Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, A

Moses implores God: “Although this is a stiff-necked people if now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go with us.” “Let the Lord go with us.” We discover God along the way. We never see God coming, but afterward, in reflecting on our common experience, we recognize the hand of God that was guiding us all along.

Transcript

a reading from the Holy Gospel according to John. 

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish, but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, But whoever does not believe has already been condemned because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 

The Gospel of the Lord. 

Our Gospel today is the famous Bible verse John 3, 16, For God so loved the world, which is probably better translated, For God loved the world so, in just this way, namely, that he gave his only Son. 

In chapter 14 of John's Gospel, Jesus declares, I am the way, and then explains what this means by making a statement about the human condition. No one comes to the Father except through me. The assumption that underlies these words is that all people are separated from God. To say that no one comes to the Father assumes that all people are separated from the Father. The separation from God arises from human sin, and sin figures into the condition of every human being. When Jesus reveals God by going the way of the cross, he manifests God's love for a world alienated from its creator. 

In our first reading from the book of Exodus, Moses is having a very close encounter with the God who first addressed him at the burning bush. Moses had been on the run because he had seen with his own eyes the oppression of the Hebrew children in Egypt and had taken matters into his own hands. God spoke to Moses out of the fire because God, too, had observed the misery of his people in Egypt. God promised to lead them out of that land and bring them to a land of promise. When God brought the people out of Egypt, Moses went up on Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. But meanwhile, at the foot of the mountain, the children of Israel were busy building a golden calf. Coming down the mountain, Moses caught the people in the act of idolatry. He threw down the stone tablets, and so he had to go back up the mountain to get a second set. 

We're listening in on that second conversation. The Lord stood with Moses there and proclaimed, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Who could have imagined merciful and gracious? A God who loves us like our mothers and fathers? Who love us even before we have any idea what love is? A God who loves us even when we do bad things? Who would have known that God is abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness? God loves even when we do not return God's love. God loves even when we give our faithfulness to other gods of our own making. 

Moses implores God, although this is a stiff-necked people, if now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go with us. Let the Lord go with us. We discover God along the way. We never see God coming, but afterward, in reflecting on our common experience, we recognize the hand of God that was guiding us all along. 

Pope Leo's new encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, On safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence, speaks to this experience. In paragraph 99, Leo writes, "So-called artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not feel joy or pain, do not mature through relationships, and do not know from within what love, work, friendship, or responsibility mean. They may imitate language, behavior, and analytical skills, or even simulate empathy and understanding. but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the effective relational and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom." 

In the next several paragraphs, Leo suggests some of the ways in which we grow in the school of wisdom. Humanity flourishes not despite limitations, but often through them. Suffering, weakness, and the experience of failure can become privileged places for an authentically human existence in which we come to recognize the inviolable dignity of every person, both our own and that of others. (§119) To eliminate suffering entirely would mean, in the end, extinguishing love and desire as well. (§120)

For St. Paul, these are very practical words. In Jesus Christ, our fragile human condition is not an error to be bypassed, but the very place where God chooses to dwell. Paul is addressing a church in conflict and disagreement with one another. Paul blesses all of them. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. God does not wait for us to become a perfect community before offering us communion. God gives us communion so we can become more whole. 

The grace of Jesus is the self-giving life of the crucified and risen Christ who comes to gather all people into God's merciful embrace. The love of God is the ground under our feet, for God knows how we were made. God remembers that we are dust. The communion of the Holy Spirit is the shared life we cannot manufacture. God coming close to people who need a way back to each other. 

Father Michael Heimes said, Jesus is God in human terms. So if you want to know what we mean by the word God, look at Jesus of Nazareth. In the Eucharist, Jesus gives himself away fully and without reserve. So if you wish to find God, give yourself away. When we do this in memory of Jesus, we enact what we mean by the word God.