Homily

The feast of the Trinity, which the Latin liturgical calendar celebrates after Pentecost Sunday, opens the long, final period that closes the liturgical year. This season is called "Ordinary Time" because it contains no particular memory of the life of Jesus. Nonetheless this season is no less significant than those that precede it. We could even say that the feast of the Most Holy Trinity casts its light on all the days to come, as if to extend through time the habit of beginning all of our actions and all of our days "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." And yet we have to admit that the mystery of the Trinity is not generally considered important for our lives nor does it have any impact on how we act. A modern theologian bitterly wrote: "It seems to matter little, whether in doctrine, faith, or ethics, that God be One and Three." The Trinity is considered a mystery only in so far as we are unable to understand it.
By bringing this great and holy mystery to our attention once again, the Eucharistic Liturgy takes the first step towards our smallness and our deep-rooted distraction. We are right to say that the liturgy brings this mystery to our attention "again" because in reality it is already present in and accompanies Jesus’ entire life, beginning with Christmas. Indeed, it accompanies all of history, beginning with creation. This is the meaning of the extraordinarily beautiful passage of the Scriptures taken from the book of Proverbs. The text shows us God’s wisdom as a person and it says: "When there were no depths I was brought forth... when [God] had not yet made earth and fields... when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race" (Prov 8:24-31).
Christian tradition has seen in Wisdom the "Word" that "was in the beginning" and through whom all things were made. This means that the moment of creation is already radically marked by the dialogue between God and Wisdom, between the Father and the Son. The Gospel of John writes, "He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being that has come into being" (Jn 1:2-3). The "foundations of the earth," that is, the heart of all human reality, bear the imprint of the unique relationship that exists between the Father and the Son. We could say that everything bears the imprint of the communion between the Father and the Son. Not without reason and with great profundity did some of the Fathers of the ancient Church speak of the semina verbi, the imprint of the Word present in the whole of creation, in every person, every faith, and every culture. Nothing is foreign to the Trinity, because everything was made in God’s image.
The letter to the Romans speaks of God’s love poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:1-5). The Holy Spirit is the energy that makes us into God’s temple, house, and family. The Gospel of John (16:12-15) tells us some of the words Jesus spoke to his disciples on the evening of the last supper. How many things did he still have to say before leaving them! Not only did he not have enough time, but - more importantly - the disciples were not yet able to understand the things he wanted to communicate to them. That is why Jesus said, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come." The Spirit draws the disciples towards God’s heart, towards God’s world, and towards God’s life, which is a communion of love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
God, the Christian God (and we have to wonder whether many Christians believe in "the God of Jesus!") is not a single entity, no matter how powerful and majestic. The God of Jesus is a "family" of three persons who love each other so much that they are one thing. Yes! Everyone is called to be part of this very special "family of God." At the beginning and the end of history there is this communion between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Trinitarian horizon encompasses us all. Communion is the name of God and the truth of creation. This horizon is the most burning challenge made to the Church, or rather, to all of the Christian Churches; I would add to all religions and all people. It is the challenge of living in love. We are certain that wherever there is love, God is there. The "prophet" of the anonymous poem by Khalil Gibran had sensed this well, "When you love you should not say, ‘God is in my heart,’ but rather, ‘I am in the heart of God.’"
The strength that the Lord gives his children heals humanity’s flesh, wounded by injustice, greed, oppression and war, and generates the energy to get up and walk towards communion. This has been God’s plan since the beginning. There is, indeed, a correspondence between God’s creative process and his internal life. What God said is not without meaning: "It is not good for man to be alone." Man—initially, it meant both man and woman—was not created in the image of a solitary God, but of a God that is love of three Persons. Each individual person, as well as the entirety of humanity, will not be themselves outside of this communion. Only within this communion will they be able to save themselves. For this reason, and rightfully so, the Second Vatican Council reminds all believers that God did not want to save individuals singularly, but by gathering all of them together in one holy people. Born from the communion to which it is also destined, the Church finds herself engaged in the living history at the beginning of this millennium as the leaven of communion and love. This is a lofty and urgent task that truly renders petty (and culpable) the internal quarrels and misunderstandings. The quarrels within our communities and the divisions within our Christian churches cut deep at the communion among peoples. Those who resist the energy of communion become accomplices to the work of the "prince of evil," who is the spirit of division. For this reason the apostle Paul, making us sense the urgency of communion, can repeat again today: "Do not let the sun go down on your anger" (Eph 4:26).
The feast of the Holy Trinity is a pressing invitation to each of us to place ourselves within the very dynamism of God so as to live his life. The Lord realizes salvation, as Vatican II says, by gathering together men and women around him in a large and boundless family. Salvation is called communion with God and among all peoples.