9 14, June, 2020 catholicweekly.com.au AnAmerican bishop and religious walk with others toward the National Museum of AfricanAmerican History and Culture during a peace- ful protest on 8 June. PHOTO: CNS PHOTO/BOB ROLLER One thing the triune God says to fractured America, and to divisions closer to home, is that unity is possible amidst diversity ... that Three can be One, that those Three generate such love that it creates and redeems and unites millions ...” Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP while continuing to insist that they are One. In His last great commission He charged us to go out to all the world, proclaiming the Good News, teaching His commandments and baptising people in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit – as we still do and will do, in fact, here today. The early Christians puzzled about all this for centuries, but we already hear Paul, writing only twenty years after Christ’s ascension, blessing the Cor- inthians with “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God [the Father], and the fel- lowship of the Holy Spirit”. The early Church fathers and councils eventually nailed down the orthodox Catho- lic faith in the Nicene Creed. Here is defined our belief in One God, Father, Son andHoly Spirit, and that the Son is ho- moousios or consubstantial with the Father, and the Spirit likewise with themboth. Or as the Athanasian Creed put it, there is but one God, and the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, but the Father is not the Son or the Spirit, and the Son is not the Father or the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father or the Son. To deny that the Son of God was of one substance with the Father, or truly His equal, or that Jesus is His in- carnation was to wander away fromChristianity. It might sound rather academic, all that credal stuff, but the ear- ly Christians knew that Christ wouldn’t have revealed such things unless they mattered very much, and that whether we were monotheists or poly- theists or something unique mattered to our relationships to God, the world and each other, to our prayer and wor- ship, even to our salvation. Difficult to grasp it is. But to embrace this mystery is to dis- cover the Absolute is personal, the Totally Other is totally for- us. “God so loved the world He gave His only Son that those who believe might have eternal life” – those whose whole perception, thinking, feeling, willing, acting, relating are converted, so that they put on Christ, conform ourselves to Christ, make His identi- ty, mission and destiny their own. The gifts of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost are awe- some outpourings of love and grace, God giving Himself as Man and as Spirit. This week’s scenes of demonstrations and riots in the US, sparked by the kill- ing of George Floyd, expose deep ruptures in the Ameri- can psyche, society, econo- my and polity. In this country, too, there is unfinished busi- ness in seeking justice for and reconciliation with our First Peoples. The mystery of the Trinity might seem a doctrine rather distant from such con- cerns. But as the early Christians recognised, God didn’t reveal Himself for His own benefit: He doesn’t need Instagram selfies and Facebook likes to feel good about Himself. No, when the Blessed Trinity came to dinner at Mamre and the Last Supper and again in this Mass, it was and is for our sake, to address our needs. One thing the triune God says to fractured America, and to divisions closer to home, is that unity is possible amidst diversity and long history, that Three can be One, that those Three generate such love that it creates and redeems and unites millions, rather than discriminating and killing and ransacking. The God of the Christians is a strange God, perhaps, but He promises and enables what our worldmost needs right now. When, in a fewmoments time, I pour water in the names of the Most Holy Trin- ity over the heads of Megna, Sandy and Jared they will be joined to that great mystery of faith, of the God-Who-Is-Love and the Communion-Who- is-God. And once joined to that mystery by the power of Bap- tism, Confirmation and Holy Communion they will be ca- pable of speaking for justice and acting for unity in this fractured world. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen! This is the edited text of the homily by Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP for Mass for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Year A, and Adult Baptisms, Lives- treamed from St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 7 June 2020 Contact us for more information on how you can watch EWTN EWTN is a non-profit organization supported entirely by donations Email:
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