As we heard in today’s Gospel from John 3:16 “God the Father so loved the world that he sent his only Son”. God becoming one of us, we know that at Christmas. Crank the calendar ahead. Last weekend we heard about the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We know that as Pentecost.
Now, if Christmas focuses on the Father sending his only Son, and if Pentecost focuses on the Father sending the Holy Spiri, Trinity Sunday is the only feast that focuses on all three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
But how do we begin to understand the mystery of the Trinity? If you’re trying to explain it to little kids as I did today you could just call it “The Feast of the Tres Amigos”. I don’t know about you but for me to be even interested in the mystery of the Trinity, I need to be assured of one thing.
I need to know that the mystery of the Trinity has everything to do with the mystery of the life I live. If it doesn’t, why even care about the mystery of the Trinty? But if it does, now things get interesting.
Let me say more. Theologians have likened the mystery of Trinity to a dance. The Trinity dances in and around and through us. In that dance there’s the love of a God who is Father to us. There’s the humanity of the Son who is savior to us. And there’s the energy of the Spirit who is power to us. All three give meaningful connection to a God who actually cares about us.
The energy of love flowing between the Father and the Son, which we call the Holy Spirit, is the dance we’re invited to. Yet we hesitate. Like a kid at his first school dance, we step on to the dance feeling awkward. But when we catch the rhythm and we feel its energy it all changes for us.
So, the question, are you content to simply shuffle your way through life with little or no real awareness of how the mystery of the Trintiy intersects with the mystery of our life? Be willing to step on the dance floor and let the energy of the Trinity move you.
The Eucharist we celebrate is the time when we as a community join in the dance. Think of that dance as God’s three-step waltz with us, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Whether you think of yourself as clumsy or smooth on the dance floor, a klutz or a Fred Astaire, let God take the lead. And if you step on your partners toes God won’t care. It’s all part of learning the dance.