When in the seminary, the astute professors would want to ask a question in order to see
how well we really were thinking, and so they would ask the question,
what was the Trinity doing in the time before time was created? What was the Trinity doing?
If you were smart, and most of us weren't, the answer was nothing, because before time was
created, there was nothing save the Trinity, and by that answer, they did not in any way mean to
profess that there wasn't something present before time, but simply to emphasize time itself is a
created entity, and it is created by the Creator, and so in this solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity,
we must understand the nature of the mystery, and most especially, that we are here confronted
with a supernatural mystery, which is a truth which we cannot fully understand, but which we
firmly believe because we have God's word for it. It is above our reason to understand, but not
contrary to it. No man can explain the mystery, neither can anyone know it, unless it is revealed
by God, and so in this mystery, we are here confronted with a supernatural mystery, and so
we are dealing with a mystery truly revealed by God, but it is the mystery that is the core and at
the heart of the whole of creation. Without embracing it, man falls to error, and he begins
that downward descent like the Samaritan from Jerusalem to Jericho, that is, from the highest
place in the Holy Land, Jerusalem, symbolic of heaven, to the lowest place in the Holy Land,
Jericho, symbolic of hell.
In this mystery, the mystery ultimately rests on whether we embrace this doctrine of the Most Holy
Trinity. The doctrine simply stated says, there is one God, and in the one God there are three
persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We say there are three persons in one God because
to each belongs something we cannot attribute to the other. See, we think there is no reason
involved, but there is. Why do we say there is no reason involved? We say there is no reason involved,
but we say that in the one God, truly one God, there are three persons because one has something
that cannot be attributed to the other, that is, his distinct origin. Each has an origin that is
rooted in the mystery of eternity, and so human language will always fail to grasp the very depths
of this mystery. Try, we must, to ponder into it, but we must also always approach it with that
supernatural understanding and ultimately with that understanding of St. Bonaventure. There are
some mysteries of Almighty God that are best approached with finger reverently placed over
one's mouth. Try, as we may, to understand this mystery. It is not possible, for only God himself
understands it in that unique way that he alone can understand it, but we must, if we are to
understand our very call, that is, the mystery of eternity, to ponder into it, but we must also
the call we received from our very creation. And so we try in using human language to delve into
this mystery the best we can. Even the term Father, Son, and Holy Spirit cannot quite catch
the essence of this mystery, but human language must strive to understand it according to the
limitations it has. And so we say that from all eternity the Father begets the Son. We say beget
the Son and the Son proceeds from the Father. From all eternity the Father and the Son breathe
forth the Holy Spirit and he proceeds from them as from one source. The three divine persons are
truly distinct one from another. We say there is one Father, not three fathers. We say there is one
Son, not three sons. We say there is one Holy Spirit, not three sons. We say there is one Holy
Spirit, not three Holy Spirits. Neither person is before or after the other. None is greater or
lesser than the other, but all are co-eternal and all are co-equal with each other, so that in all
things the unity and the Trinity and the Trinity in unity is to be worshipped as Saint Athanasius
would declare in the Athanasius Creed. And ultimately that is the source of our very life,
the worship of the most blessed
Trinity. And so how is the distinct origin of each person to be explained in so far as human
language can explain it? To that we owe great gratitude to the church and ultimately to the
apostles who have handed on this truth from the one whom they received it, and it is precisely
from the one whom they received it why we go forward in confidence knowing that while we
cannot penetrate the depths of this mystery, we can understand the mystery of the Holy Spirit.
We can understand it to a certain level in this life, and ultimately we will be mystified by it
for all eternity if we gain that eternal life with the blessed Trinity in the life to come.
And it is precisely this reason why we can never be exhausted nor bored in heaven because
we ponder a mystery that is truly a mystery and truly beyond our capacity and our understanding
in this life. Indeed, even when we reflect upon the purity of heaven,
the things of this life, the images it conjures diminish that which it truly is. For if you were
raised in the ivory soap generation as I was, then we talk about the purity of heaven as something
white. But then when we reflect upon that, we immediately become bored. For if heaven is simply
whitewashed walls, no one would wish to be there. But we know that that is not what heaven is like.
