Saint Frances Cabrini Parish

Father Kleppner - June 7, 2009
Trinity Sunday, officially "The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity," is one of the few feasts of the Christian Year that celebrates a reality and doctrine rather than an event or person. On Trinity Sunday we remember and honor the eternal God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Trinity Sunday is celebrated the Sunday after Pentecost, and lasts only one day, which is symbolic of the unity of the Trinity. As we celebrate Trinity Sunday, I share with you an article written by Patricia Datchuck Sánchez.
For us, with us, within us
Dt 4:32-34, 39-40; Ps 33; Rom 8:14-17; Mt 28:16-20

Erudite theologian and eloquent preacher that he was, the late Walter Burghardt could have impressed his listeners with his soaring verbal brilliance on the dogma of the Trinity. But, instead, he took a simpler approach. In a homily on this Sunday years ago, he told an attentive congregation, “Fear not, I shall not solve the most difficult of Christian mysteries. I shall not bore you with technical theology. But, I feel I must tell you of a God who does not dwell in outer space, “far from” what poet Thomas Gray called the madding crowd’s ignoble strife.” Our Trinity, God, three in one, is a God for us” (Speak the Word With Boldness, Paulist Press, 1994). In Jesus, God has become not only “for us” but “with us” and – through the power and presence of the Spirit – “within us.”
In today’s first reading, the Deuteronomic theologian celebrates the “for us” quality of God by reminding his contemporaries of the various moments throughout their history when God’s involvement with humankind was clearly evident. From creation to Moses, to Egypt, to the promised land, God had been present and fully invested in their lives. Israel, for its part, was exhorted to respond by fixing in their hearts the knowledge that the Lord is God. Acting upon that knowledge and living in accordance with it by keeping the commandments would assure the authenticity of their ongoing relationship with God.
Paul, in what has been called the “gospel” he shared with the Romans (second reading), continues the celebration of the “for us” character of God by affirming the intimacy of the relationship to which God calls every sinner. Not mere creatures nor slaves, those who are open to the Spirit that comes through God and through Jesus receive a new status: sons and daughters, children of God. This familiar belonging is not an adoption on paper only or a mere formality; it enables God’s children to call out “Abba,” Father, and to rest in the security that God is not only for us but with and within us.
In today’s Gospel, the Matthean Jesus sends forth God’s children with a mandate to bring the experience of God as Father-Parent, Brother Sibling and Spirit to all the world. Theologian John F.S. Harriott has suggested that this mission is to be inspired by our belief that human beings are made in God’s image. That image in its triune dimension should be reflected in our way of life.
Opportunities for imagining God as Father lie in our efforts at generation, creation and maintenance. All we do to awaken, support and cherish life, all we do to design and build, to grow and manufacture, every kind of art and technology reflects our likeness to God, our Father and Creator.
Similarly, every act of healing, every outreach of forgiveness, every sacrifice of self for the sake of the other and every embrace of the unwashed and the unwanted, every word of truth spoken fearlessly against injustice, hypocrisy, greed and violence – all these actions witness to our likeness to God, the Son and our Brother.
Our likeness to the spirit is shown in every burst of inspiration and imagination, in every advance in knowledge and wisdom, in every invention and innovation, as well as in every word and work of love.
Because the God whose varied images we reflect does not remain distant but chooses to be near, the feast of the Trinity is not only a feast of God; it is ours, as well. For it is you and it is me with whom God chooses to be involved and invested. It is in you and in me that God chooses to dwell. In love, you and I are scooped up into that embrace that has given us life and purpose and meaning. Let us not extricate ourselves from this embrace by overanalyzing. Let us simply appreciate and emulate and extend the embrace so that others may also know and experience the divine three-in-one, for us, with us and within us.

A Pennsylvania Charitable Trust

115 Trinity Drive
Center Twp., Aliquippa, PA 15001 724-775-6363 Phone
724-775-3848 Fax

www.sfcabriniparish.org