Homily Holy Trinity Sunday 2023
Franklin Fong, OFM
June 4, 2023
The doctrine of the Trinity describes the unique ways that we experience God’s presence in our lives. It is a confusing doctrine, even for adults, because it seems to imply three gods who are yet One God. When we speak of the mystery of creator and creation, we can only understand that mystery by analogy, poetry, and symbolic language. What we describe with the doctrine of the Trinity is an experience of God. So, each of the three readings today will give us a different perspective to experiencing God in our lives.
Our first reading from Exodus 34: we hear about Moses’ encounter with God on Mount Sinai! Moses asks for God’s forgiveness of the people’s “wickedness and sins” ! Remember that Moses has led the people out of Egypt and through the desert to Mount Sinai. The Levites had created golden idols to worship and had killed thousands of their fellow kinsmen and neighbors who were worshipping these idols !
This journey to Mt Sinai took about three months during which they had encountered:
1) bad water which Moses, at God’s command, sweetened by casting a tree into it;
2) running out of food and God has provided manna and quail;
3) lack of water and Moses, at God’s command, strikes a rock with his staff and water flows forth!
4) And then lastly, Moses received the Ten Commandments to give to the people !
All these incredible sins and miracles happened before we get to today’s reading when Moses ended with asking God to “receive us as your own.” So this first reading is all about personally EXPERIENCING God’s presence in our everyday lives.
Our Psalm today is from Deuteronomy and is focused on giving God Praise. So this is about experiencing God through our prayers and praise of God in our lives.
The second reading from St Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, we hear “Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.” So you can now see that both the Psalm and the second reading is about how we experience God through our actions with each other in community.
Finally the gospel from the gospel of John is about how Jesus’s life and death. Jesus’s entire life and death were all about God’s love for us ! So we now understand how we experience God through Jesus !
So, let’s look at the unifying themes of these readings:
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The first reading encourages the people and especially sinners to have hope in God because he is a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.
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The responsorial psalm exhorts us to praise God in his house.
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The second reading encourages good Christian behavior. The Christian must be positive in his dealings with other people. Christians must be saints.
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The gospel reading encourages the readers and especially sinners to believe in Jesus in order to have life eternal.
So we have the three different ways that we experience God:
God’s presence, the Holy Spirit’s presence and Jesus’ presence !
If the triune God is with us and if we are filled with the gifts, which each person of the Trinity gives us, there is nothing more to ask.
This is what we call the fullness of life.
Our hearts cannot but rejoice and be thankful.
Our minds cannot but put God and his gifts into our memory. We live and grow in pleasant memories.
Our souls cannot but soar up into heaven, our true home, which can be anticipated now through our proper Christian behavior.
We, Catholics, believe in the Holy Trinity.
We are Trinitarians, who believe in a super gracious and merciful God.
As Trinitarians, we live our faith by making the sign of the cross at the beginning and end of our prayers and liturgies.
THE TRINITY ! Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Take some time in the coming week to reflect on
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What did the God the Father do that tells you he “loved the world”? What did the Son Jesus do ?
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What have you done as a response to God’s immense love for the world and for you personally?
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The Holy Spirit is the Father and Son’s mutual love. How does the Holy Spirit help you enter the eternal circuit of love in God?
So brothers and sisters of the Chinese Catholic Community,
this is the Good News for Holy Trinity Sunday.
Alleluia Alleluia
(中文翻譯.原文以英文為準.)
