Homily for Trinity Sunday - June 4, 2023

 

Homily for Trinity Sunday

June 4, 2023

Alpha and Omega

 

            Recently a Catholic speaker was giving a talk at a university. At the end, a participant raised his hand and said, “I mean no disrespect, but I am an atheist. I will never believe in God unless I can put God under a microscope.”

            The Catholic speaker responded, “If I could put God under a microscope, I would become an atheist, because any God that we can measure or contain is no God at all.”

            It is true – God is far larger than we could ever conceptualize. If we could understand Him fully, then He wouldn’t truly be God. Any mountain that fits in the palm of your hand isn’t a mountain worth climbing – likewise, any God we can wrap our minds around isn’t a God worth worshipping.

            For years, St. Catherine of Siena would pray, “Lord, I want to know You! Reveal Yourself to me!” Finally, one day in prayer, Jesus appeared to her and said, “Do you know who you are and who I am? If you know these two things, you will be forever blessed: I am HE WHO IS, and you are SHE WHO IS NOT.” His greatness far transcends our limited minds.

            But that doesn’t mean we don’t know anything about God! Instead, we know many aspects of Him – we call these the attributes of God.

            For example, we know that He is all-powerful and can do all things – we call this God’s omnipotence. God is all-knowing and nothing is hidden from His knowledge – in other words, God is omniscient. We know that God is everywhere and there is no place where He is not – God is omnipresent.

            We know that God has no beginning and no end – He is eternal. On this Paschal Candle in the sanctuary, we see two signs of that: the letter “A” and a strangely-shaped upside-down horseshoe. These are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet – the Alpha and the Omega – showing that God was present before time began, and He will endure without end. In fact, the priest at the Easter Vigil traces the letters and the year, he prays: “Christ yesterday and today; the Beginning and the End; the Alpha; and the Omega. All time belongs to him; and all the ages. To him be glory and power; through every age and forever.” A powerful reflection on God’s eternity!

            We also know that God is all-good, all-holy, and all-loving – it is not possible for God to do anything but love; He cannot do anything that is unholy or evil. Now, I know that many of us have suffered – or are suffering – deeply: maybe it is losing someone we’re close to, or being diagnosed with a devastating illness, or some other type of suffering, and we question the goodness and love of God. But as CS Lewis said, “Since God already loves us, He wants to make us loveable, by removing all that is not loveable in us.” Those of you who are parents know that love involves discipline and “tough-love” – and our good God is doing the same thing in the world, even through our suffering. He seeks to make us holy like Himself!

            Finally, our Scriptures tell us that God is unchanging, indivisible, needing nothing, perfectly happy in Himself. These should fill us with amazement at the great and awesome God we serve.

            And what should amaze us even more is the fact that this awe-inspiring God actually wants a living personal relationship with us. Wow! Jesus, in the Gospel, calls us “friends”. We get to call God “Father”, a profoundly intimate name. This would be unthinkable in other monotheistic religions. Muslims call God, “Allah,” which means “Master” – while Christians call God “Abba”, literally meaning “Daddy.” What a blessing that the God of the Universe knows everything about us, warts and all, and still desires to dwell with us for eternity.

            One time Jesus revealed to St. Theresa of Avila, “I would create the entire universe again just to hear you say that you love Me.” God, Who needs nothing in Himself, has made Himself thirst and hunger for our love. What a thought – that we could actually give something to the God Who created the universe from nothing. Indeed, He could create mountains and oceans, but He cannot force a creature to love Him – and that is the one thing He desires more than lifeless rocks and water.

            A couple of takeaways. First, it instills confidence in us to know that we’ve got such a powerful God Who loves us. Recently an exorcist was interviewed and he was asked, “Do you ever get scared when you go in to cast demons out of possessed people, since demons are far more powerful than human beings?” He replied, “Not too frightened – it’s like going to a fight with your older brother who’s got your back – the devil may be powerful, but he’s no match for God Who is on our side.” It should fill us with holy confidence and trust to have such a good Father, Who is on our side with perfect goodness and power and love.

            The second takeaway is that, since God desires – and deserves – our love, let us give it to Him! How could we give our love to things like dollar bills and sports teams when we have a living Father Who thirsts for nothing more than to have us love Him? Today when you pray – at this Mass or at home – consider how much joy you bring to the Heart of God, Who loves to be with His children.

            The more we learn about God, the more we realize we haven’t even scratched the surface of Who He is. Thankfully we get to spend eternity becoming acquainted with our Creator, for those who love Him here.