Fr. Anastasius Reiser, OSB - Celebrant
It is a beautiful feast church, the Feast of the Holy Trinity. We celebrate it in the after the great feasts of the Church, Pentecost, Ascension Day and Easter. Even the nature of early summer contributes to a good feeling. It is a grand conclusion to the Easter celebrations.
That is the reason why we put the Easter candle again in the midst of the chapel.
Those feasts that belong to the Son have now past. The feast, which is about the Holy Spirit, we celebrated last week.
And the Father is always included in those feasts. When Jesus was born: “He will be called the Son of the Most High”, or at the baptism in the Jordan when a voice from heaven says: "This is my beloved Son". The Father is the home that Jesus always mentions when he was talking about God .
Well, today all three together! It becomes clear that some people have their problems with this feast. If you have to explain how it is that three are one and one is three, then it is not so easy to say.
It is a statement of the creed that God is "One"! And that he is also “three persons”.
I would like to start with the word "Trinity":
Another word for "trinity" is the old word "threefold". It designates a shrine or, to put it more precisely, a chest of drawers with three drawers.
I still remember the chest of drawers that was in my grandparents' house. In the first drawer there were games for us children, in the second drawer there were books for the older ones and in the third drawer there were the sweets. Everything in one chest but in three drawers! For us children only ONE dresser!
And so God is said to be "Threefold." He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Now let's open the drawers one by one.
The father: Visible in creation. Everything that has life got breath through him. He is the principle of life. We can't see him. Nobody can see him. But we can see his handwriting in everything that lives. And if we honor creation, if we care for and preserve it, we also praise its Creator.
The son: Jesus Christ lived among us as a human. God took flesh. A man in whom God was present at all.
God showed us in his son Jesus what a life for God could be like. Charity, healing the sick, he saves people from death, fellowship with all people no matter what class they come from.
And, that even in dying there is still hope, Jesus shows us through his death. For he rises from the dead – and life remains, not death.
The Holy Spirit: He takes away the fear of the disciples after Easter, puts the right words into Peter's mouth when he should speak, he brings the church together and turns a handful of frightened disciples into a flourishing church. It is God who gives us movement, who is our drive, who has a particularly strong effect in love. As Paul said in the second reading: “because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
And all three persons are one and the same God. He is God whom we can experience in our life.
And the Apostle John adds: (1 John 5:7-8) “Because there are three in Heaven that testify – the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit – and these three are one.”
We have many examples here on earth where three things come together that can be used to explain the Trinity. But you won't really be able to explain it. We humans on earth remain limited with our possibilities.
What we can do is to stand before this God, to remain silent, and to try to answer through our lives. From the beginning of our Christian life we are drawn into this communion of the Trinity. At baptism we are baptized into the Trinity.
And what is interesting is that to give an answer is expected from us:
In the sacrament of baptism, the formula is:
“N., I baptize you in the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
There is no “Amen”
In the baptism of children this answer remains open. One would probably now expect an "Amen". But this "Amen" only comes at confirmation! Then the confirmand has to stand by his/her faith and say "yes" with his/her "Amen".
In the book of Revelation (5:13): Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, everything in the universe, cry out: “To the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor, glory and might, forever and ever.”
(Rev 5:14) “Amen,”
And later (Rev 19:4) “Amen, Alleluia”
Psalm 106:48: Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from age to age! Let all the people say, Amen, Amen! Alleluia!
On Easter our song was the “Alleluja”. Our answer to God in our life is the “Amen”.
He is Jesus' father, he is also our father, Jesus is the son of God, we, too, are sons, are daughters, and both send us the Spirit so that we can live of his life and with his life and so that we, too, who are many, can become ONE as he is ONE.
AMEN.
