I had heard a story (thanks Father Dominick) of a missionary priest who had been assigned to a remote village. A donor had sent, through him, the gift of a sundial for the villagers. The priest was thrilled, as it would give him an opportunity to teach the people to use it to tell time. Not even knowing at first what it was, the villagers were so delighted with the gift from this distant donor that they put it in the middle of the village. Their excitement grew when they learned of the ability to tell time with it. They were so pleased with it, they wanted no damage to come to it, so they built a roof over it to protect it from the elements. In many ways, we do the same thing with the belief in the Trinity. We are overjoyed when we first come to the Faith, although we don't understand entirely. Then we learn a little, and grow in our love for the Holy Trinity. Finally, fearing the idea that criticisms and questioning might somehow damage our faith in this doctrine, we don't talk about it. By our failure to let it out in the open, we hide the glory of the Trinity from others. To paraphrase St. Augustine, the truth is a lion. It does not need you to defend it. Let it out, and it will defend itself.
What I heard after the story this Trinity Sunday was a challenge to pray to the Holy Trinity as a whole. We very often pray to God the Father for certain things, to Jesus Christ, God the Son, for some, and to the Holy Spirit for others. I was challenged, because it pushed me to understand beyond the boundaries of my mind in a way that only God can put there, not my own attempts to reason out intellectually. At a time like this present age, when the family is under attack in so many ways, we need to be open to the Trinity more than ever, for as St. John Paul II said, "God in His deepest mystery is not a solitude, but a family, since he has in himself fatherhood, sonship and the essence of the family, which is love. This subject of the family is not, therefore, extraneous to the subject of the Holy Spirit." Dr. Scott Hahn, in an interview I had once seen and wish I could find, points out that the late pope does not say God is like a family, but that God is a family. He goes on to say it is more accurate to say the Hahn's are like a family. What is the difference between God as solitude and God as family? This is one Scott Hahn talk I was able to find.
The concept of God as family is the best way that we can understand the concept of the Trinity. One of the simplest, and therefore least prone to error, explanations I saw of the Trinity was in a picture in a copy of the Baltimore Catechism. It had a triangle, with each point or angle having the name of one of the Persons of the Trinity. On the inside was the word, "God." On each of the sides of the triangle, it had the words, "is not." From each angle to the center was a line with the word, "is." A quick search yielded the same picture here. Just as in many ways, earthly things imperfectly reflect heavenly things, so humanity, created in God's image and likeness, reflects this reality. Warning, I may use a little politically incorrect language from back before we forgot that when talking about the human race, "Man" included all people, male or female. I, as a human being, can say without fear of being contradicted, "I am man. I am human." Any other human being in existence can do the same thing. I am not you, and you are not I. I am not my father, nor am I my son. Regardless, I am still man, and so are you. Humanity, mankind, also consists of all men, all human beings, male and female. We are all mankind, the family of man. God even intended for us to live as family, as in Genesis 2:18 when He said, "It is not good for man to be alone." Of course it is not good, because we are meant to reflect His nature as family.
We are imperfect in our life as family here on earth, whether talking about one's immediate family, extended family or all of humanity. The Baltimore Catechism does state clearly our purpose in life, which is to know, love and serve God in this life and to be happy with Him in the next. Scripture speaks the truth in the first letter of John that, "We are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we do know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." In the context of the Trinity, I find it impossible to believe that we will live as anything less than a perfect family. Does the Church believe that we shall be resurrected, just as Jesus Christ? Yes. Does the Church believe the Scripture that we shall be like Him? Yes, not just in the glorified, resurrected bodies we too will receive, but in the fact that we will live in perfect union with each other in the heavenly family, because we will live in perfect union with the Trinity. This is a bold proclamation, and I dare to say I want to be included in that. Any Catholic faithfully attending Mass should want the same and believe it is within reach, or else it would be foolish for the priest to pray during every consecration, "By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity." If I had more time for this blog entry, I'd go straight into commenting on Corpus Christi, but lunch is finished, and the housework is not. I cannot neglect my responsibilities to my immediate family. My God, the perfect family, bless you, my family of all humanity.
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