The most commonly known methods of meditation focus on your breathing or using a mantra, a word or a phrase. Yet, there is a rather new form of meditation (only about two millennia old), that has surpassed all other methods. It is one taught by Christ and relates to his teaching on the Blessed Trinity, a meditation that is transformative and life giving. Listen to this homily given by Father Mayer on Trinity Sunday, June 12, 2022.
The most commonly known methods of meditation focus on your breathing or using a mantra, a word or a phrase. Yet, there is a rather new form of meditation (only about two millennia old), that has surpassed all other methods. It is one taught by Christ and relates to his teaching on the Blessed Trinity, a meditation that is transformative and life giving. Listen to this homily given by Father Mayer on Trinity Sunday, June 12, 2022.
Meditation, according to the experts, is a simple practice that reduces stress, increases calmness and clarity, and promotes happiness. Through meditation you can lower your stress level, get to know your pain, connect better, and improve your focus. There are even scientists that are currently studying the medical benefits of meditation. With a quick online perusal you can find various methods of mediation, the most common being focusing on your breathing or various other parts of your body. Today, I would like to share with you what I am convinced is the most sublime method if meditation, that is the most exalted, most transcendental method of contemplation, which I am going to argue is meditation upon the Blessed Trinity, that is God, three persons, one nature, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Explained Now, I know what you might be thinking: That’s not going to work. Breathing and relaxation techniques and meditations I can do, but the trinity? I never understood what it was. It does not make any sense to me. I hear a homily on this every year around this time, and I am still just as baffled as before. Apart from 1 and 3 and 3 in one, and the whole clover leaf thing, I am just as confused as I always was.
- Why: I would say that you are not alone. I hear you. I know the feeling. However, consider that according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, that is the book that summarizes all of the official teachings of the Church, the doctrine, that is the teaching of the Blessed Trinity “is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the “hierarchy of the truths of faith” (CCC 234). That means that it is more essential than understanding God’s mercy or his love. It’s more important that morals, right and wrong, more important than heaven or hell or any other doctrine that you can think of. If the Church did not think that this was something that you could at least begin to grasp, then why would the Church teach that it is the most essential teaching? The Catechism states that “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them” (234). In other words, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is really, really important. So, I would encourage to be open to at least beginning to understand this teaching, trust the Church on this one. Don’t give into the temptation to simply think “Eh, why bother this is over my head anyway.” Instead be open to what the Church has to teach about this most foundational doctrine.
- History: So, let’s jump in. The church teaches that the whole history of salvation, that means the way that God has revealed himself overtime to humanity, is identical to the way in which God has revealed himself as trinity, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Let’s start around 4-5 thousand years ago. There begins to be written records of God reveal himself to people as the one true God. Most people at the time were worshipping a plethora of gods, sun god, moon goddess, fertility goddess, cow god, etc, pretty much anything that you were in awe of and didn’t quite understand. So, this concept of their only being one true God was a radical concept and he validates this claim through various signs and miracles and a people, a nation rises up around this notion, the Israelites. So you have monotheism, one God. Speed forward a few millennia. Two thousand years ago a guy named Jesus comes along. He makes radical claims to be God the son. He describes God the Father. Can’t have a son without a father and vise verse. He also claims that once he ascends back up into heaven, God the Holy Spirit is going to come and empower his followers. He’s an excellent teacher and gains many followers. He then dies and the religion would have disappeared, except something astounding happens. He physically rises from the dead. We have excellent evidence that this is witnessed and verified by hundreds of people and such that these people become an unstoppable force in sharing this message around the world, the Church is born, and the rest is history. So, you have a development from a plurality of God’s, to Monotheism to these three people, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all of whom say they are divine, yet that there is one God.
