Homily #206: St. Bonaventure on the Trinity & Human Person in the "Image & Likeness" of the Most Holy Trinity (Class Warfare, Redefining Family, & Attacks on Human Life in Womb Gravely Contrary to Image of Trinity in Human Person)

I 

 I’d like to start us off with this exercise. This exercise is for everyone here in church today. It requires some thinking, but I think we can do this. Shall we? 

 Alright, let’s begin. I invite you to think of a word. One word. Any word. Do you have the word in your mind? 

 Now, if you’d like, you can go ahead and say it. You can whisper it under your breath or, if you are next to someone, you can go ahead and say the word to that person. 

 So I’m going to pick on someone here: What was your word in your mind? Go ahead and say it. And you? What was your word? Okay, so we have a word __. 

 II 

 Now here’s my point: This exercise is a way to sort of, kind of, little bit maybe ponder the mystery of the Holy Trinity. This comes from St. Bonaventure, a great Doctor or official teacher of the Church, when he reflected on the Trinity. 

 There is one God but three divine persons in one God. Three in one, one in three. 

 That first thought you had is a first principle. It was in your mind. Then, when your mind (the first principle) spoke the word, it begot a second principle. The first in the mind and then the second principle was the word.

 So think here: God the Father is the first principle or the First Person. God the Father speaks his word, the second principle or the Second Person is begotten. The Father speaks one word and begets one word only, the Son. 

 In today’s Gospel, Jesus said, “Everything that the Father has is mine.” Everything that the First Person has belongs to the Second Person. 

 But what comes with your word when you spoke it? Your breath. [make breath noise] 

 The third principle – your breath – comes from or proceeds from the first and second. 

 So look here: mind, word, breath. First, Second, Third; Father, Son, Spirit. Three Persons, equal yet distinct. 

 The Father is God and First Person of the Blessed Trinity. The Son is God and Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. The Holy Spirit is God and the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. All are one and the same God, the God above we love. 

 Yet the Father is NOT the Son. The Son is NOT the Father. And the Spirit is NOT the Father and NOT the Son. 

 The Father is God. The Son, Jesus, is God. 

 The Holy Spirit is God. In eternity: One God, three divine Persons from all eternity. 

 Even in today’s First Reading from the Book of Proverbs, it is the Word of God who existed before the creation of the world: “Thus says the wisdom of God: …before the mountains were settled into place, before the hills I was brought forth” (Chapter 8).

 [In the Creed, we profess: Jesus is God from God, light from light, true God from true God. Jesus is begotten, not made. Jesus is consubstantial with the Father. Through Jesus, the Word of God, all things were made.] 

 And then, in time, the Second Person became man, became flesh, became one of us. God became man, to die for us, to rise from the dead, to save us. 

 [In the Creed, we profess that the Holy Spirit is “Lord and Giver of Life” who “proceeds from the Father and the Son” and “With the Father and the Son” the Holy Spirit is adored and glorified.]

 III 

 So what does this reflection on the Holy Trinity practically mean for us?

 First, it shows us that we each human person is made in the image and likeness of God. We have a thought, we speak it, and we have breath. The artwork reflects the divine artist. 

 We are created as God’s masterpiece and our worth comes from God, not the world or what someone says or our salary or titles or our bank accounts or other material goods. 

 With all the tribulations and paralyzing fears of the world, let us ground ourselves on God. In today’s Second Reading from the Letter to the Romans, Paul reminds us, “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We were baptized in the Name – not the names – but the one Name of the Father, Son and Spirit. 

 [Baptism: "In the name..." not "In the names"] 

 Second, it means that the nuclear family is made in the image of the Holy Trinity. It is the first fundamental cell and foundation of society and even the Church. Every one of us was born into a family. When families are healthy, then society will be healthy. When families are not healthy, then society falls apart. 

 The family is in the image of the Trinity. The Father loves the Son. And the Son loves the Father. And from their love in eternity the Spirit proceeds. The love of the Father and Son is so strong that it is another Person of Love that binds them, the Spirit.

 So too in time: Daddy loves mommy. Mommy loves daddy. And from their love in time a third person proceeds with new life, a child. The man is the first person, the seed. The woman is the second person. And from their love, the third person proceeds from them. 

 The Christian family is called to be in right relationship with each other. Daily family life, of forgiving each other, of growing and praying together, the family meals and activities build up the Christian family.

 And finally, because the Holy Trinity is a communion of persons, human race is called to be in right relationship with each other, too. Sin destroys the communion of persons. It means that we have to respect the dignity and image of God in each human person, from natural beginning to natural end.

 Even under difficult circumstances, we shouldn’t be committing acts of violence and hatred against human persons but rather help those in need especially the most vulnerable in society. It means that the international community, made in the image of the Holy Trinity, should not be fabricating wars of aggression or class warfare with each other but rather act as a communion of love. When our country returns to God, then God will bless it. The human race can only be built with God. 

 I close with this story or legend.  St. Augustine had trouble understanding the Trinity. One day, as Augustine was walking along the beach, he saw a child dig a hole in the sand and then fill the hole with water from the ocean. Augustine asked, “Child, what you doing?” The child said, “I’m trying to put the ocean into this hole in the sand.” Augustine exclaimed, “That’s impossible. You’re only going to put a little bit into the hole.” The child replied, “So too with the Holy Trinity in your mind.” And then the child vanished. 

 So, even in Heaven, dear brothers and sister, as the song Amazing Grace does, when we’ve been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we have no less days to sing God’s praise, than when we first begun. Even in eternity, we haven’t even begun to glimpse the awesomeness and wonder and awe and joy of the mystery of who God as a Trinity of Persons is. 

 As the Responsorial Psalm says today, "How wonderful your name in all the earth." How wonderful is the Name of the Father, Son and Spirit. 

 Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. 

 Amen.