Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Homily for Holy Trinity Sunday, Vigil

June 3, 2023

 

To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/6.3.23_Landry_ConCon_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a privilege for me to be with you as we enter into the consequential conversation the Risen Lord Jesus wants to have with each of us on Holy Trinity Sunday.

* Every Sunday is, in a very real sense, dedicated to God and therefore every Sunday really is Trinity Sunday. But since the 1300s, the Church has celebrated on the Sunday immediately following Pentecost a feast dedicated to the Holy Trinity, to help all of us focus more explicitly on who God is in his profound mysterious depths, and therefore who we’re called to be made in His image and likeness.

* Often when you ask people what is the most important teaching in Christianity, you’ll get various answers. Some will say the Incarnation or the Resurrection. Others will say “Love one another as I have loved you,” or “Whatever you did to the least of my brothers, you did to me.” But the top of the hierarchy of Christian teachings is the revelation of the Blessed Trinity. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in an incredibly important paragraph, emphasizes, “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life.”

* The teaching about the Trinity is what separates Christians from adherents of every other religion. Ancient Greek and Roman pagans were polytheists, believing in many different gods, often at war with each other. Buddhists are non-theistic agnostics, who organize their life around a moral philosophy and discipline. Hindus are pantheistic. Jews and Muslims are monopersonal monotheists. We Christians, on the other hand, are Trinitarian monotheists. That’s why the Catechism stresses that the mystery of the Trinity is the central teaching of Christian faith and life. It goes on to say why: “It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the ‘hierarchy of the truths of faith.’” The mystery of the Trinity enlightens the mystery of Creation, the mystery of Redemption, the Mystery of Sanctification. It illumines every page of Sacred Scripture. It sheds light on the four last things. It reveals what is at the root of all of the sacraments and prayer.

* The Catechism paragraph concludes, “The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men ‘and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin” (CCC 234). Underneath the history of the world, underneath our own personal history from the moment of our conception in our mother’s womb, until now and beyond, has developed within this mystery of the Blessed Trinity. Therefore, it’s crucial for us as human beings, not to mention believers, to pour ourselves into the mystery of the Trinity. This means not just pouring our minds, but our heart, soul, strength and entire existence, into this reality. The Catechism underlines that the mystery of the Trinity is not just the central mystery of Christian faith but also Christian life. The Christian life — your life, my life — is meant to be a Trinitarian life.

* And so as we prepare to enter into the consequential conversation the Second Person of the Trinity wants to have with us this Sunday, we need to consider how we live a Trinitarian life.