Happy Trinity Sunday, as Dcn. Mick and Deacons John reminded us, this is the third of four major celebrations, the Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and Corpus Christi.
As many of you may have realized, I gave the staff the last week off. Then I decided, heck, why don’t I give myself the week off too! So, I did. Joy and I loaded up in the little airplane and flew across the Inlet to my little cabin at Alexander Creek to spend a few days.
Joy is good little flyer. She did not like the airplane at first but now that she is familiar with how it works, she doesn’t mind at all. In fact, I’ve even begun to train her on how to keep us on course in the straight and level. That way I can take a little nap. She’s quite good at it. Indeed, DOG is my copilot!
Speaking of traveling, did you catch what is going on between Moses and the Lord.
Is it me, or does Moses’ request seem a bit odd? He asks, “If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company.”
At first glance, it seems like a fair request. Who wouldn’t want God as a traveling companion, whether you are journeying through the desert or journeying through life? Why wouldn’t you want God as your copilot?
But think about it for a minute. What’s wrong with this picture…
Wouldn’t it be better to for one to want to go along in God’s company?!
I’m reminded of what Abraham Lincoln said once when someone in the crowd said that it was good that God was on their side. Mr. Lincoln looked at the man and replied, “Rather, my dear friend, let us hope that we are on God’s side.”
There is wisdom in Mr. Lincoln’s response.
Like the Israelites, we can become a stiff-necked people. They are wandering the desert, headed this way and that, and they want God to come along in their company. They’ve got it backwards.
Yet we sometimes do the same thing. How often we go about our lives, doing our own thing, making our own decisions and expecting God to simply come along for the ride and perhaps bless this wonderful mess we have made for ourselves.
How easy it is to pray, “MY will be done,” instead of “THY will be done.”
We need to let God be in charge. God knows what is best for us.
Rather, let us pray, “Lord, help me to want what you want for me.”
Simply put: If God is your copilot, you are in the wrong seat!
It is not a bad thing to want God to come along in our company, but how much better that we should go along in God’s company!
Because THAT is the invitation that is offered to us. Nothing less than to share in the very life of God.
Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday, the sacred notion that our God is a Trinity of persons in perfect, co-eternal communion. The Father loving the Son, the Son loving the Father, and that co-eternal relationship between the two of them, the Holy Spirit, so powerful that it radiates out like the warmth of a great fire. Our God is perfectly united being. Our God is relationship itself.
Like any other relationship, we can be invited to share in it. God is very jovial and invites us to come along in his company.
It happens at our baptism. We are called and invited by name to share in the very relationship that is God.
It happens at our confirmation, when we are invited to
share in the fullness of that relationship, with all of its gifts, and fruits and charisms.
It happens most especially here in the Eucharist, as we gather, share the Word, break the bread, and commune with God and one another before we are sent into the world to tell the good news.
It happens in the confessional, when we acknowledge that we have sinned against the relationship with God and with others, either injuring or severing the bond of Holy Communion. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit, power of God’s love, is more powerful than any sin we may have committed, and we are healed.
It happens when our body lies in sickness, or infirm with age, when the Holy Spirit is there to help us in our need, to strengthen us in mind, body and spirit. It happens when we are called by God to Holy Orders or consecrated life when we are called to share in the love of the Trinity, and give our life in singular devotion to Christ and his Church.
It happens in Holy Matrimony when we are called to share our lives with another in perfect imitation of the love of Christ for his spouse, and thus build up the Church and transform the world.
This is the life and the love into which we have been invited to share. To LIVE a life with purpose and meaning, invited into and proclaiming to all we meet, by what we say,
but more importantly, by what we do, the LOVE of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It is at once too much and never enough. It is infinitely ancient and eternally new.
This is the life to which the Christian is called. This is the love into which we are welcomed. It is all that we could ask for and more than we can imagine. It is beyond our greatest desires and more powerful than our worst mistakes.
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believe sin him might not perish, but have eternal life. (Jn 3:16)
This is the invitation of grace, to share in the very life of and love God and to partake of the very mystery of such a perfect communion
from now unto eternity.