- Vocab: During the first few hundred years of the Church, the leaders of the Church, bishops, and theologians began gathering together to try to put into words this whole Trinitarian concept. Do this they borrow from philosophy and other sources and they use two main words to begin describing God as trinity. The first is the word ousia, which is Greek for nature or substance or essence, meaning what a thing is. If you are in a cabin in the woods and you hear something scratching on the door, you ask WHAT that is. Is it a tree branch? Is it an animal, a human? You are asking a question of nature, what the substance of a thing is. That is what an ousia, or a nature is. God has a divine nature. He is divine. You have a human nature, an wolf has animal nature. // The second word they use is the word hypostasis or person. So if you are in the woods and you hear a knock on the door, you immediately know the nature. You know it is a human being, so you are not asking the question what is it. Now you are asking Who is it. You want to know who the person is that is knocking. So, within the trinity, there are three persons, God the father is the source or first person, God the son is the second, the one who is eternally being born, or being begotten of the Father, and the third person is the Holy Spirit, the one who is always proceeding from the father and the son. So these are the two words that the church fathers begin to use to describe the Blessed Trinity: nature and person.
Okay, so now you have the basics of the Blessed Trinity. That was not so hard right? You know how this doctrine developed. How God like a good teacher, revealed himself over time, first as the one true God, then through Christ as One God, and yet three persons. And now you know the two major words used to describe God. He is one divine being, that is one divine nature. He is not three gods, he is one God, yet, three persons. You might not completely understand, but you can begin to get an inkling of this doctrine of the Blessed Trinity.
Best Mediation: Now, onto meditation, now onto understanding the beauty of this doctrine of the trinity and to the invitation to enter in through contemplation. The ultimate goal of creation is to be transformed by the Blessed Trinity, it is even more so: entrance into the blessed Trinity, complete unity with God.
- Moving to Nothingness: This is very different than other forms of meditation. Consider Buddhist meditation for example, what you meditate on, whether its your breathing or your body or some saying or mantra, doesn’t really matter, because the goal of the meditation is in a way to lose yourself. The Buddhist word for this is Nirvana, which means to blow out. The goal is to give up your individuality, your sense of self, your attachments and desires, and to disappear into nirvana, into, atman, into nothingness. What you think of as real, is not real anyway, so you are giving up this illusion. Through meditation this is what you are becoming. Nothingness, in a way.
- Getting Truth: Meditation on the blessed Trinity, on the other hand is based not upon timeless myths but upon datable revelations from God. They are based upon a Jesus who is attested by mainstream historians. And unlike this method of meditation which moves you away from individualism toward nothingness, in contemplating the Blessed trinity you are considering three individual persons and the source of all existence. Rather than nothingness, when meditating upon the Blessed Trinity, since you are made in this image, you are realizing who you are: a person made for individuality, yet equality of persons, made for harmony and community, made for love and generosity and creativity that spills out beyond you to other others. Meditation upon the Trinity allows you to become who you really are.
- Entering Into Truth: The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that the entire purpose of God the son, being sent to this earth, the entire reason for the Spirit of Love being poured out upon us, is so that we could be invited experience the innermost secret of God. “God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange” (CCC 221). Remember that before Jesus ascended up in to heaven, “In my Father’s house there are many rooms…and when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2-3). Jesus continued to reveal more of the Father’s loving plan: “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you…If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:18, 23).
You and I are called to consider this high and holy calling of the Blessed Trinity, which is unlike anything else in existence. You were not meant for nothingness. You are called to ponder and consider and contemplate the beauty and majesty and wonder of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and even beyond that, to enter into that majesty, to allow the Blessed Trinity to enter into you.
This is why I say that meditation upon the Blessed Trinity is the most sublime of all meditations. God has revealed himself to us over time. There is so much to learn and ponder and consider and discover here, about how he has revealed himself, first as the one true God, and then as three persons, yet one divine nature. You could meditate on things low and earthly, or you could be transformed, united by this most superb and wondrous invitation to enter into and be transformed by the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Meditate, contemplate, ponder, consider reflect, fall in love with the Blessed Trinity. If a man loves me, WE, Jesus said, meaning Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, will come to him and make our home with him. Amen.