Trinity Sunday (C) 2019 by Jerry Fuller, O.M.I. Some behaviors in one part of the country are difficult to appreciate in others. Catholics in the North live in a milieu where Catholic numbers are in the high double digits of percentages, whereas in the South, except for some pockets, Catholics can number less than 10 percent. Older Southern Catholics grew up not just as a minority, but they grew up with a great deal of prejudice against Catholics as well. One of the effects of this on Southern Catholics was to learn the advantages of a low profile--therefore, making the Sign of the Cross in public would be most discreet, if used at all. A young Southern Catholic family, not having learned to pray in public as a result, was recently out to eat. Beside them at one table was a family, most likely Baptist, that held hands around the table and praying aloud blessed their food. Ironically, to another side of our family was a family that was also saying a blessing before the meal. This family used the Sign of the Cross and recited the familiar "Bless us, O Lord." As often happens, the youngest child asked in an embarrassingly loud voice, "Why don't we pray, Daddy?" So Daddy began a very quiet, almost whispered, "Bless us, O Lord..." The youngest asked again even demanded, really in an even louder voice, "What about, In the name of?...." (1) Today is Trinity Sunday. We honor the greatest mystery of our faith. Actually, we honor God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit three Persons in one God. The fact that we can never understand how three persons can exist in one Godhead just happens to be the greatest mystery of our faith. The Trinity is at the center of our spiritual life. The sign of the cross is just one reminder of this. But unfortunately we seldom think of the Trinity. The great modern theologian, Karl Rahner, said, "One might almost dare to affirm that if the doctrine of the Trinity were to be erased as false, most religious literature could be preserved almost unchanged throughout the process." Another theologian said, "we see very little evidence of [the doctrine of the Trinity's] influence in daily Christian life...." (2) Perhaps we can show somewhat why the Trinity is so important. The Holy Trinity is based on relationships. Our life is based on relationships. The Trinity is based on love. Our life, if it is to be healthy, must be based on love. The Trinity is based on truth. So our life must be based on truth. A story bringing out truth has to do with a rabbi of great holiness and wisdom. He was summoned in the middle of the night to the local inn. When he arrived, the innkeeper said, "Rabbi, I need your help. All of my money has been stolen. Since the robbery, no one has left this room. Please, rabbi, find out which of these is the thief." As the five who were suspected of the theft watched anxiously, the rabbi thought for a moment. Then he said to the innkeeper, "Bring over the big old pot from the fireplace. And a rooster." Mystified, the innkeeper brought over the big, soot-covered pot while his son retrieved the rooster from outside. "Turn the pot upside down over the rooster," the rabbi instructed. Turning to the five suspects, the rabbi said, "Now each of you put your hands on the bottom of the pot. When the guilty one touches it, the rooster will crow three times." Each of the five touched the pot, but the rooster never crowed. There was some laughter, but he remained calm. "Now, hold up your hands." When they held up their palms, the rabbi saw that all were covered with black smudges of soot from the pot except one. The rabbi pointed to the man with the clean hand and said, "Sir, return the money. You are the thief." How did the rabbi know? Because the thief was too afraid to be discovered to actually touch the pot." (3) Now we're not saying that the rabbi was some kind of mashugganah Fr. Brown, the famous English clerical sleuth. But as a man of God, the rabbi knew that to love God means to live the truth. Jesus lived the truth. He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." The Father sent the Son because he could not in all truth let the sin of man in Adam and Eve go uncovered. They had sinned against God and that not only had to come out, it had to be atoned for. The Holy Spirit is called by Jesus himself the Spirit of Truth. "When he comes," Jesus says, "he will teach you all things, and bring to your mind all that I have taught you." The Trinity is not only the basis of all truth, but it is also the reason why all things exist. All things are connected. Science is bringing this out as it discovers the secrets of nature. If an atom bomb is detonated in India or Pakistan, the measuring instruments in the first world immediately record the earth tremors. More than this, however. We are connected in a divine design of inter-relatedness that boggles our mind. We are connected to the sun, and could not live without it; we are vitally connected to the stars their explosions long ago produced the carbon compounds that eventually produced life, and in