Heaven is where the blessed Trinity is,
and it is where we hope to go. And so we try to explain it by saying that God is a spirit,
and the first act of a spirit is to know and to understand. God's knowledge of himself from all
eternity brings forth the knowledge of himself that is his own image. This, however, is no mere
thought as our knowledge of ourselves would be, but it is a living person of the same substance
and one with the Father. As Saint John tells us,
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And it is precisely
this mystery by which we are to understand the eternal begetting of the Son from the Father.
And then the Father, seeing his own image in the Son, loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father
from all eternity. Each loves the other because each does, each sees in the other the infinity
and the beauty of divinity and the supreme truth of God. The two persons loving each other do not
merely possess, that is, have a thought of each other as we would, but their mutual love is breathed
forth in a living person, one of them and of their own substance. This is God, the Holy Spirit. This
spirit of love proceeds from the Father and the Son. It is known as the doctrine of the circumcession,
and ultimately,
if there were not three persons in one God, then we would have a serious problem. For Saint John
also confirms this doctrine when he quotes our Lord, saying, but when the Advocate has come,
whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father will bear
witness concerning me. And so, why is it that God is one and God is three? For ultimately,
if the love of the Father and the Son,
is not completed in the love of the Holy Spirit, then there is no truth to what Saint John the
Evangelist says. God is love, and it is precisely because of this communion of persons that God is
truly love. And indeed, it is this mystery that is behind the mystery revealed to us in Genesis.
For when God sought to create man, he first built the house, and then he declared,
but let we invent only the Son he created personally, a God who is pure. If there is rather none in
ALIVE, then in our own image and likeness the liking, in the image of God he created him.
Let us create man in our own image and likeness, in the image of God he created him.
Notice that the Holy Spirit inspired the author Moses to first speak in the plural.
Let us create him in our own image and likeness, in the image of God he created him and we have,
right there,
the very seeds,
on this most holy trinity it has very practical ramifications practical from the word ultimately
that means practice ramifications from that which comes out of the tree that is the limbs
it is on this truth of the trinity that all our life must be lived and we must bear the fruit of
the trinity for when we reflect upon this mystery then we begin to reflect of those profound words
that we god's creatures are created in his own image and in his own likeness and yet we are for
the church teaches very clearly that in each and every one of us there is there is there is body
and soul and in the soul primarily is reflected the image of god for there is one soul in each
and every one of us with three faculties our memory our understanding in our will but that
is not to diminish
that we are a union of body and soul for in the body we are also a reflection of the incarnation
of the son and ultimately it is that life of the blessed trinity that we are to live that life that
would be revealed to us by the son himself and so we must always seek to cooperate with the will of
god bringing about that which reflection on the trinity truly teaches us ultimately we are here to
be true to ourselves but that this is not enough we need to be ascended to Commons and Father and
to become clearly theincarnate of man that you are to be the version of common sense and it's
key to that consideration if you are a true Christian and yet you are brought to
deliverance but you show God and return to that if you want to deliver a woman that is your
own product and make it your own you are able to do that with the power of being another self
and it is about what comesAST blest not only of me especially of myself but of those around me
it is something that I am filled with I praise you for those who remain so thoroughly on the self
we must begin again to see beauty reflected in each and every one of our
neighbors. We live in a society in which that is almost universally denied. We
think because we call something, for instance, the social media, that it is
truly social, but there is really no social aspect of it. I open a Facebook
page someone says something I don't like, I just deface him, throw him out, deface
him. There is no greater insult than we can perpetrate upon a man. But we can
do it so readily and so easily and as we call the social media, because that
person whom we are called to love as ourselves, isn't standing there before us,
and each and every day of our lives,
More news comes of someone who posted something on a Facebook
that caused the other person to despair and take their lives.
