__ Click here / Audio of Homily __
2022-06-12 – Trinity Sunday
●●
Proverbs
8:22-31 ● Psalm 8 ● Romans 5:1-5 ● + John
16:12-15 ●●
TITLE:
Who is the Trinity ? Who is the enemy ?
[_01_] This Sunday is Trinity Sunday. We could say that every day is “Trinity Sunday” because we begin every Mass, every prayer, with the sign of the cross: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…”
The
Trinity reminds us explicitly that we are made in the image and likeness of God
and that we are made for communion with God that God is a trinity or a
communion, a family of three persons, and we are made to be part of God's
family, no matter how alone we might feel that we are part of the Holy Trinity,
and God is united to us.
Being made in the image and likeness of God is part of Bilbical teaching and reminds us of the following that there is in each of us a quality or character of DISTINCTION, of DISCERNMENT, of DEVELOPMENT. (CCC 1700)
[_02_] First,
DISTINCTION.
Genesis
1:27 “God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male
and female he created them.”
This
is a character of DISTINCTION being human, in the image of God.
There
is also a character of DISCERNMENT of being human, in the image of God. After
the original sin, fall of Adam and Eve, God did not simply ask them “what they
did”, but also “why did you did you do this?”
(Genesis 3:13). So, there is a character of DISCERNMENT. Sometimes, we
discern wrongly, but there is discernment.
Also,
there is a character of DEVELOPMENT. Each of us is a work in progress. And, the
development is to become like God (Wisdom 8:7) or as Jesus urged, “deny
yourself, take up your cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).
So, in
the image of the Trinity, under the sign of the cross, we are given a character of DISTINCTION,
DISCERNMENT, and DEVELOPMENT, being in the image of God. [pause]
[_03_] Do you want to be happy? Thomas Aquinas writes
that we want to be happy that being happy is part of the way we are made, we
are made naturally to be happy.
Now I may
have definitions of happiness that differ from your definition of happiness, or
God's definition of happiness. I may define happiness as wealth, I may define
happiness as health, or as being wise in my own estimation.
Those are
material definitions of happiness. But God is saying Thomas Aquinas is
reminding us that we are we are made to be happy and that everything we do is
about our pursuit happiness.
[_04_] I just like to give an example of this from an
autobiography, a book I read recently, about a young man who went to law
school, he went to law school to study to be maybe one day an attorney or a
judge. He enrolled at Harvard Law School. This is a real nonfiction book, by
Scott Turow.
The book is called “One L” because it is the
abbreviation or acronym, the number 1 “uno” and L as in Lima or L as in Law
School. Every first year law student – at every university is called a 1-L. And the author writes about being a
1-L.
[_05_] Why did Scott Turow go to law school? Well, he
thought he'd be happy at law school. But, he found out he was really unhappy
for a while at law school, but the solution was not to leave law school. The
solution for him as he speaks and writes about was something else.
He writes
that – at the law school “I met or encountered my enemy.” Who is his enemy at Harvard
Law School?
Well, he
and his classmates are very competitive. They're all competing for the highest
grades to score in high 90’s or 100% or get A's or to be on law review.
[_06_] So maybe his enemy is the other students whom
he is competing against. I have been in competition with others. Sometimes I
compete against others or I compare myself to others have i alienated myself
from others due to competition does competition create enemies?
Another
example is that some of his homework assignments and classes are really
difficult. And he is criticizing often the professors the teacher is the one
who stand up in front of the microphone or in front of the podium. And he has
he finds fault with his teachers, many of his teachers, he finds fault with
them.
He is criticizing
them and he and his classmates are criticizing them all the time. Even the
great teachers get criticized. Maybe criticism creates enemies. Maybe his
professors are his enemies?
I fault I
have found fault with others. This perhaps begins early in life. Perhaps you at
times or I at times have found fault. Even with a loving mother and father, we may
find fault with or criticize our parents. We criticize our parents, even though
they love us.
Or we find
fault with a teacher or a coach or the landlord or a neighbor or some authority
figure we may find fault with our spouse. We may find fault with our children,
we may be critical of others. Does criticism create enemies is criticism or
other people the enemy in other words, well
Scott Turow is really writing and kind of discovering in this secular example,
that his enemy is not his classmates. His enemy is not his teachers. His enemy
is himself.
[_07_] He goes to law school and discovers that he is
his own worst enemy and I've discovered that at times that I am my own worst
enemy. Yes, Satan, the evil spirit exists as an adversary as a deceiver to you
and me.
But the
evil spirit sometimes just sets me against myself, because I can be my own
worst enemy.
1 example
in the book brought this together, that there was one particular classroom episode
with a demanding professor. There were about
200 students in the classroom and one very demanding professor. And the rule in
the class was that you had to reply if the professor called on you, unless you
wrote him a note 2 hours in advance of class. But who was going to do that? Who
could remember to do that all the time? That was the rule. And one day, the
professor called on somebody who was not prepared and who had not written the
required note.
And the
professor continued to ask him questions, because this is what he did. He would
not hesitate to cause you some embarrassment, if you didn't know the answer.
And he caused embarrassment for this young man in the class. And, all the other
students rose up in rebellion. They felt that they were being treated so
unjustly because the professor went so far in causing embarrassment and shame
on their classmate. They had a point. But that was the rule in the class.
And so
they complained to everybody who would listen. The students complained to each
other students, they complained to the Dean of the Law School, the students
complained to other professors that students complained to the president of the
law school. It was a proof that the students were their own worst enemies as
well, in that they created this big problem. It ultimately got back to the
professor that the professor was extremely unpopular at this point. The very
next class that came about was on a Monday morning, the professor walked into
the classroom, took off his jacket, took out his briefcase, put his briefcase
on the desk, opened his briefcase, took out his papers and said, “You know,
it's Monday morning, I was out of town over the weekend, I didn't have a lot of
time to work. So I almost came in unprepared!”
Scott Turow’s
immediate reaction: “that was the closest to an admission of guilt or an
apology as we were going to get. But it was enough for us and it broke the
tension.”
It's hard
to admit you're wrong. It's hard for us to admit our wrongs. But admitting
we're wrong is part of what can make us happy. Ironically, admitting what
repenting of our sins can make us happy, reminding us that we're in need of
God's grace can make us happy. And that and to remind us also that if God is
for us, who can be against us, that in this regard we need not we need not fear
who is against us anymore.
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