“BLESSED BE THE HOLY TRINITY AND THE UNDIVIDED UNITY”
Saint John 3: 1-15
The Feast of The Holy Trinity: 11 June Anno Domini 2017
Father Jay Watson SSP
In The + NAME of Jesus… which of course, since in Christ dwells the fullness of the Godhead—Bodily—means: In The Name of The Father and of The + Son and of The Holy Ghost
Blessed be The Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity. That’s about the best we can do…it’s enough.
Believe, teach, and confess always trumps work, work, work, or pontificate, bloviate, and opinionate.
The two mistakes a follower of The Christ can make when it comes to Christ’s revelation of The Blessed Trinity is to: a) ignore it, or b) attempt to master it, control it, and try to dominate it with ones intellect. As Philip Melanchthon said “better to adore the Divine mysteries than to try to explain them.”
The Feast of The Holy Trinity is not a day devoted to a doctrine, a mere Church teaching, that must be delivered as instruction…as good and necessary as catechesis is. This day is again the Day of The Lord. This is a day when the Godhead as revealed by God—by The Lord Jesus Himself, feeds you, forgives you, and nourishes you on the Word; The Word made flesh. And you need this!
You are all “a man of the Pharisees” in that your old nature sins repeatedly and then self justifies. While not being a “ruler of the Jews” your ego and will does attempt to rule most situations and people you come into contact with. And, like Nicodemus, your “old Adam” knows that Christ is a teacher from God and did incredible miracles. That is not enough.
“Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” Gospels Jesus to all of you. This means, “in The Name of The Father and of The Son and of The Holy Ghost.” When Jesus reveals “The Baptismal Formula” to the “12” at the end of Matthew’s Evangel, it is only a more pin-point and precise definition of the same mysterious Essence and Nature of God that was/is revealed at the Mount of Transfiguration; at the River Jordan with The Baptist, and at numerous times in the Hebrew Scriptures. [Isaiah’s Trisagion]
You need not be able to comprehend Three in One and One in Three. You confess The Truth of The Lord and hold on to it; guard it and live the Trinitarian life in love and service to God and your neighbor. Attempting to wrestle the infinite glory and transcendence of The Trinity into your finite brain is like trying to teach your cat Mandarin Chinese.
The infinite Deity of God can inhabit the finite nature of matter—when and where it pleases God: “the wind bloweth where it listeth” but we simply with gratitude and Spirit worked faith receive The Faith—The Christ—His person and work.
The Trinity is all about love because God is love.
If God were one and only one Person, He would be a lifeless, solitary, obelisk… like the stone monolith in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey—powerful, maybe, but beside the point. A thing by itself neither would create nor would know how to love…know how to be: “for you.” But even before Genesis 1 The Lord was not just One but Three-in-One and One-in-Three. Before the foundation of the Universe The Godhead was love amongst Itself—it’s selves—it’s unique persons. As Saint Augustine, imperfectly, but still helpfully, said: the eternal Father is the eternal lover, the Eternal Son is the eternal beloved; The Eternal Paraclete is the eternal Love itself. Motion, dialogue, interaction and love within the immanent Trinitarian Godhead of which we really can’t speak. We rather receive the gifts of This Trinity as economy…as spiritual good and indeed physical goods in time and space…as Jesus reveals in His words.
“For God so loved the world…” i.e. God The Father loved the world in the way of the Cross. The 1st Person loved His eternally begotten Son, The 2nd Person so much, infinitely, that He let the Word become The Messias…indeed eternally willed The Agnus Dei from before creation—The Lamb slain from eternity. The Son loved His Father so much, infinitely, that He joyously kept the Law which you break; that He lovingly suffered and died on the Crucifix to atone for your sins—to pay your punishment. The 3rd Person so loves The Father and The Son that He is overflowing and never ending in His comfort for you. Yes, The Holy Ghost eternally spirates, is breathed out as The Spirit from within the inner and mysterious workings of the Trinity…but too, The Holy Ghost is sent in time by Jesus praying The Father to send you another helper—The Advocate—The Lord and Giver of Life.
You confess the Creeds. You confess The Nicene Creed with its sublime and concise sacramental mysteries. You can confess the fullness of This Faith in the much longer Athanasian Creed. But God lives out His reality—“for you” in your re-birth into His Son’s Blood and Water shed at Calvary—your own unbloody, blood + Baptisms into He Who is life itself.
The Spirit has called and gathered you here this day. The Spirit bids you to come forward to The Feasts of The Lamb. You are constrained by The Father’s invitation and are honored as royal priests.
You come forward, but you do not ascend up to heaven…not yet. He that came down from heaven in His incarnation by The Spirit of the Virgin…Who is ever Incarnate and ever seated at the right hand of His Father’s majesty, deigns to descend again in meekness and truth to make His meal Sacramental and His Body and Blood truly Present. “Blessed be The Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity. You are children of “Our Father.” You have peace and forgiveness. And by The Spirit you can say…
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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