There is no social aspect to such nonsense.
They can be used for good.
But we must understand, all things must be used in moderation.
How often do these things simply become a vehicle
of idleness, gossip, and all other manner of sin?
And we think because we don't do it directly to the person,
no sin is committed.
When you deface another human being,
you commit a sin.
Because we weren't here to be defaced.
It is Satan who tries to steal our identity.
And every sin each and every one of us commits
is not committed.
It is not an imitation of the love of the trinity,
but the anti-love of Satan.
How much idleness is spent in our modern world?
We go and constantly entertain ourselves.
When the price of one ticket at the latest theater
could feed 10 to 20 children in a country far away from us.
But I don't have any responsibility
to those who live in other countries.
It is the unique mystery of the reorganization
of the human family under the church through the Holy Spirit
by which we can truly declare we are all one family
in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Go forth and baptize all nations
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
None of us
None of us
None of us
is not a brother or a sister to anyone in this.
We are brothers and sisters to all, each and every one.
There are billions of people
neither you or myself will ever see in my life,
but they are my brother and they are my sister.
And I have an obligation to be generous to them
as the Holy Trinity was generous to me.
That is, not abandoning me when I abandoned him.
And so, it is not our generosity
that is reflected in our works of charity.
It is the very generosity of the Blessed Trinity.
No act of charity, insofar as it is true charity,
can be carried out in this world
without the grace of the Holy Spirit.
We may not attribute it to him,
but it is his work, insofar as it is true charity.
And it is the hubris of the modern world
to try to acquire, to acclaim, to rapine
those things that are of God.
That is, to deem equality with God
something I can grasp at.
Scripture says,
Our Lord saw equality with God,
not something to be grasped at.
Why?
Because he was the second person of the Blessed Trinity
and he had equality with God from all eternity.
Satan is the one who repined.
In each and every time
we perform an act of charity
and try to accrue the glory to ourselves,
we repine to the glory of God.
We try to steal that which is his.
As members of his body,
we are incorporated into a mystery
by which the works of Christ
and the Blessed Trinity are to be carried out
into each and every one of us.
And so, we must have a constant program
by which we try to sanctify
those faculties of the soul,
sanctifying the memory with the knowledge of God,
storing in our understanding the divine truths,
and pressing in our hearts the love of God
so we always are willing to serve him.
Memory, understanding, and will.
And how is it that we are enabled
to grasp these concepts
with the faculties of our souls
and carry them out?
Because as Saint Paul tells us,
God has no eyes on earth now but mine,
or as Saint Francis also says,
no hands but mine, no arms but mine,
no feet but mine,
because the body is a reflection of the incarnation.
It is given to us
to carry out the works of Christ.
How many
truly believe
they carry out the work of Christ
when hand in hand, arm in arm,
they walk into the modern theater shows
and then have their minds and hearts
saturated with the violence and the filth
that is perpetrated on the human family
through what we call Hollywood,
to which one of the greatest theologians
and teachers that this country has ever received
commissioned by Pope Paul VI
to be the catechetical watchdog
through cardinal heeding of this nation,
Monsignor Eugene Cavan,
declared emphatically,
every single picture
that comes out of Hollywood,
if it is attributed directly to Hollywood,
has deliberately contained within it
a blasphemy.
Deliberately.
And we see that even sometimes
in what are ostensibly good movies.
Somewhere within it is thrown in
that which blasphemes God.
How many times
are we going to read reviews
and it makes one cringe
to think that these reviews
are published by what are called
Catholic publications
in which we can go to this movie
because of justifiable violence,
justifiable blasphemy,
justifiable nudity.
When are those things ever justified?
When?
When are they justified?
Who has the right to blaspheme
the most august God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
Who has the right
to expose their flesh
in a way that tempts their neighbor?
No one.
