of the Most Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). As we have done in previous years, we are going to bear testimony to our faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist by making a Corpus Christi procession from the church on the hill to the Historic Church. I once again plead with everyone God has given the ability to join this procession and be a part of our parish's witness to the presence of Christ among us. By walking with Jesus through Elizabethtown, He blesses all, and we also evangelize.
Today is Father's Day. I wish all our fathers all the graces they need to continue to be like St. Joseph, protector and provider for their family. Happy Father's Day. I also wish you all a Happy Juneteenth National Independence Day on Thursday!
In Christ, Fr. Bernard Alayode, OP
On this Sunday after Pentecost, when we celebrate the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, we embark on a quest to know who God is. O Blessed Trinity, what can we know or say of you? Why does it matter to seek to know you? Why does it matter to celebrate the Holy Trinity? I'll answer these questions in my homily.
Can we know God in his essence? Can a finite being know the transcendence and infinite being that we call God? We cannot know God in his fullness. If we claim to know God in his fullness, then we must not be referring to the Alpha and Omega, the creator and redeemer of the world. "Si comprehendis, non est Deus (If you have understood, then what you have understood is not God), says St. Augustine. We are incapable of grasping the depth of God because God transcends the best of our human ability. Hence, in our quest for knowledge of God, we can never know everything, but we do know something about God from what He has revealed to us of Himself. St. Thomas Aquinas says, "Quidquid potest intelligi vel cogitari minus est Ipso Deo" (Whatever can be known or understood is less than God himself). The angelic doctor adds in De Veritate that "The essence of God Himself remains forever hidden from us. The most we can know of God during our present life is that he transcends everything that we can conceive of him."
But God revealed something of himself to us. He did this through Jesus and the Spirit of Truth. He revealed who He is as the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Jesus, we discover God, and in the Holy Spirit, he reveals more of Himself to us. In His incarnation and the Spirit of Truth sent to us, we can achieve knowledge of God that is possible for humans. It matters that we know God if we are to share in His life, worship Him, and love Him. This takes us back to the Baltimore Catechism, where the Church defined the purpose of our existence as knowing, loving, and serving God so that we may live right in this present world and in the world to come. When we know who God is in the way He has revealed Himself, we get to know that He is the creator of all things and the only one who can redeem us from sin and grant us eternal life where we shall see Him in His Triune fullness.
It matters that we contemplate the Holy Trinity on this Sunday and always. It is in doing so that His Spirit leads us to worship him in the right way and grow in love and service of Him. As a sign of our faith in the Blessed Trinity, we make the sign of the cross while saying the trinitarian prayer at the beginning and the end of our prayers. We immerse ourselves in the Holy Trinity by so doing. It indicates our hope that the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit dwell in us, and we are, in turn, inspired to live the life of relationship and communion that exists among the three divine persons, yet one God. This is truly the central mystery of faith from which other mysteries derive.
We will ponder on yet another mystery of faith next Sunday: the Solemnity of the Most Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). As we have done in previous years, we are going to bear testimony to our faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist by making a Corpus Christi procession from the church on the hill to the Historic Church. I once again plead with everyone God has given the ability to join this procession and be a part of our parish's witness to the presence of Christ among us. By walking with Jesus through Elizabethtown, He blesses all, and we also evangelize.
Today is Father's Day. I wish all our fathers all the graces they need to continue to be like St. Joseph, protector and provider for their family. Happy Father's Day. I also wish you all a Happy Juneteenth National Independence Day on Thursday!
In Christ, Fr. Bernard Alayode, OP
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