Trinity Sunday Homily

I remember, as a child, every time I asked questions about the Trinity, I was told that it was a mystery and that I would not understand. Initially, I accepted ‘blind faith’ as an answer to my questioning. But later on as my age of reasoning set in, that type of an answer would not satisfy me. Like most growing boys and girls, I wanted to know ‘why. Why was the sky blue and why were the girls different from the boys and why did their have to be three persons in one God?

As Christianity spread across the world, there were a number of people who began asking questions about the Trinity, much like the questions we ask today. The Fathers of the Church responded to these questions. The answers were not simple and in order to explain them sometimes people stressed only one part of the Trinity or sometimes on another. This led to controversies in the Church. The statements made by the Church in order to address these controversies led to the development of the Doctrine of the Trinity.

The most significant controversy was that of Arianism. Arius was a priest in Alexandria. Arius believed that God the Father was unique and only He had no beginning. Therefore, the Son was Subordinate to the Father was and the Spirit was no God at all. When this type of belief spread, it led to numerous fights among people, even Bishops. In the streets throughout the Empire, people discussed this, with the baker, the grocer everyone. Much like we in our country discuss cricket. There was trouble everywhere.

In order to put an end to the bickering, the Emperor Constantine called the Council of Bishops together. This Council in Nicaea, in 325 C.E., then issued a statement that God the Father and God the Son had the same nature. Later another Council in Constantinople in 381 C.E. said that the Holy Spirit too was equal to the Father and Son. Thus the three persons Father, Son and the Holy Spirit were in one God. This became the central datum of our Christian faith.

Now these three persons in one God can be compared to a community. In this community each person of the Trinity has a role to play. Each person’s role is different from that of the other. And yet all three work together for human growth. To understand this a little better, compare the Trinity to a magnet. A magnet has a North Pole and a South Pole and around these two lies a magnetic field. If the Father and the Son are likened to the North and South Poles, then the Spirit would be quite like the magnetic field. In this it becomes clear that each part of the magnet has a different role to play and yet only when all the three parts come together can it be called a magnet.

When we see the Trinity as a community, we notice that there are two particularly significant features that stare us in the face, one, that each person has a role to play and two, that each person supports the other person. The first feature, in the community of the Trinity each person has a role to play. Since our lives too are lived in communities, each one has a role to play in these communities.
A story is told of a village where all the villagers lived and worked in their vineyards together. One day they decided to have a party and each family was to bring a bottle of wine. When all the families had come in and emptied their bottles of wine in the wine bowl, the party began. It was only when the first of the villagers began to serve them from the wine bowl that they realized the wine bowl was full of water.

Each family thinking that they would be the only ones brought water instead of wine.
In a community each individual has a role to play, and no matter how small the role may be, for the community to come alive the role must be fulfilled. It means that I cannot leave it for someone else to do my job. I must do my little bit for the community to become a living one. In our Parish communities some are involved in animating theirs zones/clusters, while others have a role to play in the Liturgy. Some contribute in the Sunday School, some in the Financial Committees, some through artwork, others in terms of time, talent and money. Each one has a role to play.
Secondly, each person of the Trinity maintains his individuality. This aspect of the Trinity too is significant. Often when functioning within a community we tend to fit everyone else into our mould. In doing this we effectively negate the individuality of everyone else. In a household community for instance a husband needs to acknowledge and support his wife in what she does and a wife likewise has to support her husband. Neither has a more important role than the other. Similarly children need to be allowed the freedom to choose their own careers. They are individuals in their own right not just extensions of their parents.

There was a famous organist. This was in the old days when organs had bellows through which air had to be pumped in for the organ to be heard. During one of his performances, a little boy was working the bellows in order to pump air. And the organist played the most melodious music. At the interval, the organist took his bow and gracefully made his way backstage. In the passageway the little boy at the bellows all puffed up with pride, called out, ‘We did very well, didn’t we Sir’? The great organist looked at him scornfully, `What do you mean we?’ The little boy said nothing. After the interval the organist returned to his seat at the organ and once again his fingers began to dance across the keys, but not a sound could be heard. The little boy had gone away.

The Trinity challenges us to be a witnessing community. Such a community, like anything worth having, requires effort. It requires effort to learn about and respect differences, to be compassionate with one another, to be tolerant, to cherish one’s own identity, and to accept unconditionally the same in others. Can you and I take up this challenge?

