Trinity Sunday C.  June 3, 2007.  Our Lady of Grace 5:15 and 9:30. Faith Formation Sunday.  Proverbs 8: 22-31.  Romans 5: 1-5.   John 16: 12-15.

Sometimes things look very different on the inside than they appear from the outside.  A plain ugly rock may hold a dazzling secret deep within it.  From the outside the rock that I am holding appears to be dull and lifeless.  When it was cut in two, beautiful multicolored crystals were revealed deep inside of the rock.  Once the rock is opened up so that we can see inside it, a richness and beauty are revealed that we could not even imagine looking at the rock from the outside alone.

The universe testifies to the existence of a Creator by the orderly unfolding of the world as we know it.  Precision and purpose are everywhere in the universe from the changing of the seasons to the birth of a little child.  While we do not understand everything that goes into the growth and formation of a child in his mother’s womb, one thing is certain.  The development and growth of a child does not happen by chance.  The perfectly formed little being who enters our world screaming testifies to a hidden higher power that has designed the miracle of birth and the ordering of the universe and repeats this and other miracles millions of times each day.  The existence of God as Creator can be figured out by observing creation.  It doesn’t take faith to believe in God as Creator.  All it takes is an open mind.

Today we celebrate not only what we can know about God by observing creation, today we celebrate what God has revealed to us about the hidden inner life of God.  God wants us to know more about God than that God is our creator.  God wants us to know and understand the inner life of God.  The revelation of the Trinity is like the rock split in two, revealing a magnificent and beautiful hidden life within.  On this Feast of the Holy Trinity God opens himself up to us so that we can not only see the inner life of God, we can also participate in the hidden life of the Trinity.

There is only one God, the creator of the universe.  Within that one God there are Three Divine Persons.  Within that one God, Three Divine Persons share a communion of life and love that binds them together perfectly and makes God a blazing furnace of Divine Love.  John’s gospel tells us that “God is Love”.   From the outside we can see that God is our Creator.  We know that God is infinite and total love only because God has allowed us to see the hidden life of God.   God is not the friendless and solitary source of the universe.  God is not a Lone Ranger figure in the sky.  God is three loving persons bound perfectly together in a communion of perfect love.   Because God is love it is not only a powerful Creator that makes the world go around – Divine Love makes the world go around.  God is certainly wise and powerful, and wisdom and power truly matter.  Yet, wisdom and power are perfect and bring joy only when they flow from mutual love and serve the common good. When we love one another we are most like God.

Pope John Paul saw in the creation of human beings a strong prophecy about the Trinitarian nature of God which had not yet been revealed.  Human beings were not created to be solitary, lonely figures.  They were created as man and woman, to be in intimate communion with one another in marriage, the family and in society as a whole.  Pope John Paul said, “(Humanity) becomes the image of God not so much in the moment of solitude as in the moment of communion. Right "from the beginning," (Humanity) is not only an image in which the solitude of a person who rules the world is reflected, but also, and essentially, an image of an inscrutable divine communion of persons.”  (11/14/79 General Audience)   In other words, human sexuality, the family and the communal life of society share in and reveal the image of the Trinity in the world.

Formation in the depth and richness of our Catholic Christian faith lies at the very heart of parish life at Our Lady of Grace.  The way that we care for one another as a community of love reflects the hidden life of the Trinity.  Today is Faith Formation Sunday.  I have asked a parishioner to speak to you about faith formation as our privilege and our responsibility.