鄺神父主日道理中譯本
甲年天主聖三主日講道 - 06/04/2023
讀經一: 出谷紀 34:4-6, 8-9
讀經二: 格林多人後書 13:11-13
若望福音: 3:16-18
天主三位一體的教理描述了在我們生命中所經歷天主與我們同在的獨特方式。這是一個令人頗為困惑的教理，即使對年長人來說也是如此，因為它似乎暗示著三位同時也是一體的神。當我們談到關於造物主和創造物奧秘時，我們祇能通過類似比喻，詩篇，或一些具有象徵意義的句子來理解這個奧秘。我們用三位一體的教理描述的是我們與天主同在的體驗。所以，今天的三篇讀經，每一篇都會提醒我們在我們的生活中在不同的時與地也能體驗天主的臨在。
我們從讀經一出谷紀j得悉：我們聽到梅瑟與天主在西奈山一起的對話！梅瑟請求天主寬恕人民的“邪惡和罪惡”！記得梅瑟帶領百姓出埃及穿過沙漠到達西奈山。肋未人鑄造了金牛偶像來崇拜，並殺死了三千在崇拜這些偶像的同胞和鄰人！
這次前往西奈山的旅程花了大約三個月的時間，在此期間，他們曾遭遇：
1) 梅瑟按照天主的命令，用一棵樹投進苦水中而將水變得甘甜;
2) 在缺糧時，天主提供了天上降下的瑪納和鵪鶉；
3) 在缺水時，梅瑟按照天主的命令，用他的手杖擊打岩石後水便流出來了！
4) 最後，梅瑟領受了天主十誡給人們 ！
所有這些令人難以置信的罪惡和奇蹟都發生在我們今天讀到梅瑟請求天主“接納我們為己有”之前。所以這讀經一是描述關於在我們的日常生活中能親身體驗天主與我們同在。
我們今天的聖詠來自達尼爾先知書，重點是讚美天主。所以這是關於通過我們的祈禱和在我們內心的讚美天主來體驗天主與我們同在。
讀經二的聖保祿致格林多人後書中，我們聽到“改過自新，互相鼓勵，互相同心合意，活在和平中，仁愛與平安的天主必將與你同在。”所以大家現在可以看到聖詠和讀經二都是關於我們如何通過我們在團體中彼此的互動可體驗天主與我們同在。
最後，若望福音中的福音是關於耶穌的生平和死亡。耶穌的一生和死亡都是關於天主對我們的大愛！所以我們現在了解到我們可如何通過耶穌來體驗天主與我們同在！
那麼，讓我們看看今日這些讀經的中心思想：
1. 讀經一鼓勵人們，尤其是罪人們在天主裡要懷有希望，因為我們有一位不輕易發怒，富於仁愛，慈祥，信實，憐憫和恩賜的天主。
2. 回應聖詠，告誡我們要常在天主的殿中讚美祂。
3. 讀經二鼓勵我們要有良好的基督徒行為。基督徒必須積極地與他人交往。基督徒必須走上成聖之道。
4. 福音鼓勵我們，尤其是罪人們，信耶穌得永生。
所以我們可有三種不同的方式來體驗天主：
天主與我們的同在，聖神的同在和耶穌的同在！
既然三位一體的天主與我們同在，如果我們認識到各人都充滿了三位一體已給了我們恩賜的話，我們真該沒有什麼可要求的了。這就是我們所說的生命的圓滿。
我們的心能不歡躍，喜悅和感恩嗎?
我們的思想不能不把天主和祂的恩賜常惦記在我們的心中。我們生活和在美好的回憶中成長。
我們的靈魂應常惦記著能被提升飛奔到天堂，它是我們真正的天家，通過我們現世正確的基督徒行為, 它是可以指日可待的。
我們，天主教徒，深信三位一體的天主。
我們是三位一體的深信者，相信一位超級美善和仁慈的天主。
作為三位一體的深信者，我們在我們祈禱和禮儀的開始和結束時通過劃十字聖號來活出信仰。
天主三位一體！聖父、聖子和聖神。我們信賴您!
在接下來的一週裡，請花點時間反思一下:
1) 天主作了什麼以行動告訴你祂“愛世界, 愛我們”？祂的聖子耶穌為我們作了什麼？
2) 對你個人而言, 你作了什麼來回應天主對你, 對世界付出的無條件大愛？
3) 聖神是父與子的相愛。聖神如何在靈修中幫助你進入天主大愛的永恆循環不息中？
所以華人天主教會的兄弟姐妹們，這是天主聖三主日的好消息。
亞肋路亞, 亞肋路亞!