31st Sunday of the Year C

In the well-known story of "the eaglet", a farmer picked up an eaglet lying on the ground and kept it in his barn with all his chickens. Soon it learned to feed and behave like a chicken. Once it saw an eagle flying in the sky and it wished it could do so. But all the chickens asserted that it could never do so for it was a chicken. And the eaglet believed this until a naturalist did something. He took the eaglet onto the cliff of a mountain and made it face the rays of the rising sun and kept telling it, "You are not a chicken; you are an eaglet, you can fly. You are not meant for the earth". As the eaglet faced the sun, the penetrating light pierced its heart and awakened its soul. It rose from the earth and started flying. The young eagle went faster and higher till, majestically, it reached the inaccessible heights of the heavens. This story brings out the deeper meaning of the story of Zacchaeus, the story of many of us. We find that just like the Zacchaeus & eaglet, we come across many obstacles that prevent us from encountering Jesus.

The first obstacle is that Jesus was PASSING through the city of Jericho. The very word ‘passing’ shows that Jesus had no intention of spending any time at Jericho much less did he intend to dine with someone and least of all the “ Tax collector Zacchaeus.”

The second obstacle is the name Zacchaeus which means “pure” or “righteous.” This ‘pure and a righteous’ Zacchaeus in the course of time had become a kind of under commissioner of the customs, and responsible for the hated Roman tax imposed not only on balsam, a particular oil for which Jericho was famous, but also on the costly imports of goods from Damascus. The people who collected the tax were considered sinners. Zacchaeus as a tax collector too was considered a sinner.

As Jesus passed through Jericho, Zacchaeus wanted to have a glimpse of Jesus, however the crowd must have prevented him because he was a tax collector.

The third obstacle is a physical one. Zacchaeus was a man of small stature. The crowd must have jostled him and would have brushed him aside, thereby preventing him from seeing Jesus.

However, Jesus goes beyond these obstacles to find Zacchaeus and dine with him. In the case of the first obstacle, Jesus who was to pass through Jericho ended up dining in the city and that too with a sinner. In Jesus’ dining with Zacchaeus we see God’s willingness to be with us. The question is, are we willing to be with God? Have we lost His companionship due to our busy schedule? Do we find it to be of no consequence to be with God? We too are sinners but are we yearning to be with God, the same God who has invited us to this Eucharistic meal?

Second, because Zacchaeus is a sinner the people of Jericho obstruct his way to Jesus. But the vigor to meet Jesus is never curtailed by the obstacles that people invent. The point is: Do we have the hunger to encounter God? Just as in the case of Zacchaeus whom the city and the people blocked, similarly are the riches and desires of this world blocking us from encountering God? The people of Jericho not only deprived Zacchaeus, but also themselves from meeting Jesus. Are we like the people of Jericho a stumbling block for people who are longing to meet God?

Third, although we might not be short of stature, like Zacchaeus, it is possible that the riches & the glamour of this world have been so heavy on our shoulders that these have ‘made us short’ by crushing us down!

However, it is important to remember that in spite of the efforts of Zacchaeus it is not Zacchaeus who discovers Jesus but it is Jesus who discovers Zacchaeus. The Gospel very clearly says, “When Jesus came to the place he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus come down quickly for I must stay at your house today.” Therefore it is not we who discover God, but it is God who discovers us. But God discovers us only when we make efforts to encounter Him. For if Zacchaeus had not placed himself up on the tree he would not have been noticed! And that’s precisely the question we need to ask ourselves today: `Are we making enough efforts to encounter Jesus?’ It is also interesting to note that when Jesus finds Zacchaeus he says,” Come down quickly”. Jesus recognizes the efforts of Zacchaeus. That is why Jesus says,” Come QUICKLY”, I know you are longing to be with me”.

Dear friends keeping in mind these thoughts let us ask ourselves, “Are we making enough efforts to encounter God? Is there a deep longing within us for God? Do we feel the need of God?” It is only when we make efforts to know God that God finds us. And the best place to find him is the bible. As we are beginning the year of the bible in our parish from tomorrow/today let us make a sincere effort to read the bible daily, which will in turn lead us to find Him in our neighbour. For truly `where love is God is!’ Amen.