Homily for Trinity Sunday: June 15, 2003

Given by the Most Reverend Stephen E. Blaire at the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton.

When Jesus appeared to the disciples on the mountain in Galilee, “they all saw him, they worshipped, but they doubted.”  Isn’t the same true about ourselves.  We have a strong faith in the Risen Lord.  We are here in church this morning because we believe.  Yet there are times when our faith is small.  We may wonder: is there really a God?  Is there eternal life?  What will really happen to me when I die?  We are no different than the Eleven.  There is a tension in our faith.  We believe but we can hesitate.  Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief.

The eleven disciples were the leaders in the new church and they represented all the members of the Church.  What Jesus said to them, He says to us.  Jesus made a declaration of authority; He gave them a command; and He made a promise.

“All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”  Jesus has been raised into glory and reigns at the right hand of the Father as the Lord of heaven and earth.  Through His passion, death and resurrection He is the sovereign ruler of the Church and all the earth.  To make an act of faith in Jesus is to accept His dominion over our lives and over all creation.  To live by faith is to accept this dominion of Christ over our lives.  A believer is obedient to God.

Then Jesus gave us a command:  “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”   The believer is baptized into the Trinitarian mystery of God.  God is One, but at the same time, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  This means that through baptism we become disciples of Jesus; and we are his brothers and sisters. Jesus is the way to the Father.  We walk with Jesus.  With him and through him and in Him we come to God His Father and Our Father.  All this happens by the power of the Holy Spirit.  St. Paul in his letter to the Romans, tells us that  we have “received a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ “.    The command from Jesus is to observe all that He has taught us.  The word of Jesus is the word of God.  John in his gospel tells us that the Spirit will bring to mind all that Jesus taught us and will also be our teacher.  I hope you see that our lives as members of the believing Church are dynamic and in no way static.  We live for God in Christ Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.   We can never exhaust the teachings of Jesus as found in the scriptures and the living tradition of the Church.  And the Holy Spirit continues to teach us how to live the teachings of Christ.  The Holy Spirit  continues to instruct the Church in her official teaching as the servant of God’s word. 

Finally Jesus promises “I am with you always, until the end of the age.”  Although Jesus in his transcendent, risen state reigns at the right hand of the Father in glory, He, nevertheless, is present in His church with us by the power of the Holy Spirit. In a way, His final coming has already begun. 

This is the mystery of our faith which we proclaim in the liturgy of the Mass.  Christ  has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ will come again.  We speak of our Christian faith, but it is thoroughly Trinitarian in its reality and spirituality.  We may at times doubt but we have the promise of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit to make our faith strong and secure.

Last Update June 19, 2003