Who has the right
to perpetrate unwanted violence
just for violence sake
on their neighbor?
And we think
these things have no ramifications.
And I must claim for myself
ignorance of this matter.
And if I had been obedient to my Father
like we should,
I would have seen it.
He once told me
that he was very fearful
of what was going on
and he used a place down the street.
He asked me one time,
Son, what do you see down the end of the street?
I told him, woods.
What was it when you were growing up?
He said, that was the ball arts, Dad.
I said, why was it the ball arts?
Because you guys played everything down there.
Football, baseball, basketball, everyone.
You tended it.
No one's tending it now.
It's literally overgrown.
And you know why?
Because kids are inside
in front of computers
and all kinds of images
learning to do what you learned down there.
You learn to associate
hitting someone with pain.
They disassociate the hitting
because when they see it
they don't feel the pain.
And so you learned
to work things out.
These children won't, Son,
and they'll be a grave price to pay.
Dad, it's a little extreme
until two months later
in reading a newspaper article
I had to say, Dad,
would you come here for a minute?
I need to apologize.
He said, why?
I said, you remember two months ago
when you told me what was going to happen?
You were right.
The article read,
a young boy of 12
killed a girl of nine.
And when the EMTs got there
the only thing the boy was saying
why won't she get up?
Why won't she get up?
They always get up on TV.
Why won't she get up?
She imitated
the wrestling entertainers
and jumped off his mother's dinner table
right into the poor girl's skull.
Thinking nothing would happen
because they always get up.
Children are children
because they're in formation.
And their minds and their hearts
must be formed according to divine truths.
These children don't know
the fifth commandment.
Or if they are told the fifth commandment
they are allowed to do things
that raise them to live contrary to it
their whole lives.
You cannot teach the child
thou shalt not kill
and then allow them to sit down
in front of constant murder.
The average American child
the average American child
I believe
by the age of 12
has seen through some media form
over 60,000 acts of murder.
On average.
On average.
On average.
Is this the life of the Trinity?
Did God come to murder us?
That is not what the doctrine teaches.
God came to love us
and to forgive us.
And it is that loveness
and forgiveness
that we must give to others.
And if the body
doesn't cooperate
with the life of the Trinity
then the world has no hope.
No hope.
If they don't see the love of the Trinity
and the mystical body of Christ
the works of the Holy Spirit
are thwarted.
Not because God gives up His omnipotence
but because God has ordained
that His power and majesty in love
be brought
through the weak vessels
that we are
but by a profound mystery
we were not worthy of.
We were incorporated
into the carrying out of His works
until the end of time.
We His body.
That is a great dignity
that can only be exercised
with great humility.
And humility begins
by recognizing
we are His creatures.
He is our Creator.
The brave new world
seeks to go forth
without knowledge
and love of the Holy Trinity.
And that's why
the brave new world
is a cruel world.
And don't delude yourselves
into thinking
that the author was condemning it.
He wanted it.
He wanted it.
Simply because
of a hatred of God.
If you don't believe
that the majority of what
our minds are being formed with
are formed by people
who are anti-God
then go to the sources.
Someone can sit here
and tell you all they want
for instance
that the Star Trek
you know
to boldly go
where no man has gone before
just innocent scientific fun
not in the minds
of Gene Roddenberry
its creator
who in the Humanist Magazine
was quoted
and I quote
the whole purpose of it
was to do away with the notion
of a blood sacrifice
that is the sacrifice of Christ.
He spent two weeks
of his childhood
in a Catholic convent
of good sisters
who loved him
but somehow
acquired a hatred
not only for God
but for the holy sacrifice
of the Mass.
And if the composer
the director
the writer
the producer
the creator
of something says
this is its purpose
then we are not to argue
with his purpose.
We are simply to refuse
cooperation with it.
If he said his purpose
was to do away
with the Christian notion
of a blood sacrifice
believe him.
Believe him.
He means it.
And every single one of them
mean it.
