Before Mass:
There’s a couple of things I want to call to your attention as you listen to the readings.
1st reading – Have you ever seen anything
this amazing? That God actually chose a
people to be His own? If you have time
to think about it – let it sink in – Israel didn’t choose God - God CHOSE
Israel!
2nd reading
talks about how we are children of God – yeah yeah we hear that all the
time – let yourself hear it anew today – God has no grandchildren – he chooses
each one of us and adopts us as his child.
Listen for what is says about adoption.
Gospel- This is one of the only places in the Bible
that specifically mentions all three members of the Trinity. BUT – it also it talks about Baptism. That may sound like a side-comment, but it’s
key to our understanding.
Here’s the all-important question for you to Consider today: Is it possible for God exist and NOT be a Trinity?
Homily
So what do you think?
IS it possible for God exist and NOT be a Trinity?
On one hand, yeah - He is God… so God can be whatever
He wants… But God has revealed enough about himself that we KNOW He is a
Trinity. In fact, I’d go so far as to
insist that God MUST be a Trinity.
To make my point – let’s start by thinking about who
IS God? This is where you need your
thinking caps. In order to explain what
I mean, I gotta pull in two other scriptures:
We didn’t hear it today, but In the first letter of
John, he actually gave us a definition of God – see if you can fill in the
blank: “God is ____” LOVE – God is Love – it’s only three words,
but it’s packed with implications. God
is Love.
The other scripture I gotta pull in is Genesis. Remember when God first created mankind, He said,
“let us make Man in our image, in the image and likeness of God he made him,
male and female he created them.”
Catch that? You
and I are made in the image and likeness of God. YOU were made in God’s image, but HOW do You
personally image God? Does God have two
eyes, two ears and a nose? No - What IS God’s
image: We just heard it – God is Love –
So think for a second – if you are made in God’s
image, and God is Love, how do YOU personally image Love? – Let’s ask it this
way: is it possible for you by yourself to image Love? How would you do it? – IDEAS? you do it by giving someone a hug – or doing
something for someone. See – one person
BY THEMSELVES cannot image love – because Love implies relationship. You can’t have Love without
Relationship: there has to be a Lover
and a Beloved – by definition, Love implies more than one person. Do you see where this is going? God MUST be more than one person because He
is Love and Love is impossible without relationship…that’s where the Trinity
comes in.
In God, we have the Father loving the Son, the Son
loving the Father, and the Love between them is so real that we give it a name
– the Holy Spirit. The Spirit IS the
love that binds the Trinity together.
Perfect love also gives life! Because
God IS love, His greatest desire would be to share himself… so He gave life to all
of creation and humanity.
So how do we humans image God? I propose that the way we image God best is
the family. We have the Husband loving
the wife and the wife loving the Husband and the love between them is so real
that nine months later you have to give it a name! The Holy Spirit is the love that binds the
family together and the result is a new life!.
God is Love – so He must be a Trinity – He must be a
relationship of Love.
God is inviting you into relationship – with others
yes, but mainly with Him. He wants to be
your Father. Did you hear that in the
second reading?
For
those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you received a Spirit of adoption,
through whom we cry, "Abba, Father!"
we are
children of God,
and if children, then heirs,
When does this relationship begin? When do we receive the Spirit he talks
about? Baptism – Baptism is an adoption
ceremony where God chooses to call you Son or Daughter.
Some people think we shouldn’t baptize infants – ever
heard that? I was doing marriage prep
for a couple a couple months ago and the girl said – they weren’t sure they
wanted to baptize their kids as infancts – she said – we want to wait until
they reach the age of reason to decide for themselves”. So I asked her, “What age would you say”? She said
12 – twelve? Really? What 12 year old would CHOOSE to go to
church? What 12 year old is mature
enough to make a decision that impacts their eternal life? Some of us don’t reach the age of reason until
40 or 60 or heck, many of us may not be there yet.
Here’s the problem – our culture has lost the truth
about baptism. Baptism is NOT when WE
choose God… It’s when God chooses US!
It’s not OUR choice – it’s GOD’S choice.
It’s an adoption ceremony. So
let’s think about what happens in an adoption:
Picture this couple here decides to adopt an
infant. What CHOICE does that infant
have whether or not they want to be part of their family? Zero – seriously.
It’s not a choice of the child – it’s a choice of the
parents.
Parents decide I want this child to be part of my
family – I will love them forever, they’ll have my family name, they’ll live in
my house, eat at my table, I will teach them, and they will have an inheritance
with my family. This is what happens
with adoption – it’s a legal action – a choice of the parents.
Similarly with Baptism – it’s an adoption ceremony–
God says, I choose to take this child as my son or daughter – I will love them
forever, they’ll live in my house, eat at my table, I will teach them, and they
will have an inheritance of eternal life with my family. Baptism is not OUR choice – it’s God’s
choice.
In baptism you and I are grafted into the Holy
Trinity. Just as God is a relationship
of 3 people held together by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit binds us to God – even
when we stray – the Father still says “you are my son – you are my
daughter”.
Because of this relationship, We call God Father, we
call Jesus brother – and every one of us is tied together by the Holy Spirit.
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