Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Year C

Two people come knocking on your door, and they want to convert you to their

beliefs. How do you respond? One option is to politely say no thank you, and

close the door. Others like a challenge, so they engage with them, whether to

try and convert them to the Catholic faith, or at the very least, they try to keep

them away from anyone else for as long as is possible. One technique a priest

once recommended was this: the two people on your doorstep have been

taught certain narrow topics to cover with you, so you need to get them away

from those and onto something else. One question he would use would be to

ask them where the Bible came from. It didn’t just fall from the sky at

Pentecost. It was put together by the Catholic Church. Inspired by the Holy

Spirit, the Church looked through the different books that were around at the

time to see which ones agreed with the truth Jesus had given them and which

ones did not. That, in simple terms, is how we got the Bible.

What’s this got to do with today’s celebration of the Most Holy Trinity? Well,

when we say that God is one and also three persons, God is not a three-headed

monster. With your three-headed monster, each head has its own ideas and they

sometimes fall out with each other. You might wonder how many three-headed

monsters I have met to be able to say that, but it’s true! Anyway, in the Gospel

today, Jesus shows us that there is unity among the Three Persons. Unity of

message, unity of intent, working together, because the truth is one. Father,

Son and Holy Spirit all communicate the same message.

Throughout the time of the Old Testament, God had revealed Himself gradually

over centuries and centuries, and then God the Son fulfilled the plan of God the

Father and became one of us, taking flesh by the action of God the Holy Spirit.

Today’s Gospel comes, obviously, from before Christ ascended into heaven,

where He is telling the disciples that the Holy Spirit will remind them of all that

He, Christ, has taught them, and guide them into all the truth.

So, at what point did the Holy Spirit stop teaching the Church new things?

Answer: at the point of the death of the last apostle. At that point, all that we

need to know for our salvation had been communicated. It was complete.

Since then, the Holy Spirit might help the Church to deepen her understanding

of that Revelation, but things won’t change. There won’t be an eighth

sacrament, or a new book to add to the Bible, or a new Mass in which we use a

blue host and we now receive Our Lady instead. It might sound a bit silly, but

it’s a problem the Church has had to deal with in the past and it’s still a problem

today.

There was someone called Tertullian, who lived in the second and third

centuries, a Christian theologian and writer, who also wrote against some of the

heresies at the time. But he himself died a heretic. The heretic Marcion, living

just before Tertullian, had, if you like, decided to tear pages out of the Bible

and come up with a religion of his own, similar in some ways to Christianity.

Tertullian spoke against his ideas. But then he fell for the ideas of the

Montanist sect. They preached persuasively, and lived seemingly virtuous

lives, better, it seemed, than the Catholics did. The Montanists claimed special

revelations from the Holy Spirit, saying we should move on now from the

Catholic Church to this new movement. Rather than taking pages out of the

Bible, they added to them. Tertullian was duped.

But God is one. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, sing from the same hymn sheet,

to use that expression. They don’t contradict each other, neither does the Holy

Spirit contradict the Holy Spirit. Since the third century there have been

various other dubious people since – some movements have died out, others are

still around.

So, the next time people turn up on your door, remember that the Faith God

gave us does not mutate – it’s been the same faith for the last two thousand

years. God is one, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God and the truth is

one. Our understanding develops, but it doesn’t change. The Holy Spirit leads

us into all truth. He doesn’t change His mind.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk