Who are You, O Lord, and Who am I?
Last semester, as I began theology classes on my path to ordination, I took a full-semester course on the Triune God. It was my favorite class of the semester because it reminded me of Who God is and how we are called to know Him. Our final project was to write a "homily" for Trinity Sunday, and I'd like to share this with you below. Who knows if I'd ever give this at a Mass (it's probably a bit too "academic"), but, in any case, it's a good summary of what I learned and how I desire to share this with others.
Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/053115.cfm
“Who are You, O Lord, and who am I?” St. Francis of Assisi was known for asking this question often, but whenever he said it, he meant it as much more than a simple question. Rather, for him, it was a prayer, a “crying out” to God asking for Him to reveal Who He is. I think we can receive much insight from this tremendous wisdom of St. Francis; if we wish to know Who God is, what is better than asking Him?
This prompts us to also ask ourselves: what is our own image of God? What comes to mind when we hear the word “God”? It seems that, for as much as we use the word, we often have a very fuzzy image of God. For instance, we see in all sorts of cartoons and movies the image of God as an “old man up in the sky, with a white robe and a long, flowing beard.” We may think of God as being this unknown spirit up in the air somewhere or as a huge figure ruling all of earth from a distant place called “heaven.” Some thinkers have conceived of God as a watchmaker, someone who makes the universe, sets it in motion like a watch, and then lets it run without any interference. Over the past few hundred years, we have also seen a rise in those who believe that God does not exist. For these, God can be just as easily dismissed as the Roman or Greek gods or as the “flying Spaghetti monster.”
Therefore, in order for us to truly call ourselves Christian, what is the “Christian” image of God we should have? Thankfully, we don’t have to guess about the answer; rather, God Himself has revealed Himself in history. This is what we celebrate today, Trinity Sunday - the incredible fact that God has shown Who He is to us, and He invites us to share in His very being.
Blessed Pope Paul VI wrote a document called the “Credo of the People of God” after the Second Vatican Council, and within it he describes what he calls the “two names of God.” He writes:
Philosophers come to this truth, but what is even more amazing is that God reveals this to us in a spectacular way. Consider what the first reading says, “Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?” (Deuteronomy 4:33, NABRE). Moses is saying these words at the end of his life, remembering when he first heard the voice of God coming from the burning bush, the “fire that did not consume” (Exodus 3). When Moses asked this voice what name he was to give to the people, God responded, “I AM WHO AM.” God never “was,” God never “will be,” God simply is. He is “Being” itself.
Putting this into perspective, even when I was a young child, my weirdly philosophical mind would wonder about questions such as, “How is it that I am living? Why is it that I exist? Why do I wake up day after day as the same person? Why is it that I did not choose to live but am simply here?” Put simply, I was wondering about the meaning of life, which is something we all wonder about. However, when we consider that God has existed eternally, without beginning and without end, even though we can’t wrap our minds around this, it gives us some consolation. There is meaning, there is something beyond us, there is, as the Alleluia response says, an “Alpha and Omega” (Revelation 1:8).
However, if we take only this, God still seems very distant and unconcerned with our lives. Yet, as Paul VI says, He has another name: love. This comes straight from Scripture in 1 John 4:8: “God is love.” It’s clear from the beginning of the Old Testament that God loves His people, and the Israelites knew that they were called to love God as well. But how is it that God is “love”?
Consider this: one person, completely in isolation, cannot be properly said to be “in love.” Yes, we may think that he loves himself, but this makes love a dead end, leading to loneliness. Love needs another person, a subject to be loved. Now consider God: was He ever lonely? If He were one person, completely alone for eternity, then how is it that He could ever know and share love? Either we as humans would then become necessary to satisfy God, or we would simply be products of creation and not properly be loved by God. But this is the incredible thing about our faith: God has revealed Himself as a communion of persons. We can define “person” in this case as one who is rational, able to think and make decisions, and distinct from other persons. For instance, I am a separate person from each of you because I have my own thoughts and live my own life, yet you and I share many things in common – we are members of the same species, have similar characteristics, live in the same world, etc.
Turning to God, how is it that He revealed Himself? Jesus Christ was born and lived in Israel two thousand years ago, yet he made a radical claim: He said that He was the Son of God. He referred to God as “His Father” and encouraged us to do the same. He spoke to His Father intimately in prayer, saying that “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him” (Mt 11:27). This claim led to Jesus’ death: he was accused by the Jews of making himself equal to God. However, Jesus did not contend this but claimed this identity for himself. Even on the cross, he cried out, “Father, into Your hands, I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). How is it that we can trust him? We can trust him because of the many miracles he did, the lasting impression he gave to the apostles, the endurance and unity of the Church, and, most importantly, by his resurrection from the dead. Moreover, Jesus also spoke of a “Holy Spirit,” whom he would send upon the disciples after he ascended into heaven. The apostles received this Spirit at Pentecost, who they recognized as God but distinct from the Father and the Son. In fact, Jesus himself affirms the Trinity in today’s Gospel, “baptizing (peoples of all nations) in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19).
