The Most Holy Trinity Sunday – June 7, 2009
Deut 4: 32-34; Rom 8: 14-17; Mt5 28: 16-20
At a confirmation ceremony, a bishop asked one of the high school students to give a definition of the Trinity. A girl, who was somewhat soft spoken, said, “The Holy Trinity is three divine persons in one God.” Slightly hard of hearing, the bishop said, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
The girl replied, “Bishop, you are not supposed to understand, the Trinity is a mystery!”
On this day, year after year, we proclaim from the Bible passages that dance around that unanswerable question: What is the Trinity?
Of course, we know from our Christian tradition, and as the high school girl said, that the Trinity is one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This tells us the most fundamental thing to know about the Trinity, which is that the Trinity is a relationship. Just as God said in the Book of Genesis that it’s not good for us to be alone, Gen 1:18 God decided it’s not good for God to be alone.
And since the Bible tells us we are created in the image of God Gen 1:27 the Trinity reveals that we are meant to exist in relation with others. Being in relationship with others is what makes us fully human. Yet, as we all know, being in relationship with others, requires sacrifice.
An example of what I mean is the story of a priest in the Archdiocese of Denver. When he was 18-years-old and just finishing high school, he asked his father if he could go out with his buddies one Friday night and hang out. His father agreed but warned him that the curfew rule still applied — in by midnight, was the rule. The young man agreed.
Unfortunately, the young man did not uphold his end of the bargain — he stayed out past 6 in the morning. As he was walking up the driveway to his home just past 6 AM, his father was heading out the door to work, since he worked on Saturdays to make ends meet. His father was furious but all he said was, “You’re grounded — bread and water for dinner for the next five days.”
Later in the afternoon, the father returned from a long day of work and the family gathered around the table for supper. A blessing was said and they began to eat. Each of this future priest’s siblings and his mother and father had heaping plates of food placed in front of them while the young man got what he expected — bread and water.
But before he could start on his skimpy meal, he noticed his father at the other end of the table, get up, take his own plate of hot food and place it in front of his son to eat. Meanwhile, the father took his son’s bread and water and began to eat it himself. The son was shocked. He asked, “Why did you do that?” The father replied, “Because that’s how God the Father loves you, even when you disobey Him.”
This future priest never forgot the meaning of God the Father’s love for each of us, which is expressed so well when Jesus said that his Father in heaven so loved the world that he sacrificed his only Son so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might, instead, have eternal life. Jn 3:16
The Bible is full of examples of sacrifice. For instance, in our gospel lesson for today, the last paragraph in Matthew’s gospel is the last thing Jesus tells his followers, which is go and make disciples of all nations. In other words, leave what you do to make a living, leave your families, your friends, the comfort of your home, leave your town and your country if necessary, sacrifice all you have so that others might be saved.
The idea of self-sacrifice in the service of God, country, family and friends is something that used to be seen as a high virtue.
Today self-sacrifice is seen by many, especially by many psychologists, as a personality defect or self-defeating behavior. Instead of sacrifice, self-interest and individualism are seen as attitudes one must take on to live a good life.
When we examine the greed that was one of the major causes of the financial crisis our country still faces, we see how the worship of self-interest and individualism cleared a path for so much abuse.
Still, we seek to be self-actualized and self-fulfilled. Just look at the self-help books that crowd the shelves of bookstores where one finds few, if any, books on self-sacrifice, or on how to serve God and others. Many believe that the idea of sacrifice has been lost in our society. Maybe that’s because the word itself is misunderstood. Sacrifice does not mean, in its Biblical origin, to destroy or burn or lose. It means to make holy — to sanctify.
I believe we’re in a time when we need to recover the true meaning of sacrifice and restore it to the high moral virtue that it once was.
Jesus made sacrifice a high moral virtue when he said, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Jn 15:13
To recover the true meaning of sacrifice, we might start by asking ourselves,”For what friends am I willing to lay down my life?” Or, “For what values am I willing to die?”
I suspect that most of us here this morning, if put to the test, would be willing to die for something or someone. The question is for what?
Yesterday, our nation celebrated the 65th anniversary of D-Day, when the Allied countries landed on the beaches of Normandy to liberate France during World War Two. The Allied casualties for D-Day have generally been estimated at 10,000 men, including 2500 Americans who sacrificed their lives for their country that day. (Source: D-Day Museum)
After the Pearl Harbor attack by the Japanese during World War Two, Franklin Roosevelt called for Americans to sacrifice. Most Americans understood the threat and were willing to do their part to sacrifice even their lives for their country. Since that time, no war that the United States has engaged in has enjoyed such broad-based support among Americans.
The idea of self-sacrifice represents the very heart of the Christian life. We find our true-self in giving to others. Sacrifice that is illuminated by love is what we are called as Christians to offer to God and others. Yet, many still see sacrifice as an unacceptable loss.
The Hebrew people of the Old Testament did not see sacrifice as a loss. Instead, they saw sacrifice as giving and receiving. Yes, there was a price to pay for sacrifice, but, at the same time, it brought about fulfillment. The covenant the Israelites had with God meant that sacrifice was something that would result in good happening and not evil. Most importantly, sacrifice for the Hebrew people was not about giving up something, but simply giving. Sacrifice was seen as a gift, a voluntary offering in worship to God. The sacrificial fasts of the Israelites, for instance, were part of what the Bible calls, “seasons of joy and gladness, and cheerful festivals.” Zechariah 8:19
The point is that self-sacrifice should not make our lives miserable. That’s not God’s plan for us. Sacrifice is not to be made into an idol, and we are not to consider ourselves martyrs or dwell in self-pity for all we sacrifice for our families, friends and country or for God. Jesus was clear about that when he said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.” Mt 16:24
In other words, when we deny ourselves self-pity when called to sacrifice we find our true selves. In this way, we sacrifice suffering itself. We spiritually detach ourselves from suffering by offering up our suffering to God. We do this because suffering can be very attractive to some of us.
Some of us like the idea that we suffer. It gives us a reason to justify our unhappiness over the little we get in return for all we’ve given. When Jesus calls us to deny ourselves and take up our cross he’s telling us to sacrifice our suffering — to detach ourselves from it and to offer it up to him.
As we sacrifice the suffering we endure to serve God and others, and expect nothing in return for what we give, we begin to discover why we’re here on this earth. We discover that the joy of life is in the act of giving itself, and not in getting a reward for doing so.
Someone put it this way: “The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” —Nelson Henderson
On this Trinity Sunday, Jesus calls his followers to give up what they have for something greater. To sacrifice their lives so that others might be saved.
In following this command, they make their work holy and enjoy the reward of God’s grace and peace.
Jesus invites us to do the same. To pick up our cross daily, deny our suffering and follow him. To offer our whole self to God out of love and not fear.
During these times of financial uncertainty it’s likely we will all be called on to sacrifice in some way. Let us do that in a spirit of love and see any sacrifice we make as an opportunity to be made holy, to be sanctified in Christ.
For your homework this week I invite you to pray about what God might be calling you to sacrifice for a greater good, especially if it’s for the greater glory of God.
