A Trinity Sunday Thought to Start the Week Off Right
Trinity Sunday always brings us a thick layer of mystery. Makes sense because the Trinity remains today, as it always has been, the greatest of all mysteries. Priests give their sermons attempting to address this mystery. While that attempt may not be all that satisfying or successful, we might at least give them credit for trying.
Don't worry, we're not going to spend time trying to do what just about everyone else can't do.Instead we'll turn to The Inner Life of the Soul. It short-circuits all this and goes right to the heart of the matter. Here's the lead paragraph of the entry for Trinity Sunday:
We have passed through Advent and Christmas, through Lent and Easter, through Ascension and Pentecost. Today we reach the aim and end, the final consummation of all things, the Triune God. The earth and the warring nations, the suns in their majestic orbits, the comets on their fiery roads, are in His sight as atoms that would wither at His glance. No ruin or sin of man can tarnish His greatness, no suffering mar His joy. He is God over all, blessed forever. Before Him the Seraphim veil their faces, and the wise Cherubim are dumb. Yet He is the crown and the consummation of all devotions, wherein the heart finds its truest peace and final resting-place.
Just let this sink in:
The final consummation of all things.
Don't let this get away from you. When you see words like final, consummation, all things, it's time to pay close attention. This goes beyond our individual lives and the lives of our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren...and on down the line. It encompasses all that we can see and touch, all we know, all we envision for the future. It includes our country, everyone else's country, our world.
All things means the entirety of God's Creation, physical and spiritual. The physical includes the stars, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, black holes - every physical manifestation that emanated from the Big Bang. Without the Trinity, none of this exists.
This final consummation - the Trinity - commands the attention and adoration of the highest of the nine choirs of angels - those spiritual beings whose intelligence surpasses that of all created beings. It includes the saints in heaven, the holy souls in purgatory - even those in Hell.
He is the crown and the consummation of all devotions, wherein the heart finds its truest peace and final resting-place.
The truest peace and final resting place comes to us not as the result of theological study or some special mystical insight into the nature of the Trinity. It comes from our devotions. And these are available to all.
All of us can go to Mass on this Trinity Sunday and place ourselves before the Triune God begging His mercy and forgiveness. All of us can pledge our obedience to the Father's Will. We can express our gratitude for the sacrifice of the Son on His Cross - a sacrifice which will be reenacted on the altar in an unbloody manner. And we can pray that the Spirit of Love between the Father and the Son takes His place and remains always within us.
The attempt to explain the Triune God has gone on for two millennia and likely will continue until the end of time. But it will remain for us a mystery as long as we remain rooted to this earth. It will elude our grasp until each of us finds his or her "truest peace and final resting place" in the Presence of the Trinity, one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
Don't worry, we're not going to spend time trying to do what just about everyone else can't do.Instead we'll turn to The Inner Life of the Soul. It short-circuits all this and goes right to the heart of the matter. Here's the lead paragraph of the entry for Trinity Sunday:
We have passed through Advent and Christmas, through Lent and Easter, through Ascension and Pentecost. Today we reach the aim and end, the final consummation of all things, the Triune God. The earth and the warring nations, the suns in their majestic orbits, the comets on their fiery roads, are in His sight as atoms that would wither at His glance. No ruin or sin of man can tarnish His greatness, no suffering mar His joy. He is God over all, blessed forever. Before Him the Seraphim veil their faces, and the wise Cherubim are dumb. Yet He is the crown and the consummation of all devotions, wherein the heart finds its truest peace and final resting-place.
Just let this sink in:
The final consummation of all things.
Don't let this get away from you. When you see words like final, consummation, all things, it's time to pay close attention. This goes beyond our individual lives and the lives of our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren...and on down the line. It encompasses all that we can see and touch, all we know, all we envision for the future. It includes our country, everyone else's country, our world.
All things means the entirety of God's Creation, physical and spiritual. The physical includes the stars, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, black holes - every physical manifestation that emanated from the Big Bang. Without the Trinity, none of this exists.
This final consummation - the Trinity - commands the attention and adoration of the highest of the nine choirs of angels - those spiritual beings whose intelligence surpasses that of all created beings. It includes the saints in heaven, the holy souls in purgatory - even those in Hell.
He is the crown and the consummation of all devotions, wherein the heart finds its truest peace and final resting-place.
The truest peace and final resting place comes to us not as the result of theological study or some special mystical insight into the nature of the Trinity. It comes from our devotions. And these are available to all.
All of us can go to Mass on this Trinity Sunday and place ourselves before the Triune God begging His mercy and forgiveness. All of us can pledge our obedience to the Father's Will. We can express our gratitude for the sacrifice of the Son on His Cross - a sacrifice which will be reenacted on the altar in an unbloody manner. And we can pray that the Spirit of Love between the Father and the Son takes His place and remains always within us.
The attempt to explain the Triune God has gone on for two millennia and likely will continue until the end of time. But it will remain for us a mystery as long as we remain rooted to this earth. It will elude our grasp until each of us finds his or her "truest peace and final resting place" in the Presence of the Trinity, one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
Happy Trinity Sunday!
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