God reveals Himself as Three Persons, yet this does not take away His unity! Why is it that we still speak of “one God”? Think about what we mean by love: the highest kind of love we can imagine is that which unites one person to another. We see this in marriage, when a man and a woman are united to become “one flesh.” If this is true with human love, how much more it must be with divine love! The love that unites the three Persons is so strong and real since God is eternally, as the early Church Fathers concluded, one in substance. Substance is a word philosophers use to describe the “being” that something is. For instance, this ambo is made of the substance of “wood,” or water has the substance of H2O, or we have the substance of a human nature. God’s substance is truly unique in that it is infinite and possesses all perfections within it, and it cannot be divided into three parts. At the same time, because God is “love,” the three Persons are distinct by their relationships to each other, and the three Persons eternally exist. This is why in the Nicene Creed we shall soon say (because, trust me, this homily will have an end!), that the Son is “consubstantial with the Father” and that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son.”
Now, you may be a bit confounded at this point, wondering how exactly this can be. How is God both “one” and “three,” and why is it that He isn’t something else? The Trinity is truly a mystery in that, while we can grasp it to an extent, we cannot fully comprehend it. Thousands upon thousands of pages have been written about the Trinity throughout time, but no one person has come up with the “logical proof” to the Trinity, and no one ever will. However, what we can do to receive authentic knowledge of God is enter into this mystery in response to God’s glorious invitation. Because He is being, we can rest assured that there is infinite meaning behind our lives. Because He is love, He freely created us to share in this love for all eternity. God has revealed Himself throughout history and shares His love with us. Pope Paul VI affirms this in his Credo, saying,
Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/053115.cfm
“Who are You, O Lord, and who am I?” St. Francis of Assisi was known for asking this question often, but whenever he said it, he meant it as much more than a simple question. Rather, for him, it was a prayer, a “crying out” to God asking for Him to reveal Who He is. I think we can receive much insight from this tremendous wisdom of St. Francis; if we wish to know Who God is, what is better than asking Him?
This prompts us to also ask ourselves: what is our own image of God? What comes to mind when we hear the word “God”? It seems that, for as much as we use the word, we often have a very fuzzy image of God. For instance, we see in all sorts of cartoons and movies the image of God as an “old man up in the sky, with a white robe and a long, flowing beard.” We may think of God as being this unknown spirit up in the air somewhere or as a huge figure ruling all of earth from a distant place called “heaven.” Some thinkers have conceived of God as a watchmaker, someone who makes the universe, sets it in motion like a watch, and then lets it run without any interference. Over the past few hundred years, we have also seen a rise in those who believe that God does not exist. For these, God can be just as easily dismissed as the Roman or Greek gods or as the “flying Spaghetti monster.”
Therefore, in order for us to truly call ourselves Christian, what is the “Christian” image of God we should have? Thankfully, we don’t have to guess about the answer; rather, God Himself has revealed Himself in history. This is what we celebrate today, Trinity Sunday - the incredible fact that God has shown Who He is to us, and He invites us to share in His very being.
Blessed Pope Paul VI wrote a document called the “Credo of the People of God” after the Second Vatican Council, and within it he describes what he calls the “two names of God.” He writes:
We believe that this only God is absolutely one in His infinitely holy essence. . . . He who is, as He revealed to Moses; and He is love, as the apostle John teaches us: so that these two names, being and love, express ineffably the same divine reality of Him who has wished to make Himself known to us.What do these “names of God,” being and love, mean for us? First, Paul VI describes God as “being.” Consider this simple fact: “something” cannot come from “nothing.” We all exist now, and the whole universe exists, but it is clear from science and common knowledge that each one of us has a beginning, and the universe itself has a beginning. Reflection prompts us to wonder about what caused the universe to exist – if nothing existed beforehand, then nothing can’t produce something! Therefore, we can hold that there needs to be a “being” that is eternal and complete in itself.
Philosophers come to this truth, but what is even more amazing is that God reveals this to us in a spectacular way. Consider what the first reading says, “Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?” (Deuteronomy 4:33, NABRE). Moses is saying these words at the end of his life, remembering when he first heard the voice of God coming from the burning bush, the “fire that did not consume” (Exodus 3). When Moses asked this voice what name he was to give to the people, God responded, “I AM WHO AM.” God never “was,” God never “will be,” God simply is. He is “Being” itself.
