In Perfect Unity
Homily for Sunday, May 26, 2024: Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
What’s your first thought when I say, “Love?”
Take a moment to just notice: What comes to your mind when I say “Love?”
It’s a weird word, when you think about it – a difficult concept sometimes. We use it to describe the deepest, most meaningful relationships we can have, and then we use it for our favorite kind of pizza.
But chances are we all have someone, or some thing, that comes to mind. Love is not abstract, it can’t exist in a void. Love needs an object, a recipient of that Love.
So what do we think of when we think of Love?
Given the context of where we are now and what we’re doing here, coming together to celebrate Mass on a Sunday morning, I’d like to think at least a few of us think of God.
Because Scripture tells us that God Is Love.
God Is Love. That is to say that Love is not just a feature of God; not just one of His many attributes; Scripture tells us Love is the defining characteristic of God. Love is who God is.
On this Solemnity of the Holy Trinity we have the chance to reflect on what this means: that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – Three Persons, united in perfect Love.
The first time I read that explanation of the Holy Trinity it felt too small to describe God. Too insular. A self-contained community of Love, I thought, doesn’t seem like it leaves room for anyone else. The problem is I was thinking too small. I was thinking in terms of human love, a limited kind of love.
I’m sure we’ve all known them – some of us may at one time or another have been them – that couple that is so wrapped up in each other that they take no notice of anyone else. Or the family, or the social group that is so tightly knit within itself that it makes no room for others. That’s imperfect love. It’s incomplete.
We can think of Love in a few different ways.
There’s a Utilitarian kind of Love – that’s the love we might have for our favorite pizza. We can love a pizza because we get what we want from it, and it doesn’t ask anything of us in return.
Some interpersonal relationships work that way too. A selfish kind of love that takes for itself without ever giving of itself. It can be great for the one person, but not very fulfilling for the other.
There is also a Transactional kind of love – each person gives as much as they need to, to get what they want. This can work out well for each of them, but this is the kind of insular, self-absorbed relationship that doesn’t let anyone else in.
Finally, there is what we call Agape Love or Charitable Love – a love which gives of itself without thought of what it gets in return. It is here that we can begin to understand that Trinitarian Love of God.
I saw a cartoon recently that showed a mother surrounded by her several children, and someone asked her: how do you divide your love among so many children? Her answer was, I don’t divide it – it multiplies.
That’s the love of God.
Love in its perfection is a creative force. God created the Universe in order to have more Love to go around. The Universe itself expands and creates more life as God’s love multiplies and resonates throughout His Creation.
The human family is an image of this Love. Man and woman are created in the image and likeness of God, and the love between them brings forth new life. A visible sign of the Trinity – of a loving unity of persons that pours out its love upon the world.
The family is what we like to call the “Domestic Church” – the nucleus, the building blocks of our Church community. And we look to the Church as a model of a perfect social community.
None of us is perfect, though. If we see faults and failings in our community, in our Church, in our families, it is because we are all broken and sinful people. We fall into the Utilitarian or the Quid-Pro-Quo types of love that might satisfy our own wants but fall short of the perfect Love God calls us to.
Saint Paul reminds us that we receive a spirit of adoption, through whom we cry “Abba, Father!” We are adopted as children of God, into His family through Jesus Christ, into the perfect love of the Trinity.
As heirs of God, as joint heirs with Christ, we are called upon to share in this outpouring of Divine Love and to participate in God’s work.
Jesus gives us the Great Commission – the Mission Statement of the Church in today’s Gospel: to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
And so we are called to emulate the Father in His work of Creation – in the raising of children, in our work, our creativity, in all the ways we contribute to the goodness and beauty of this world.
We are called to emulate the Son who emptied Himself and gave of Himself to the service of all. In our charity, in our prayer, in our acts of selflessness by which we serve those around us, we participate in Christ’s redemptive work.
And we are called to emulate the Holy Spirit in the work of evangelization. To preach and to teach, to spread Hope and Joy, to be an ever present and visible sign of God’s presence in the World around us.
We are not called to do it alone. As we recall today the truth and the mystery of the Trinity so we are reminded that we as family, as community, as Church, are called to be united in Love.