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Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9, 2 Corinthians 13:11-13, John 3:16-18
There is a special providence that we as a parish are celebrating the Jubilee of fifty years of ordained priesthood of a Missionary Servant of the Most Holy Trinity on the Sunday dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity. Sometimes on special days like today, the liturgy will include particular readings or songs which highlight the event. During one memorable jubilee a few years ago as the Mass was beginning the director announced, “Let us welcome our jubilarian by singing How Great Thou Art.” We won’t do that today. In fact, my sister suggested that a more appropriate song to begin might be Send in the Clowns. Instead of using the event to shape the liturgy, it seems more appropriate to use the liturgy to shape, form, comment on the significance of having a commemoration of many years of priesthood on this particular Sunday. What to the Bible readings for Trinity Sunday tell us about the jubilee?
The Old Testament lesson from the Book of Exodus, for example, tells us that “the Lord is a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” It’s a good thing that the Lord is merciful and gracious because if God weren’t so, there would be no priests. The reality is that we priests are not a caste apart but, like all everyone here, in need of God’s mercy. We are part of a stiff-necked people who need pardon for our sins, as Moses prayed in the reading. Did you notice how Pope Francis introduced himself: “I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.” But because God is merciful and gracious God can use sinners, the likes of Pope Francis, the likes of your humble servant, the likes of you, for a divine purpose. Mixing with the holy as we do produces a profound sense of humility since we know our own inadequacy. God is holy, holy, holy. We, priestly people and priest are not. Nonetheless the Triune God invites us into the divine dance.
In the epistle we have another illustration of Trinitarian life in St. Paul’s admonition: Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. The call to unity, the call to conversion, the call to encouragement, the call to peace is the admission ticket to the heavenly banquet. In heaven there is only one table and all are welcome there. You can’t have any lingering resentments or grudges or else the divine supper will be unpleasant. There can be no rage, no hostility, no prejudice at the heavenly banqueting table. We have to start now to rid ourselves of anything which would make us unfit to join in the feast. That could almost be the job description of a priest – someone who keeps poking and prodding us into mending our ways into encouragement and agreement and love and peace. The Triune God has set the table. Come to the feast.
Finally in the gospel passage Jesus talks about the relationship of the Father and the Son. A little later in St. John’s gospel Jesus discusses his relationship to the Holy Spirit. The key word describing the life of the Triune God is “gave.” God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. That is the way to understand the love of God which we call Trinity. The Father gives love to the son, the Son gives love to the Father. Father and son give love to the Spirit who gives love back. We reflect the life of the love of the Triune God when we give. Families live trinitarian love when spouses give love to one another and to their children. Parishioners live trinitarian love when we give love to the hungry and the hurting, the sick and the suffering, the lost and forsaken. A priest, either on day one or fifty years later live trinitarian love when we give our lives in service to the people entrusted to our care. All this is so because God has promised that no one can outdo the Trinity in giving.
An old story but a good one. Once upon a time an angel came to visit a wise man in Shanghai. The angel told him that he had lived such a good life that God wanted to reward him. What would he want? The wise man answered: Would it be possible to see what heaven and hell look like. Certainly, said the angel. First, hell. You can imagine his surprise when the vision of hell opened up it contained a beautiful dining room. Long table with white cloth and napkins, candles, flowers, and food, lots of food, piles of food. Seated along both sides of the table where the dinner guests. “This doesn’t look like how I imagined hell,” said the wise man. “Look more closely,” said the angel. Then he noticed that each of the diners had ten-foot-long chopsticks strapped to their hands. Try as they will, they could not get the food from the table to their mouths. All the wonderful food but they were starving. “What a terrible punishment,” said the wise man. “Now, heaven,” said the angel. The wise man was shocked because the vision of heaven looked exactly the same: table, flowers, candles, food, diners along both sides, ten-foot-long chopsticks. “This is just like hell,” said the wise man. “Look again,” said the angel. In heaven the diners were not trying to feed themselves but were instead picking up the food and feeding their neighbors across the table. Everyone enjoyed the feast because they were caring for one another. Ah, that is heaven, said the wise man. The life of St. James, for priest and people, truly is heaven when we care for one another. The theme of my first mass fifty years ago was a quote from St. Augustine: “what I am for you terrifies me; what I am with you consoles me. For you I am a priest; with you I am a Christian.” It was true fifty years ago and it is true today. The love of the Triune God which we share as Christians is why you and I are here. Thank you, Lord.
