Recent Homilies by the Pastor

Father Hanson's older homilies may be found here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmh-homily/ [Will open a new window or tab.]

Homily: Trinity Sunday (Year C) 5.30.2010

Proverbs 8:22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15

Today we celebrate our parish name day, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. I have one simple suggestion for how we may think about the Holy Trinity today and everyday. I suggest that we don’t begin with the formal language of the creeds and the catechism. We may take as our starting point the language of the bible, which is less abstract and more functional and relational. I mean that to know God is more important than to know about God. Most important is not the abstract words of theological language but what the Word, Jesus Christ, shows us and shares with us about God. The Trinity is not a puzzle but an experience we share.

In today’s gospel Jesus speaks both of the Holy Spirit and the Father.

12 “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
13 But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.

The first word is that we do not understand the whole mystery of God but God the Spirit will reveal God to us bit by bit. Jesus sends us the Spirit. Indeed Jesus is our entry point to a relationship with God. Jesus communicates God to us, by which I mean that through Jesus we come to share the life of God. When we see Jesus we see the Father, because Jesus is in the Father, for he is the Father’s only Son. Jesus says:

15 Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he [the Spirit] will take from what is mine and declare it to you.

The way God acts toward us in the bible is the way God is in Godself. The Trinity is not about solving a puzzle but about loving God who first loved us. Our first and most important lesson about the Trinity came when our parents taught us to bless ourselves “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” That lesson began with prayer and we have never forgotten it.