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Homily for the feast of the
Most Holy Trinity - Year A - Jn. 3:16-18
by
Canon Dr. Daniel Meynen
" For God so loved the
world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world,
not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through
him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe
is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the
only Son of God. "
Homily:
" For God so loved the
world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have eternal life. "
In today's Gospel, it is
Saint John who speaks to us. On this feast of the Most Holy Trinity,
Saint John sets forth his faith in this Mystery. For today we celebrate
the principal Mystery of our faith: the Trinity.
Let us remember that, in
the Christian religion, a Mystery is a truth that we do not, and
cannot, fully understand. All we can do is say something about it, a
few words that approach the Mystery without circumscribing it
completely.
So when we speak of the
Mystery of the Trinity, there is always something that escapes us,
whether we want it to or not. Nevertheless, when it is a man, like you
or I, who speaks of the Holy Trinity, we are more able to understand
what he says than when it is, for instance, Jesus who speaks to us of
his Father or of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, what Jesus says about the
Most Holy Trinity is based on what he understood in the Holy Spirit,
without the intermediary of faith: Jesus does not have faith, but he is
the One in whom we believe. On the other hand, what I say to you, or
what Saint John says to us in today's Gospel, is based on what we have
understood in and through the faith we profess in the Most Holy Trinity.
Far be it from me to make
myself equal to Saint John: I did not receive the charism of the
Apostles. But all those who, having faith, speak of the Holy Trinity
offer to those who listen to them a discourse colored by the virtue of
faith, which imbues the entire person. In other words, those who have
faith in the Most Holy Trinity, the first among them being the Most
Blessed Virgin Mary, are the ones best suited to speak of this Mystery
to all the believers who listen to them. Moreover, let us note the
following. In Rome, on April 12, 1947, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary
appeared, holding a Book (undoubtedly the Bible), and said to the
visionaries: "I am She who is in the Divine Trinity."
Jesus is the only one who
can reveal the Father to us and speak to us about Him: "No one knows
the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son
and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." (Mt. 11:27) But is
the Son, Jesus, able to reveal himself and make himself fully known to
all who listen to him? For Jesus has just said: "No one knows the Son
except the Father." So, even if Jesus presented himself to the men of
his time as the Son of God, having openly said: "I am the Son of God"
(Jn. 10:36), this revelation of himself could be fully believed and
truly perceived by the understanding of the faith only through an
action proper to the Father!
This is confirmed by the
episode of Caesarea and the profession of faith of the Apostle Peter: "
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked
his disciples, «Who do men say that the Son of man is?» And
they said, «Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and
others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.» He said to them,
«But who do you say that I am?» Simon Peter replied,
«You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.» And Jesus
answered him, «Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and
blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in
heaven.» "
When Peter speaks about
Christ, when we proclaim the Word of God, the Father truly acts in us,
but not directly. It is the Holy Spirit who works in us and in those
who hear us: "While Peter was still saying this, the Holy Spirit fell
on all who heard the word." (Acts 10:44) For between the Holy Spirit
and Christ's faithful there exists a very intimate relationship, like
that between spouses, a relationship that somewhat resembles that of
the Son of God with his humanity. Hence Blessed Elizabeth of the
Trinity exclaims, in her prayer: "O consuming Fire, Spirit of love,
arise in me in order that in my soul there might be, as it were, an
incarnation of the Word; may I be to Him a growing humanity in which he
renews all of his Mystery."
With Elizabeth of the
Trinity, with all the saints, and above all with the Most Blessed
Virgin Mary, let us announce to the entire world this great Mystery:
God is Love, he is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! Amen!
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