June 4, 2023
“Gender issues” are much in the news today. How does the Mystery of the Holy Trinity help us understand being created male or female? We will consider 3 levels.
Key Points
- Authentic love has giving and receiving.
- 1 – This begins with the gift of the Father to the Son in the Holy Spirit.
- 2 – But God gives Himself to us, inviting us to receive His gift.
- 3 – We are called to share this love.
- The deepest love between husband and wife is in the image of the Trinity.
This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable. It has not been verified by the author.
“Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” These words have a special significance as we celebrate this feast of the Trinity. One controversy that’s very much in the news today, like never before, is what we call today, gender, the questions of gender. And it touches something very deep within each one of us, being a man or being a woman, and a lot of times that just taken for granted or just taken as a biological fact. But today, we know there’s been a lot of questions raised about that. And so I think it’s worth taking some time to try to understand that better. Because all of us have been, from the moment of our conception, we are wounded by original sin. And we’re born into a world which is wounded and confused by sin. And so this question touches something, as I say, very deep within us. And it raises the deepest questions about who are we, where did we come from? Why do we exist? What is the goal of our life? Do we simply exist by chance? Or is there a deeper meaning? Is the fact that we’re born, male or female, is there a deeper meaning, or is that just some biological accident, which sometimes is mistaken? And, where’s our life ultimately going? So you probably weren’t expecting to hear that topic addressed on the Feast of the Trinity. Right? What does that have to do with the Trinity, the Trinity, which is, as I said, the most sublime, the greatest of all mysteries of all realities. So infinitely beyond what we can understand. And yet at the same time, it’s so close to us. Because it’s the ultimate reason, and the ultimate form, the guide for what we are. So this feast of the Trinity reveals the source of where we came from. And the reason, the goal of our life, and reveals to us that in us also, there’s a great mystery, which is a sharing in God’s mystery. And so even though our understanding of the Trinity is so small, even that little light that we can understand, is so helpful, sheds a great light. And so a lot of what I’ll be looking at today is following reflections that St. John Paul has reflected on a lot and a spoken of. And we’ll be looking at giving and receiving. Because in our sinful humanity, we know that human relations have become very difficult. There’s so many misunderstandings, right, and divisions. So often human relations become competition, where people are used and abused. People are seeking power and domination. And we all struggle and are affected by selfishness and pride and envy, which makes human relations sometimes so painful. What would it be like in a relation in which there was none of that? There was only pure love, absolute pure love. What would that relationship be? What would that be like? iI that possible? That sounds like a dream, an impossible dream. But that’s what the Trinity is about. Love, true love seeks to not use the other person, not take advantage of the other person, but to give of oneself. Not to take but to give. But to be able to truly give fully to another person. What if you want to give yourself to the other person, but the other person doesn’t want to receive you. So there’s a barrier. So for that relationship to be full, the other person has to receive, accept to receive, and respond. Right? That’s very simple. So one person gives, but the other person also has to make a decision whether to accept and receive or not. And so we’re going to be looking at three levels of this gift love, of giving and receiving. The highest level of all, which is in the Trinity. And then the Trinity sharing with human creatures, and then calling human creatures, in particular husband and wife, to share that love. So the first is the Trinity. The source of infinite love, perfect love is saying, where the father, the Father, who is the source of all, joyfully gives Himself totally, to the Son, gives everything. There’s nothing that the Father keeps out of possessiveness or fear, I don’t want to give this because then He’ll have too much, then He’ll be as great as I am. The Father gives everything to the Son. And so the Son, accepts, receives with joy, opens Himself totally to the Father, doesn’t say I have to protect myself, I don’t want to let the Father be dominating Me. He opens Himself totally to the Father’s gift and receives everything that the Father wants to give Him which is, which is His whole self. And then responds, responds with a gift of Himself to the Father. And this gift from the Father and response of the Son is so, so great, that it is a divine person itself, the person of the Holy Spirit, who has St. John Paul liked to say, is the person love, or the person gift, a divine person who is love, and gift, gift, a love, which is gift. And so they remain three distinct persons, three distinct persons, their personality, if we could do it’s very difficult to use human words to speak of this. But if we could say