Trinity Sunday
Homily of Fr Kevin Hayden OSB
“I am with you always, yes to the end of time.”
Today’s feast of the Trinity celebrates an amazing reality. That rather than sitting there on his own looking down on the world, God himself is the absolute fullness of relationship, of communion, of sharing, of giving away. As St John puts it very simply “God is love”. Whatever love we experience in this life, wonderful though it is, is but a pale shadow compared to the love that is God’s life, that flows through him, that is him.
But even more amazing - we are invited into that life, we are invited to let that life become ours. It is our birth-right as children of God. We each have within us, as a fact of our lives, a spirit who at all times, in all places, cries out “Abba Father”.
But how do we enter into that life, that relationship? We tend to imagine that it has to be difficult. That we will surely have to fulfil some special conditions, put on our best suit so to speak, present ourselves well, become our very best self, learn some special technique, find some zen-like calm within.
It’s actually simpler than that, much simpler. Talk to him. That’s it. Simply talk to him. Open the door, invite him in, share your life with him, make him part of it. When you’re feeling happy about something tell him, when you’re angry talk to him about being angry, why you are angry, who you are angry with. Share it with him. If you’re joyful over something, frustrated, afraid, worried – share it with him. Let him be part of your life as you are, exactly as you are. Share with him how you feel, what you think. Things you might tell loads of people, things you might tell no-one else - tell him. Open wide the door of your life as it is to Him, without fear, without pretence, without fear, without hiding. That is prayer.
Let him be a part of your life as it happens, exactly as you are. That’s where he wants to be, part of your life exactly as you are – that’s what it means to love someone. “Know that I am with you always, yes to the end of time.”
I remember being very struck once by the sight of an elderly couple on a park bench. They just sat there. Unlike a young couple who are full of their love for each other - looking at each other, talking, holding hands, touching - this couple were just sitting there. They weren’t talking to each other, or touching, or looking at each other or even facing each other - they were just sitting there quietly looking out at the park. And yet you could sense between them a beautiful deep bond that went beyond words – you could almost feel it in the air. They had been through it all – falling in love, getting married, getting jobs, getting sick, having rows, having children, the children going to school, the children growing up, leaving home, them retiring, getting older and so on. But they had been through it all together, they had shared their life, and through everything they shared that bond was deepening and deepening until in a sense they became one, so much so you could sense it in the air without a word being spoken.
And that in a sense is the relationship we are being offered to have with God. To talk to him, to share our life with him, to go through it with him, whatever it may be, however we may be. To share it with him. To share our words and our silence also, so that we might be able to hear in that silence his Spirit within us crying out “Abba Father.” Over time that relationship will deepen. You will discover that he answers you, that as you make yourself known to him, he makes himself known to you, that this mutual knowledge deepens as you slowly grow into each other, come to belong to each other. That is his invitation.
I remember being very struck once by an off-the-cuff comment at a dinner. The dinner was in honour of the leader of a catholic movement, a Spanish man called Julian Carron. At one point someone asked him: “Do you not get lonely sometimes, always travelling around the world, in one airport after another?” He immediately answered: “But why would I be lonely? I am not alone.”
That is what we are invited to discover for ourselves.
“Know that I am with you always, yes, even to the end of time.”
