Bishop Peter's Podcast

Trinity Sunday

Bishop Peter

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0:00 | 8:37
SPEAKER_00

On Trinity Sunday, it is good to remind ourselves that on planet Earth the majority of people still believe in God. The largest body of believers is Christianity, with Islam as a close second and growing. Moreover, over the centuries the vast majority of people have always believed in God. So secularism pushed by our social media is a social modern malaise caused by ignorance, arrogance and affluence, common ailments of our jaded, materialistic Western culture. What concerns us on this Trinity Sunday is how do we convince people that Christianity is true? For after all, Islam and Judaism are noteworthy rivals. Well firstly, we should be clear about what we assert before we address that issue. Many people may say that they believe in Jesus, but what does that actually mean? Mormons and Muslims both believe in Jesus, but neither are Christian. Why? Well if you don't believe in the Trinity, you're not a Christian. What does the Trinity mean? Well it doesn't mean that there are three gods, nor three godly people, but three persons who are equally God or partakers of the divine deity or nature. Not a Godhead shared as one might share a corner of a table, but that each person, father, son and spirit are substantially God. One might use the example of water to help us grasp this mystery. Water is one substance, one chemical substance H two O. But it can present itself in three diverse manners solid, liquid gas, ice, water, steam. Diverse in form but united in substance, as is the Trinity. So it is without a doubt that this mysterious doctrine is not readily grasped by all, Christians included. It did take the Catholic Church, the only Christian church of antiquity six centuries to not out the correct theological language on the nature of the Trinity, a teaching that was revealed to us by Christ Himself. And we cannot change Christ's teachings. If Jesus called God a Father, then he must be a father. Therefore to use such terms as creator or maker instead of father is an insult to God. You may be thinking, but how can we call God a father if he has no physical body and is devoid of an anatomical gender? That's a good question. It is true that God as Father is a bodiless, is bodiless since he's a pure spirit. At this stage I'm sure someone with a liberal mindset might add it's because of the archaic language of the Bible that we refer to God as Father. Well what does the church say? The catechism of the church states that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman. He is God. He also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and standard. No one is father as God is father. Note that he is the origin, the source of maternity and paternity, not the effect. We are the effect. One should not try to make God fit into our world, but rather we should fit into his. We cannot squeeze God into our petty mental constructs. He is bigger than that, beyond that, just as like a child of the beach can't contain the ocean in their bucket. So the paternal language of the Bible is for our sake, since God relates to us as a true father. His actions bear the hallmark of paternal characteristics such as creator, provider, defender, protector. Fatherhood bears these characteristics so as to inspire every father on earth to imitate him in caring for their own children by manifesting these properties. That is why we call God Father. What about the feminine dimension? Well all good things originate in God. Thus we note that the works of the Holy Spirit are feminine, actions such as life giving, loving, nurturing, consoling, instructing all bear the maternal hallmark. And of course the incarnational or bodily manifestation of this feminine dimension is Mary. It was always filled with God's grace, God's masterpiece of perfection, says the catechism. As the ideal woman, the new Eve, she is also the model of the church, which is feminine. It is, after all, from holy mother church, that we receive maternal care, that is we're born in baptism, nourished in the Eucharist, strengthened in confirmation, healed in penance. Now that we better understand the wording of the Trinity, what arguments can we employ to assert that the Christian God is the true one? Are there any proofs whatsoever? Well there are three, in fact, based on the origins of our three monotheistic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. If God wanted to establish his religion, would he not preannounce the coming of his founder? In short, would God not prepare the world for his religion? Abraham is the father of the Jews, Christ of the Christians, and Mohammed of Islam. Now ask yourself, was Abraham or Mohammed foretold or predicted before they came? No. But Christ was. For the world was awaiting a Savior. His name means Jesus means Savior, based on hundreds of texts referring to where he would be born, of what family, where he would be raised, of what lineage, and so forth. Now the second point concerns the status of the founder. If God is all powerful, and he is, would not his founder have divine powers? Did Abraham or Mohammed work any miracles during their lifetimes? No, but Christ did. In three short years he worked thirty three miracles to attest his divine nature. Lastly, to be a good Jew or Muslim one needs to follow the founder's writings, the Torah or the Quran. But for us Christians, we don't follow a book, although the Bible has been written by the followers of Christ, we are called to follow a person who said come, follow me. It's the imitation of Christ that makes you a Christian, not the memorization of Bible texts. Finally, we Christians are proud on this day to sign ourselves with his Trinitarian formula, a single gesture that dates back to the first century. So let us salute God well in our prayer on Trinity Sunday, as we say. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.