that their personality is not destroyed, there’s like, we could say like, there’s a full respect for each person. And yet they are completely united, not by force, but by the intensity of their love and freedom. And there’s a perfect equality. None is greater, there’s a perfect equality. But this is a mystery that’s beyond us. But what we know is because of the intensity of love, there’s no division at all. There’s no resentment. So God, the Trinity as Saint John Paul says that so often, is a loving communion of persons. God is not solitude, God is a loving communion, we could say, like, God is a family. And there’s so much love and joy and beatitude, in this loving communion of persons in this family, that because it is love, they don’t want to keep it for themselves. They want to share it, and you could say they’re bursting, to share it, anxious to share it, that’s their desire is to share it. They can’t stand to keep this just for themselves, they want to share it. So this leads us to the second stage, which God, this love in the Trinity. God wants to share it with the human person. As Jesus says, as the Father has loved Me, that’s the love in the Trinity, the Father’s love for the Son. Then He says, so I have loved you. Live on in My love. So that speaking of the love of the Trinity, Jesus is sharing it with us. As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you, live on in My love. And the word that the gospel that we heard today, the words of Jesus, God so loved the world that He gave, (there’s that gift again, love which gives) that He gave His only Son. So not that He gave something, that He gave some gifts, that He gave creations, but He gives His only Son, He gives totally. He doesn’t just give grace’s or gifts; He gives His only Son. He gives Himself the total gift of Himself, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish, but might have eternal life, eternal life, which is living in this joy of the Trinity. And so one thing the scripture makes clear, because we don’t always realize this, we don’t always feel this, but the Scripture makes it clear is that the initiative is always God’s. That is, it’s never us that decides, oh, I’m going to love God. And they say, Oh, that’s nice. They’re loving me, so I’m going to love and respond in response. The initiative always comes from God. St. John says, “We love because He first loved us.” We love because He first loved us, we couldn’t love unless He first loved us. He loves us and calls us into union with Him. Sin had destroyed this union. But Jesus has come to reconcile us to the Father. Jesus gives Himself totally in His sacrifice. And He said the night before He died, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends, or that a man give. So again, this is a love that gives, and Jesus is saying there’s no greater love, than to give one’s whole self, one’s whole life for his friends. And so Jesus comes not (and this is the intensity of His love), He doesn’t come to dominate, to be served, He says, but He came to serve, to serve, which is a way of giving. So He comes to give. And so this is a revelation of the unimaginable dignity that you have, as a human person. Called to a supernatural because we feel a lot of times how human we are. You know, like, Genesis shows us being man, being made of mud. And we feel that humanity, that earthiness in us, which is so heavy sometimes. But this is revealing that there’s also a mystery, of being called to participate in this divine union, beyond the limits of our damaged, sinful reality today. And so the second part is the Trinity wanting to give itself totally to humanity. And we have the greatest example of that, in this young woman whose image is here in front of us. When God came, wanting to give Himself fully finds a creature, who is totally open to Him, totally receptive, totally welcoming to His gift. And the extreme surprise, is that God Himself is waiting on a creature’s response, on a creature’s free response. And Mary, accepting, trusting, opening her life to God without any, any resistant. I often say that our attitude with God is sometimes that reminds me of those, those doors in the hotels that have the chain on it, because you have to be careful, right? So you open a door, but you keep the chain on, because you don’t know what the person wants. And so you can talk to the person, but always keeping the chain on so that they can’t get you. A lot of times I think that’s the way our communication is with God. We want to be a little bit open to Him, but we want to keep the chain on, so we’re still in control. Because who knows what God would do if you open the door and let Him in. Right? And so Mary takes off the chain and opens the door fully to the Lord. And that permits, what does the Lord do? He doesn’t take advantage of her. He’s able finally to give Himself fully to a creature and that’s what He does. He gives Himself fully to this young woman. And that gift, and that response of hers is infinitely fruitful. And so that’s the love of the Trinity, is the love that God wants to share with humanity. The love and that’s why Scripture speaks of God’s love for His people and Jesus’ love for the Church as the love of a bride for His bridegroom. And this leads us to the third stage, the love between human persons, in particular love between a husband and a wife. Jesus says, shortly after a passage I read a few moments ago, He says, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.” So you see these three levels, As the Father has loved Me, that’s the first level. So I have loved you, the love of God for the human person, the second level. And then He says, that you love one another, as I have loved you. So this is the love between human persons. And so this is true for all love between human persons. But it’s true in a special way, for the love between a husband and a wife. Not only that Jesus speaks of us as being brothers and brothers and friends, in a whole new way. But it’s especially seen in the very challenging vocation, very challenging vocation of Christian marriage. When a man and a wife are united, by the sacrament, instituted by Jesus of marriage, which is rooted we know in the very creation, the very moment of creation, where there’s this mysterious words in the Book of Genesis, then God said, “Let us,” Why does He say, let us who is that us? He doesn’t say, let me, He says, Let us, “let us make man in our own in our image, after Our likeness,” not after my likeness, after our likeness. “So God created man in His own image, and the image of God He created.” And what’s the next thing that scripture says, this key passage of Scripture, when it says that God created man, in His own image, it says, “male and female, He created them.” So being created, male and female, is a mysterious part of being made in the image of God. That’s not something simply a biological accident. It is part of the mystery of having been made in the image of God. And so we know that the relationship between man and woman, husband and wife has been so wounded, so attacked, so distorted, so abused, so challenged. But the Trinity helps us to go to the very source. So we can go beyond all the distortions or confusions and everything that is darkened and obscure and see what it is and it’s very source. Everyone is called to give ourselves in loving service, respecting each other, respecting each person with their own special gifts. And this great mystery, we don’t have certainly a time to go into it all and I certainly don’t know all of it. But I want to here just give a few little hints. The Catechism speaks of the complementarity of men and women, it says, “man and woman were made for each other. For God created them to be a communion of persons.” So, God is that divine communion of persons. And when He creates man, when He created us in His own image, that is, He created us also to enter into a communion of persons or communion of persons, which is first of all, a human person with the divine person, but also between human persons, a communion of persons, a communion of love. And the Catechism goes on to say, “in which each can be a helpmate to the other, for their equal as persons, and complementary as masculine and feminine.” It says each can be a helpmate to the other, for their equal as persons and complimentary, as masculine, and feminine. And there’s a sign of this, signs of this, even in our bodies, our bodies, which were not just a biological accident, but in the work of our Creator. And we see even our bodies the complementary role of the man who is called to give and a woman who is called to receive and bear fruit. And even in our culture, for instance, in a proposal, it’s traditionally the man who proposes, who takes the initiative and a woman who responds. But there’s deeper roots of this And St. John Paul, is a document of his, it’s not very long. I recommend it to everyone. It’s on the vocation and dignity of women. But I think for all of us men or women, it’s extremely helpful. The Latin is Mulieris Dignitatem, in Latin. And I’ll read a few passages from that because the pope deepens this topic there. And he quotes from Ephesians. It says, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her.” So it’s showing that the model for the bridegroom’s love for the bride, the husband’s love for the wife is in Jesus love, the divine bridegroom, for His bride, His mystical bride, the Church. And so what it says, “Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the Church.” And what did He do, as Christ loved the Church, He gave, once again, it’s giving the love which gives. It’s the love in God who gives Himself, Jesus who gives Himself to the Church. And that’s the model for man’s love for his wife. And St. John Paul, in that document I mentioned, says, “the Bridegroom,” and he puts bridegroom with a capital B, “the Bridegroom is the one who loves, who takes initiative of giving himself. The Bride,” and a capital B, “the Bride is loved.” And here he’s talking, first of all, about the Church. But this is again the model for human relations. The bridegroom is the one who loves, the bride is loved. It is she who receives love, in order to love in return. And so you see this order, this love in the Trinity, the God the Father who loves and the Son receives that love in response to that love. And we see this at the second level, God who takes initiative of loving a creature. And again, the greatest examples are the Blessed Mother, and she responds to that love, by receiving, accepting, and responding. And so this then also becomes the model for marital love. The bridegroom is the one who loves, the bride is loved. It is she who receives love in order to return. And so men in our masculinity, and particularly the bridegroom, the husbands are called to follow the loving Gift of Jesus. So men are called