Trinity Sunday - 2024

When you look back on the history of the human race you find that in every age people understood well that everything that exists must have had a creator; every age that is except this age. Within the scientism of our age there are those who insist that everything in the universe just spontaneously happened on its own. However, knowing who the creator of all things who is called God, truly is has been a long work in progress. History is full of gods that man put forward to describe who God is; some of whom are still today thought of as true gods. Knowing who God is, is impossible for mere humans to discover on their own. As his first letter, John points out “that no one can see God”. God, who is beyond sight, must reveal Himself to us. And so, our Jewish-Christian tradition has been that long historical experience of God revealing who he is to us. First God is seen as having the nature of a father, the giver and protector of all life. Then in the New Testament, Jesus is revealed as the Son of God. Finally, Jesus reveals that there is a third person, the Holy Spirit, who comes to take us up into the very life of God. In the early generations of the Church, these revelations were pondered and studied, not without conflicting opinions. Then, in the year 325 AD, that is Anno Domini, the year of the Lord, not of the Common Era; the bishops of the Church gathered in the City of Nicaea to discuss and define who God truly is. From this Council of Nicaea we now have the Nicaean Creed in which we profess our faith. In 1 John 4: we read: Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you will know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and is already in the world at this time. From a theological perspective the doctrinal proclamation of the Church lays out for us who and what our God is, one divinity shared co-equally by three divine persons. So our spirituality is formed by our relationship with each of these three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Here there arises an interesting question, do I think and act with each divine person in a uniquely different way one from the other? The people of the Old Testament thought of God as one person, the Father. Their spirituality grew out of their relationship with this one God. In the New Testament Jesus calls God his Father and himself as God’s Son. Further to that, what was shocking even scandalous to some, Jesus reveals that he too is God, sharing fully in the one and same divinity that is the divinity that makes the Father God. Further to this, Jesus reveals that there is a Third Person who is also God, sharing fully in this one divinity and that this Third Person, the Holy Spirit will have a full and dynamic role in the lives of all believers. Now we all have fathers. The character of our relationship with our natural fathers may vary, but overall we have a good idea what fathers are all about. Added to this, in the gospels we see the very dynamic relationship Jesus has with the Father, the same relationship which Jesus direct us to have also. Perhaps the easiest of the three persons for us to relate to is Jesus since he is fully a human being like ourselves. Now with the Holy Spirit the images seen in the scriptures are not so easy to identify with. At Jesus’ baptism by John the Holy Spirit is identified with a hovering dove. Later the Holy Spirit is seen as breath breathed upon the disciples, then as flames of fire over the heads of the disciples. As significant as these images are they may not inspire in us an attraction to develop a personal relationship with such a Holy Spirit. My understanding of what having a relationship with the Holy Spirit might look like began by taking into account that my spiritual life began in the very womb of the Holy Spirit. This most mysterious new life, literally a sharing in the divine life of God, began when I was born anew in the Holy Spirit. Quite naturally  the notion of womb, birth, new life conjures up the image of a maternal person, one who is a mother. Consider this, in the scriptures the Holy Spirit is directly linked to wisdom. In the Old Testament in the very Book of Wisdom the pronoun “she” is used throughout to refer to the Holy Spirit. From the very womb of Mother Holy Spirit we are born into the life of the divine. Like all mothers Mother Spirit gathers us up into her arms where she nourishes our new life on the milk of her divine wisdom. As children of the Father, we embrace a new spiritual life with the goal of fulfilling the vocation the Father has given us. In communion with Jesus his Son, now our brother and leader, we take on the challenges that try to prevent us from attaining the fullness of holiness to which we are called. But this battle can be fierce at times, and we often find ourselves wounded and discouraged. St. Ignatius calls these “times of desolation”. I believe it is in such times that we find comfort and healing in the maternal embrace of the Holy Spirit. We return to where our spiritual life began to have it repaired and healed and given new strength to take up ounce again our journey to sainthood. As we pray in a personal way in the presence of the Father and equally personally with the Son, so we can develop the same personal way of speaking with the Holy Spirit. O Holy Spirit from who’s womb I was brought forth into this new life of holiness and given the blessed fruits that nurture and make it thrive I come to you now as a wounded son and daughter seeking your healing embrace once again.   As I place my wounded heart in your consoling hands Bring me to life once again. Instruct me with your words of wisdom. Cast light upon the path that I must take So that I may live to the fullest the life the Father intends for me.