Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
Today we commemorate St. Hilary, who was a doctor of the Church and a father of the Church. He was born in the year 310, was baptized only in 345, soon after that became a bishop in 353, and then died in 367.
He lived in a time when the divinity of Christ was being denied by some, even by many, and he lived in a time when the articulation of the doctrine of the Trinity was still happening, and he contributed to both, defending the doctrine of the divinity of Christ, Christ is God, and the Trinity, we believe in one God in three persons.
And the teaching on the Trinity is so important for us, and St. Hilary dedicated himself to it, because it's not just a doctrine, an abstract knowledge of God, but it's really a way of life for us Christians. The Trinity is our way of life. We are called to live like the Trinity. We believe, yes, in one God, in three persons, not three gods, three persons, constituted in their identity by their eternal processions, to use the technical term, and it's these processions that constitute the relationships, and these relationships that give identity to the three persons who are one in divinity, but yet different in the fact that they are three persons. Three persons because of these relationships that exist from all eternity.
The Father generates the Son. The Son is generated by the Father. Father and Son breathe forth, they spirate the Holy Spirit. He proceeds from Father and Son. And although these relationships are different, that's why we have three persons, they all have something in common, which is, for us, the way of life that we're called to. In each of these relationships, each of the three persons gives Himself to the others completely. Father gives Himself to the Son. The Son loves the Father, empties Himself out for Him. The Holy Spirit breathed by Father and Son together. All three are completely in each other without losing anything. They give completely, lose nothing, and that's the paradox of the Trinity. That's the paradox that we're called to live, to give totally and discover that we've lost nothing in the process, and we're made in the likeness of the Trinity.
We can only find fulfillment in living like the Trinity, by embracing others and giving ourselves to them. Because we're made in the likeness of the Trinity, that is the reason why we cannot find any fulfillment in selfishness. When we try to hold back and think we possess something, we wind up realizing we have nothing, and yet when we give completely, think we lose something, we discover that we've lost nothing, gained everything, because we're called to live like the Trinity.
We cannot find fulfillment, therefore, in pushing other people out of the way. Quite the contrary, we're called to embrace them. And that's the fundamental difference between a culture of life and death, you know? A culture of life is Trinitarian. A culture of death is not.
In the culture of life, we live like the Trinity. We give ourselves away. We find fulfillment, and so does everybody else. In giving, we become who we are supposed to be, and so do others.
In a culture of death, we push people out of the way. We eliminate them. We get rid of others because we perceive them as a threat to our fulfillment. They take from us. So we must eliminate them to keep for ourselves. A culture of death, we get rid of the elderly, because their economic burdens, they just take, their emotional burdens, they take, we must euthanize them. Get rid of the sick, unproductive, suffering, give them death with dignity. Always use nice names for these things, of course. Get rid of babies in the womb, because they're unwanted, unplanned. Abort them. Get rid of the wife and the husband that you don't want anymore. We'll find a nice name for that, too.
Culture of death. Others find death, and so do weads, destructive of others and self-destructive. Why? Because we're called to be like the Trinity. The Trinity finds its constitution in the relationships, and if we are called to live like the Trinity and we destroy our relationships, we destroy ourselves. And it's a prelude of hell, literally a prelude of hell, where even though it's a crowded place, it's a lonely place, where there's only hatred and selfishness.
And we're called to live like the Trinity. It's not just a doctrine, really, it's a way of life, not a pointer, but a power. We are, by baptism, given the power to live like the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, embracing the other person in our life, wife, husband, brother, sister, child, father, mother, grandparent, poor, needy person. And by embracing the other person, we really find our own identity as well, and that relationship that we have with them. We embrace who we are supposed to be. We find fulfillment. So do they, and we build a culture of life.
So again, the Trinity, not just a doctrine, but a way of life, not just a pointer, but really a power that we are called to live.
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.