We think because
it's technologically sound
that is spectacular
or marvelous
with the latest fad
that it's okay.
We have no reflection
about what it's really saying.
When we allow our children
to sit down
and listen to hours
and hours
and watch hours
and hours
of the transformers
do we understand
what the cosmology
involved is?
Go to the director.
Or the matrix.
Go to the directors.
In speaking with a young man
and watching it
it was very easy
to conclude
if you have any
catechetical knowledge
at all.
First conclusion
the directors were Catholic.
Second conclusion
one of them
is probably no longer
what God created him to be.
That is
a man.
Now you can figure it out
because he no longer is.
And it was easy to see.
As long as you have the power
to manipulate matter
you can manipulate it
any way you want.
That is tyranny.
That is not love.
That is tyranny.
Two pills to take.
Ah.
Tree of life.
Tree of knowledge.
Of good and evil.
And when this
so called
new messiah
is freed
why is he freed?
Because he chooses
not to go the route
of baptism.
It is so clear
if you just know
your catechism
and then if that is not
good enough
go to the ones
who do it.
They say it themselves.
They teach it.
It is an interesting thing
how many of them
are invited in
to give seminars
at universities.
We must understand
this reality
in our modern world.
This phenomenon
that is contrary
to our faith.
Contrary to the love
that today's solemnity
puts before us.
Contrary
to the mystery
of the Trinity.
Before time
God was perfectly content
in himself.
He needed nothing.
He could not be augmented.
He could not be made glorious.
He could not be made
more magnificent
more beautiful
or any of those things.
He could not be made more.
He simply was.
And then
in a mystery
that is truly
beyond our comprehension
it seems that eternity
could not contain
the love of God.
That's not true by the way.
But human language
has to try
to speak of the mystery
and it has to use terms
that seem almost contradictory.
But the reality is
and scripture seems to indicate
that eternity
couldn't contain
the love of God
and so it spilled over
in the act of creation
or as the scriptural language
says
God wanted to
tabernacle
to be with man.
And the truth is
we can't increase
his happiness
one iota.
He did it
for us.
No gain in him
just complete generosity
and that is what we
must begin again
to manifest to the world
by being
by being contrary
to a culture
that is contrary
to Christ.
And contrary to Christ
means contrary to the Trinity
where it is not acknowledged
and adored.
And now
formally
the constitutions
of many nations
began
with a preamble
that began
with professing belief
in the Trinity.
Now even in Ireland
the last bastion
that preamble
has been removed.
That is not simply
a symbolic removal
of God
from the human family
it is
real removal.
And it will only be
through sacrifice
and suffering
and a willingness
to die
to defend these truths
that God will again
become known
loved
and served
in this life
so that all of us
may be happy with him
in the life of eternity
for which
he has created us
to participate
in that which we have
no right
to participate.
And so let us
always remember
science
has not the right
to put God
under the microscope.
Science
has not the right
to declare
when God created us.
No thing
that comes directly
from God
comes under
the vein
of science
because
science itself
is a created entity
that can tell us
nothing
of the origins
of God
because
that
is a matter
of faith
and supernatural
grace.
And so
let us
always remember
the Trinity
is in charge
he has
always been
in charge
of our
lives
he has come
to give us
a life
let us live
that life
so that it is
not the brave
new world
we cooperate
with
but that ancient
world
that world
that began
before time
began
and let us
not get
bogged down
by that
which
depresses
us.
How big
is the universe
it really
in the end
won't matter
because as
Saint Augustine
points out
it's measured
not by
weight
or quantity
or size
but by
time.
When time
is up
creation
is up
and so
let us
each
take advantage
of the time
that God
has given
us
for is it
appointed
once
for man
to live
and then
to die
let us pray
to enter
into that life
of the trinity
for all eternity
in heaven.
Will Jesus
be excessive
also
one
who
Found
to be
God
is
always
beautiful
for
all
days
in
all
years
daily
and daily