The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

 Lectionary: 166

When the Lord established the heavens I was there,
when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep;

when he made firm the skies above,
when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth;
when he set for the sea its limit,
so that the waters should not transgress his command;
then was I beside him as his craftsman,
and I was his delight day by day,
playing before him all the while,
playing on the surface of his earth;
and I found delight in the human race."

 E very Catholic boy and girl begins their religious formation with four prayers: the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Act of Contrition, and the Glory Be. The last prayer is the shortest, and the easiest to learn. It consists of two sets of three. First, there is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and then there is the past, the present, and the future: “as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.” We know our triune God, and we know where to find God in our time. He has always been with us, remains with us, and will always be with us. 

Kurt Vonnegut, the Indiana author and former prisoner of war, told the tale of Billy Pilgrim in his novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. Surviving the firebombing of Dresden, Pilgrim was traumatized and became "unstuck in time." That is, he could not tell whether he was living in the past, the present, or the future. 

Vonnegut seemed to be writing about his experience of post-traumatic stress disorder. Occasionally something happens that throws the veteran of combat back into the past when he was trapped, terrified, and helpless. In that moment people lose their sense of where they are; and experience all the fear, helplessness, and dread of a past trauma. 

I knew one Veteran who happened to see a Vietnamese person in a neighborhood grocery store. He could not move. He stood frozen and terrified until his wife – who didn't know what was happening – took him by the hand and led him out of the store. The experience persuaded him to seek treatment, and he did well. 

I think of his story when I think about the Eternal God who is with us in the present; who was always with us in the past; and remains with us forever. Oftentimes healing of past hurts begins with the assurance that God is there. He is there in our past and accompanies us back to moments we might want to forget. We might wish they’d never happened. But revisiting and finding God there with us in the past, we find comfort in his presence, even in an unbearable situation. Then we let him retell the story and rewrite the past. God rewrote the story of Jesus' death on a cross, calling it the Gospel, and healed not only that story, but all stories. Stories of abuse, insults, injuries, and exploitation, like death itself, lose their sting. We need not dwell on them; they remind us only of God’s goodness. 

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. We have completed the season of Easter as of last Sunday; and today we remember where we have been, where we are, and where we're going. Our prayer, the Glory Be, reminds us of the Holy Trinity; of God the Father, who accompanied the Jewish people since long before the birth of Jesus. In barely-remembered, prehistoric times, He called Abraham out of Mesopotamia to move to Palestine. That country would belong to his descendants – someday, in the distant future. It would be the setting for the entire Old Testament. 

Trinity Sunday recalls Jesus's birth of the tribe of Judah and the House of David. We know Mary’s son as the Son of God, who was born like Abraham and all his descendants, in human time and in our human world. 

Human history is marked by the birth of Jesus. 2025 marks the two-thousand, twenty-fifth year since he was born. And Salvation History is the history of the world; and history only makes sense if it includes the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Other histories can do nothing but recount the rise and fall of powerful nations, armies, corporations, and people. They are stories of futility. going nowhere. Salvation history tells us where we are in time, and where we’re going. 

And, by the way, our faith also tells us where we are geographically, and why we’re here. We are here because Jesus sent us here from Jerusalem! And we know what we’re doing here. We are attesting to the goodness, generosity, kindness, compassion, and justice of the God who cares for the least and most despised among us. 

Last week we celebrated the solemnity of Pentecost, and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Two thousand years have passed and yet we still celebrate His leading, guiding presence. We are not unstuck in time because the Holy Spirit holds us firmly in place. We are not sick with nostalgia, nor pining for a dream that never comes true. 

Given the vastly changing times in which we live, there are literally billions of people who do not know where they are in time or space. In the 21st century no place is securely home for anyone; nor can we be sure of what is coming next. Are these the good old days? Or the beginning of a new day? Without faith in Jesus Christ who leads us toward the Kingdom of God, how can lost souls expect anything but endless cycles of war and peace? 

We expect a peace that lasts forever, and we find that peace in the promise of God’s Kingdom. If the present moment is just a quiet pause before World War III, and there is no hope of lasting prosperity and peace, we might as well drink the kool aid and die.

The Glory Be tells us where we are in time and space. In fact, our entire Catholic religion with its prayers and blessed items like holy water, rosaries, and scapulars; our sacraments, especially the Most Blessed Sacrament, daily and Sunday Masses; our churches, cathedrals, and basilicas of steel, stone, and glass; our Pope, bishops, and priests; our canon law and pilgrimages and religious practices of every sort: all of these anchor us in this moment of bewildered blessedness. It reminds us constantly of why we’re here, and where we’re going. And don’t forget to see the beauty of this world right now! 

Millions of Billy Pilgrims are driven like sheep by threatening governments and terrifying anarchists. They need to hear our stories of fear and reassurance, of sickness and healing, of human sorrow and divine consolation. We know our God and we have placed our faith in the Good Shepherd who remains with us even as he leads us home.