a very slow process, resulted in human life, in us. Our connectedness becomes more and more evident today. Many of us have become aware of what is called the Butterfly Effect, first brought to our attention in 1961 by a research meteorologist named Edward Lorenz. He was interested in why he could not come up with a foolproof weather forecast (we know very well that weather forecasts are not foolproof!). What he found through research was that every weather pattern is acutely sensitive to the conditions present at its creation. When a butterfly beat its wings in Tokyo, it affected the weather a week later in New York. It's a fascinating chain of events or causality. One thing is really connected to another. (4) The Trinity, as we can see, then, is at the center of everything. All that affects us comes from the Trinity. We call it "grace." In one of his sermons, Professor Fred Craddock recalls his Sunday visit to a new church. He had casually asked at his motel where the nearest place for worship was, obeyed the directions, and arrived at a little storefront church nearby. He found the congregation warm and welcoming, a little shabby and worn by the vicissitudes of life. It was not a wealthy area, nor one in which people had an easy time; he looked at the church bulletin, read the notices, and listened attentively to the gentle playing of an old harmonium as he prepared himself to worship God with the congregation. Then, just as service was about to begin, a rather bedraggled choir arrived in procession, followed by a huge lumbering man who was the preacher. He had obviously been disabled at birth, and walked in an awkward, difficult manner down the aisle to the front of the church. He had great difficulty in maneuvering his large body, and there was little that could be described as dignified in his appearance and demeanor. However, once at the front he began to conduct worship with a strong, slow voice that cast a spell over the congregation. As Professor Craddock listened and observed, he found himself caught up in a spirit of worship that he had not experienced very often. Here, despite the limitations of the preacher, his lack of physical attractiveness, and his limited education and experience, was someone who spoke to these people of the mystery of God. In and through the worship, through the prayers and the preaching, Professor Craddock was very conscious of the spirit of God being at work in the preacher and in the people. As the congregation left that morning, Professor Craddock thought he would hang Back and speak to the preacher alone to ask something of his background. He wanted to talk to him about his experience of the worship. As he waited, one elderly lady looked up at the preacher and said to him, "I wish I knew your mother. What is her name?" The preacher replied slowly and deliberately. "Her name was Grace." Later on, during his discussion with this preacher, Professor Craddock remarked on this little incident that he had witnessed. The preacher looked at him, smiled, and said, "When I was born, my natural parents rejected me. They found this baby too horrific and difficult to cope with. So I was put in a home and fostered for most of my childhood years. Then in adolescence I was placed with a foster family where I was encouraged to go to church. In that church I received such nurture, such love, such affirmation, and appreciation for myself, rather than condemnation for my looks, my disability, and my limitations, I discovered God, a mysterious and yet real person, that was my mother. In real terms I discovered my mother in the church through the spirit of God, revealing to me the love of God for me in Jesus Christ and inviting me to relate to God the Father. (5) Here is an example of God's work. It is something of a Beauty and the Beast story in which this man, and actually all of us, have nothing lovable in ourselves. But we find that God loves us because he has put love, grace, in us, and it is that love he has put in us that God is loving. Just as in the Trinity, the Father knows and loves the Son, and so begets the Son; and the Son and the Father love each other; and the love proceeding from the Father and the Son for each other meets in a third Person called the Holy Spirit: so in this way we can say with St. John "God is love. And in this way we can come as close to understanding the Trinity as possible, namely, when we go out to others and love them. 1. Fr. Edward Steiner, "The Holy Trinity," The Priest 54, no. 5 (May 1998): 22 (Our Sunday Visitor, 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington IN 46750). 2. Patricia Datchuk Sanchez, " Mystery of faith," Celebration, (June 1998): 257 (Lectionary Homiletics Inc., 13540 East Boundary Road, Building 2, Suite 105, Midlothian VA 23112). 3. Connections, "Afraid of the dirty truth," June 1998 (Connections, MediaWorks, 7 Lantern Lane, Londonderry, N.H. 03053-3905) 4. Good News, "Model homily," 25, no. 6: (June 1998) 194 (Liturgical Publications Inc. 2875 South James Drive, New Berlin WI 53151). 5. Ibid., 195-196.