in a special way to be an image of God’s love to be an expression of God, who loves, who gifts himself in service. And we have the example of St. Joseph, St. Joseph, we have twice in this representativeness chapel, this chapel dedicated to him. That Jesus is the ultimate model and Saint Joseph is we see also the image of St. Joseph. And then the pope also says in that same document, it says, “Christ has entered this history, and remains in it as the bridegroom who has given Himself.” All human beings, both women and men are called through the Church to be the bride of Christ, the redeemer of this world, in this way. Being the bride and thus the feminine element becomes a symbol of all that is human.” So I’m going to read that again. Because that’s pretty dense. So again, what the Pope is comparing here is these two levels between God who loves the creature, as the bridegroom for the bride, and how that is modeled in the love of a human bridegroom, for his bride, husband for his wife. So let me read that again. “Christ has entered this history and remains in it as the bridegroom who has given Himself. All human beings, both men and women, are called through the Church to be the bride of Christ, the Redeemer of the world.” Because when we say that Jesus is the divine bridegroom, who loves His bride, and once calls her to union with Him, that bride is the Church. But that bride is also each member of the Church, man or woman. And then so that’s why the Pope says, in this way being the bride, and thus the feminine element becomes a symbol of all that is human, and its relationship to God. So all of us are called to receive God’s love as members of the Church, that women, by your femininity, have a special capacity for receiving this love, for entering into union with God. And of course, that’s the greatest, the greatest dignity of the human person to enter into union with God. That’s why great mystics like Saint John of the Cross, use that bridle image to speak of the souls union with God. So all of us are called to that. But women by your femininity have a special grace for that. You’re especially suited to or made for a divine Union. But only the Holy Spirit can make all of this possible. We know this is beyond our ability. We are sinners. We’re all called to love and be loved, to give and receive, to receive God’s love and respond to it, and also to share it with each other. But just to recap, so the femininity, though, has a special gift for expressing man’s capacity, the human capacity for union with God. And masculinity has a special gift for expressing our capacity to share in God’s gift of himself. The Trinity is beyond all sexual differences, as the Trinity is pure spirits. The Catechism says, in no way is God in man’s image. Those were the false gods of the pagans that were made an image of man. But the true God is not in man’s image. The Catechism goes on to say “He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit, in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective perfections of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God.” And so, when we reflect on this, all of us are aware of our imperfect reality. We are sinners, and we’ve also suffered by the sins of others. But this is a sign though of our eternal, what God has planned for us, when He will make all things new. And so in conclusion, remembering those words of Jesus, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Live on in my love, and love one another this way,” those three, those three levels. The Trinity is the ultimate light. God created us on this what we call gender today, God created us, man or woman. And this, this is the ultimate light for the relationship between a husband and wife, but also for all human, true human love and relationships, true human friendship and brotherhood. This call to love and to give and to receive, which comes from the Trinity to all of us. And in this very Mass that we’re celebrating right now, it’s Jesus Christ, from the gift of the Father, by the Holy Spirit, who comes to give Himself to us, to help them, to help us. And He, like with our Blessed Mother, He waits for our response. How many times we go to Communion, just out of routine, right? Just a routine action. And yet what’s happened in Holy Communion is God is wanting to give Himself fully to us. And yet, He needs our response. Or taking the chain off the door and opening the door wide. Sometimes we don’t. It’s not, we don’t take the chain off the door, we don’t even know that there’s anybody at the door, right? We go to Communion; we’re not even paying attention. But what He is doing is wanting to give this love of the Trinity to us in the person of Jesus. And so we can ask our Blessed Mother to help us, first of all, receive this gift, especially in Holy Communion today. And then, as she right away, when she received that gift, we a couple of days ago, we had the Feast at the Visitation, right away she received that gift and she went to give, to serve Elizabeth and so she received the gift from God, and right away she goes, and in this case it wasn’t a marital love but to go to her relative in service. That’s a great example of receiving the gift of God, and then sharing that in gift and service. And so we asked our Blessed Mother to help us receive our Lord’s gift in Holy Communion today. Amen.
KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
2 Corinthians 13:11-13