I always liked what a parishioner once wrote to the bishop about her pastor: “For six days of the week he is invisible and on the seventh day, he is incomprehensible.” I would hope no one could write the same about me. But incomprehensible is a word that certainly comes to this feast of the Most Holy Trinity. Trinity Sunday has been called the “preacher’s nightmare.” How do we clothe in human words the mystery of God’s very Being? Saint Thomas Aquinas said that one can know only THAT God is, not WHAT God is.
So what can I say to you today? I can surely say that before the mystery and majesty of the Triune God, we become aware of our unworthiness, our nothingness, the fact that we are but God’s creatures. Today the psalmist asks: “What is man that you should be mindful of him, or the son of man that you should care for him?” Yet faith takes us a little farther along and we also realize that despite our unworthiness God has made us his children. When in his love, the Father sent the Son to save us through his cross and resurrection and then sent us the Holy Spirit, we were granted the privilege of sharing the very life of God when we were baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
So we can say, that God is indeed mindful of us....that we, little less than the angels are crowned with glory and honor. We can say with Saint Paul that the love of God is poured into our hearts. We are heirs to heaven!
But this inheritance requires a response on our part. Today I would like to mention just one response we can make to the awesome mystery of God: REVERENCE. This is a virtue to rediscover, to cultivate, to restore. It helps us to realize that there is something more important, more beautiful, more wondrous in the universe than oneself. Reverence does not center on the greatness of ourselves but on the greatness of God.
Today’s feast is a good occasion to consider our reverence in this very place—the Lord’s house. We should look seriously at our deportment, our dress, the level of our respect for others who wish to pray here before, during and after Mass. So often we can be so loud and chatty. Some people have told me that people talk through the Mass and that they had to move to another pew in order to pray and focus on the Mass. Last year, at a Confirmation ceremony, a sponsor took his laptop to church and actually opened it during the homily! I doubt he was taking notes! I would not be surprised if people texted during Mass. Would they perhaps text another member of the congregation: “When is this homily going to end?”
Consider our regard for the Holy Eucharist: Do we remember to genuflect or bow when passing in front of the tabernacle? Are we careful in the way we receive into our hands the Holy Eucharist? We should never become too casual in our relationship with God.
I wonder what a visitor to our church would observe and what he or she would take away from the visit? The Lord is here present in his body, blood, soul and divinity. He dwells here as the heart of our community. We possess a gift that is so precious, it goes beyond words. What is our response? Today let us ask the Lord for the grace of reverence.
