Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity A (11 June 2017)
Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.
Living Yearning
During enjoyable moments who asks what do they mean? The joy we experienced satisfies us. We feel no need to look beyond our joy: it absorbs us within it. This absorbing is proper human. Usually we consider only a certain few get so absorbed to be united in qualities such as joy or with another person, with God. We name them mystics.
Most significant for them—and everyone’s mystic moments—is this: they sense no distinction between them and, say, their joy; between them and another. Words cannot express their experience; yet mystics try to express it for us. Julian of Norwich was one.
Julian enjoyed revelations—Showings, she named them—of the Trinity and our participation among the triune God.
It is a lofty understanding inwardly to see and to know that God, who is our maker, dwells in our soul, and it is a still loftier and greater understanding inwardly to see and to know that our soul, which is created, dwells in God’s substance. From this substance we are what we are, by God.
She experienced mutual indwelling:
I saw no difference between God and our [human self], but saw it as if it were all God. And yet my understanding accepted the fact that…God is God and our [human self] is a creature in God. For the Almighty Truth of the Trinity is our Father, for he made us and preserves us in himself; the deep wisdom of the Trinity is our mother, in whom we are enclosed; the lofty goodness of the Trinity is our Lord, and in him we are enclosed and he in us.
We are enclosed in the Father, we are enclosed in the Son, and we are enclosed in the Holy Spirit. The Father is enclosed in us—All-power, All-wisdom, and All-goodness: one God, one Lord.1
This indwelling participation in our triune God is not easy to take. The unlimited “is enclosed in us!” We easily fear losing ourselves, our personal power. Let mystics enjoy this and keep it to themselves: it’s too much for the rest of us! Yet we Christians are who we are because we profess unlimited divinity was enclosed in a woman’s womb and was born for us. In Jesus God united human life with divine life. Matching our profession to our deeds and choices is how we Christians witness to one another and our world.
All this is living mystery. Julian’s efforts to express her showings means none of this is abstract meaning. Our Christian mystery registers as power—we participate in All-power; it registers as wisdom—we participate in All-wisdom; it register as human kindness—we participate in All-goodness. St. Paul enumerated other fruits: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.2 These Spirit-fruits are gifts: ours because we participate in the passion, dying and rising of Jesus each moment.3
Does a down-to-earth outcome of this participation in the triune Creator exist? Pope Francis is adamant that this is it: “Everything is interconnected, and this invites us to develop a spirituality of that global solidarity which flows from the mystery of the Trinity.”4 Because “everything is interconnected…genuine care for our own lives and our relationships with nature is inseparable from fraternity, justice and faithfulness to others.”5
Perhaps this a grace for us sophisticated, technological folk to yearn: that we may be overcome with joy that we are included within God—a joy that does not overwhelm us but moves us to let our thoughts, choices and actions be done in and with God. The world will be transformed more as we live what we yearn.
In your daily 15 minutes with Jesus this week
- Rest in our triune God.
- Ask Mary and the communion of saints to present you to Jesus.
- Chat with him: praise him for dying, rising and giving us his Spirit; ask Jesus to help you experience we live in him as his witnesses to our world.
- Ask Jesus for grace to be overcome with his joy because we are included within God.
- Close saying slowly the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus gave us his prayer to help our relationship with our Creator grow and to welcome others into it.
Link to this homily’s Spiritual Exercise
——————
- Revelations of Divine Love in Sixteen Shewings, 54. The revealer to Julian was “Jesus Christ, our endless bliss” (1).
- Galatians 5.22-23.
- Galatians 2.19; Romans 6.6, 8-11.
- Laudato Si, 240.
- Laudato Si, 70.
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