Trinity Sunday 2023

 

“Let us Make Man in OUR Image”

 

In the very FIRST chapter of the Bible, just 26 verses in we hear God refer to God’s self as “OUR”

 

It says “Let us make Man in our image” – so already, from the very beginning, we see that God is not just one God but some conglomeration of persons. 

 

And yet God is also one God.  God first tells Moses God’s name when God says “My name is I AM”

 

It took the Catholic Church about 400 years to figure out exactly how best to understand the Trinity.

 

But here is the point of today’s homily – one of the great figures in that hashing out of the Catholic Church’s understanding of the Trinity – God being one God but 3 persons, was St. Athanasius, and St. Athanasius wrote this: “Jesus was made man that we might be made God (On the Incarnation, Ch. LIV, Pt. III, circa 4th Cent. A.D.).

 

Also, similarly, St. Basil, (whose relic is right there on the rerdos) said this: “Through the Spirit…we attain what is beyond our most sublime aspirations – we become God.”

 

That is why Jesus told his disciples “It is better that I go so that the Holy Spirit can come upon you.”

 

At the very beginning of the Bible, it says that each human person is made in the image and likeness of God, but now, with the Holy Spirit coming upon each of us at our baptism and confirmation, we become God.

 

Do you believe that?  And if you do believe it, do you share that with others?  If we are meant to, even now, on this side of Heaven, begin to participate in the very life of the God, are we sharing that news with others?

 

So often, we and those around us fall NOT into the trap of asking or expecting too much of God, but rather we can fall into the trap of expecting too LITTLE of God. 

Let us boldfully claim our rightful inheritance as baptized and confirmed Catholics dwelling in the very life of God with joy and peace that will attract others to seek out what we have found in the Catholic Church!