Putting this into perspective, even when I was a young child, my weirdly philosophical mind would wonder about questions such as, “How is it that I am living? Why is it that I exist? Why do I wake up day after day as the same person? Why is it that I did not choose to live but am simply here?” Put simply, I was wondering about the meaning of life, which is something we all wonder about. However, when we consider that God has existed eternally, without beginning and without end, even though we can’t wrap our minds around this, it gives us some consolation. There is meaning, there is something beyond us, there is, as the Alleluia response says, an “Alpha and Omega” (Revelation 1:8).
However, if we take only this, God still seems very distant and unconcerned with our lives. Yet, as Paul VI says, He has another name: love. This comes straight from Scripture in 1 John 4:8: “God is love.” It’s clear from the beginning of the Old Testament that God loves His people, and the Israelites knew that they were called to love God as well. But how is it that God is “love”?
Consider this: one person, completely in isolation, cannot be properly said to be “in love.” Yes, we may think that he loves himself, but this makes love a dead end, leading to loneliness. Love needs another person, a subject to be loved. Now consider God: was He ever lonely? If He were one person, completely alone for eternity, then how is it that He could ever know and share love? Either we as humans would then become necessary to satisfy God, or we would simply be products of creation and not properly be loved by God. But this is the incredible thing about our faith: God has revealed Himself as a communion of persons. We can define “person” in this case as one who is rational, able to think and make decisions, and distinct from other persons. For instance, I am a separate person from each of you because I have my own thoughts and live my own life, yet you and I share many things in common – we are members of the same species, have similar characteristics, live in the same world, etc.
Turning to God, how is it that He revealed Himself? Jesus Christ was born and lived in Israel two thousand years ago, yet he made a radical claim: He said that He was the Son of God. He referred to God as “His Father” and encouraged us to do the same. He spoke to His Father intimately in prayer, saying that “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him” (Mt 11:27). This claim led to Jesus’ death: he was accused by the Jews of making himself equal to God. However, Jesus did not contend this but claimed this identity for himself. Even on the cross, he cried out, “Father, into Your hands, I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). How is it that we can trust him? We can trust him because of the many miracles he did, the lasting impression he gave to the apostles, the endurance and unity of the Church, and, most importantly, by his resurrection from the dead. Moreover, Jesus also spoke of a “Holy Spirit,” whom he would send upon the disciples after he ascended into heaven. The apostles received this Spirit at Pentecost, who they recognized as God but distinct from the Father and the Son. In fact, Jesus himself affirms the Trinity in today’s Gospel, “baptizing (peoples of all nations) in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19).
God reveals Himself as Three Persons, yet this does not take away His unity! Why is it that we still speak of “one God”? Think about what we mean by love: the highest kind of love we can imagine is that which unites one person to another. We see this in marriage, when a man and a woman are united to become “one flesh.” If this is true with human love, how much more it must be with divine love! The love that unites the three Persons is so strong and real since God is eternally, as the early Church Fathers concluded, one in substance. Substance is a word philosophers use to describe the “being” that something is. For instance, this ambo is made of the substance of “wood,” or water has the substance of H2O, or we have the substance of a human nature. God’s substance is truly unique in that it is infinite and possesses all perfections within it, and it cannot be divided into three parts. At the same time, because God is “love,” the three Persons are distinct by their relationships to each other, and the three Persons eternally exist. This is why in the Nicene Creed we shall soon say (because, trust me, this homily will have an end!), that the Son is “consubstantial with the Father” and that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son.”
Now, you may be a bit confounded at this point, wondering how exactly this can be. How is God both “one” and “three,” and why is it that He isn’t something else? The Trinity is truly a mystery in that, while we can grasp it to an extent, we cannot fully comprehend it. Thousands upon thousands of pages have been written about the Trinity throughout time, but no one person has come up with the “logical proof” to the Trinity, and no one ever will. However, what we can do to receive authentic knowledge of God is enter into this mystery in response to God’s glorious invitation. Because He is being, we can rest assured that there is infinite meaning behind our lives. Because He is love, He freely created us to share in this love for all eternity. God has revealed Himself throughout history and shares His love with us. Pope Paul VI affirms this in his Credo, saying,
God alone can give us right and full knowledge of this reality by revealing Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in whose eternal life we are by grace called to share, here below in the obscurity of faith and after death in eternal light.
Indeed, our human response can be to receive this eternal grace of the Triune God, especially through prayer and the sacraments. Remember what St. Francis would often pray, “Who are you, O Lord, and who am I?” Let us make this prayer our own in this upcoming week. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to come upon us and grant us wisdom into our identity, for as Genesis says, we are made in the “image and likeness of God” (Gen 1:27). Let us beg the Father to strengthen our conviction that we are His beloved sons and daughters. Finally, let us ask the Son, Who comes to us in His Body and Blood at this Eucharist, to unite ourselves to Him, that we might be filled with His fullness and fully live in love.
Pope Paul VI, “Credo of the People of God,” http://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/motu_proprio/documents/hf_p-vi_motu-proprio_19680630_credo.html, 9.
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