Homily June 15, 2014
Trinity Sunday
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that
whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
My guess is that if you are twenty years or older, and ever
spent an autumn afternoon in front of the television watching an NFL football
game, you would probably remember a random shot of a certain guy in the crown,
usually wearing a rainbow colored wig, holding up a sign that said “JOHN 3:
16” This guy was the original “Where’s
Waldo?” No matter where the game was
being played, no matter which two teams were playing, it always seemed that
this man was everywhere, holding up that sign, “JOHN 3:16”. Having gone to a Catholic grade school, I
knew that this sign was referring to a quotation from the Gospel of John, but I
didn’t know scripture by chapter and verse, so I had to look it up.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that
whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
This gospel reading, in one short line, sums up the reason
we can have hope for our ultimate future at the end of each and every day of
our life. No matter who we are, no
matter what we’ve done, no matter our successes and failures, no matter our
moments of grace, no matter our sins, we can be certain that God loves us. God
loves me, and God loves you.
“…that whoever believes in him should not perish but have
eternal life. For God sent the Son into
the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through
him.”
You see, God has always loved us, every last one of us,
personally. If you could imagine every
beach in the world, covered by sand, tons and tons of sand, and every grain of
sand on every beach in the world represents every person who has ever lived on this
earth, and every person alive right now, and every person who will ever
live. Imagine that many individuals, and
God loves every one of us, personally, in spite of our failings and shortcomings. The Father sent the Son to become one of us,
to be born, to breathe, to laugh and cry as we do, to suffer as we do, so that
we can share, mysteriously, in the divine life of God, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. At the beginning of the Liturgy
of the Eucharist, as the priest or deacon pours a small amount of water into
the wine, he says silently
“Through the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to
share in the Divinity of Christ, as He humbled Himself to share in our
humanity.” This is how much God loves
us.
In our first reading, we see Moses approaching the Lord on
Mount Sinai.
“Having
come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with Moses there and proclaimed his name,
"LORD."
Thus
the LORD passed before him and cried out,
"The
LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God,
slow
to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity."
Moses
at once bowed down to the ground in worship.
Then
he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord,
do
come along in our company.
This
is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins,
and
receive us as your own."
The
Hebrews of the Torah, were just like us in every way. It was a great kindness to describe them as
“stiff-necked”. They were haughty,
proud, stubborn, sinful, just like we are, and yet, in spite of all this, the
Father so loved us that he gave his only Son.
How incredibly blessed, how incredibly lucky they were. How incredibly blessed, how incredibly lucky we
are!
So,
what should our response be to this great mercy? Paul, in his second letter to the people of
Corinth, tells us…
“Brothers
and sisters, rejoice.
Mend
your ways, encourage one another,
agree
with one another, live in peace,
and
the God of love and peace will be with you.”
Did
you hear this? This bears repeating…
“Mend
your ways, encourage one another,
agree
with one another, live in peace,
and
the God of love and peace will be with you.”
Paul
goes on to say,
“Greet
one another with a holy kiss.
All
the holy ones greet you.
The
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and
the love of God
and
the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
So,
now, as we turn to the Altar, let us give thanks. In the words of Paul,…
“Brothers
and sisters, rejoice!”
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