Holy Trinity Homily Help

HOLY TRINITY SUNDAY

Reading: Romans 11:25-36
I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not become wise (in) your own estimation: a hardening has come upon Israel in part, until the full number of the Gentiles comes in, and thus all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The deliverer will come out of Zion, he will turn away godlessness from Jacob; and this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” In respect to the gospel, they are enemies on your account; but in respect to election, they are beloved because of the patriarchs. For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. Just as you once disobeyed God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now disobeyed in order that, by virtue of the mercy shown to you, they too may (now) receive mercy. For God delivered all to disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given him anything that he may be repaid?” For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

I. Exegesis
[11:25–29] In God’s design, Israel’s unbelief is being used to grant the light of faith to the Gentiles. Meanwhile, Israel remains dear to God (cf. Rom 9:13), still the object of special providence, the mystery of which will one day be revealed.

[11:30–32] Israel, together with the Gentiles who have been handed over to all manner of vices (Rom 1), has been delivered…to disobedience. The conclusion of Rom 11:32 repeats the thought of Rom 5:20, “Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more.”

[11:33–36] This final reflection celebrates the wisdom of God’s plan of salvation. As Paul has indicated throughout these chapters, both Jew and Gentile, despite the religious recalcitrance of each, have received the gift of faith. The methods used by God in making this outreach to the world stagger human comprehension but are at the same time a dazzling invitation to abiding faith.

II. Old Testament References
[11:25] Proverbs 3:7

[11:26-27] Psalm 14:7, Isaiah 59:2-21

[11:29] Numbers 23:19, Isaiah 54:10

[11:33] Job 11:7-8, Psalm 139:6, 17-18, Wisdom 17:1, Isaiah 55:8-9

[11:34] Job 15:8; Wisdom 9:13; Is 40:13; Jeremiah 23:18

[11:35] Job 41:3; Isaiah 40:14
Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20
The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.

I. Exegesis
[28:16–20] This climactic scene has been called a “proleptic parousia,” for it gives a foretaste of the final glorious coming of the Son of Man (Mt 26:64). Then his triumph will be manifest to all; now it is revealed only to the disciples, who are commissioned to announce it to all nations and bring them to belief in Jesus and obedience to his commandments.

[28:16] The eleven: the number recalls the tragic defection of Judas Iscariot. To the mountain…ordered them: since the message to the disciples was simply that they were to go to Galilee (Mt 28:10), some think that the mountain comes from a tradition of the message known to Matthew and alluded to here.

[28:17] But they doubted: the Greek can also be translated, “but some doubted.” The verb occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only in Mt 14:31 where it is associated with Peter’s being of “little faith.”

[28:18] All power…me: the Greek word here translated power is the same as that found in the LXX translation of Dn 7:13–14 where one “like a son of man” is given power and an everlasting kingdom by God. The risen Jesus here claims universal power, i.e., in heaven and on earth.

[28:19] Therefore: since universal power belongs to the risen Jesus (Mt 28:18), he gives the eleven a mission that is universal. They are to make disciples of all nations. While all nations is understood by some scholars as referring only to all Gentiles, it is probable that it included the Jews as well. Baptizing them: baptism is the means of entrance into the community of the risen one, the Church. In the name of the Father…holy Spirit: this is perhaps the clearest expression in the New Testament of trinitarian belief. It may have been the baptismal formula of Matthew’s church, but primarily it designates the effect of baptism, the union of the one baptized with the Father, Son, and holy Spirit.

[28:20] All that I have commanded you: the moral teaching found in this gospel, preeminently that of the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5–7). The commandments of Jesus are the standard of Christian conduct, not the Mosaic law as such, even though some of the Mosaic commandments have now been invested with the authority of Jesus. Behold, I am with you always: the promise of Jesus’ real though invisible presence echoes the name Emmanuel given to him in the infancy narrative.

II. Old Testament Refernces
[28:18] Deuteronomy 7:14 in the LXX = Septuagint (Greek Old Testament).

III. The Trinitarian Creed of Nicaea-Constantinople
NICENE CREED, ALSO CALLED NICENE-CONSTANTINOPOLITAN CREED, A CHRISTIAN STATEMENT OF FAITH THAT IS THE ONLY ECUMENICAL CREED BECAUSE IT IS ACCEPTED AS AUTHORITATIVE BY THE ROMAN CATHOLIC, EASTERN ORTHODOX, ANGLICAN, AND MAJOR PROTESTANT CHURCHES. THE APOSTLES’ AND ATHANASIAN CREEDS ARE ACCEPTED BY SOME BUT NOT ALL OF THESE CHURCHES.
UNTIL THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY, IT WAS UNIVERSALLY ASSUMED THAT THE NICENO-CONSTANTINOPOLITAN CREED (THE MORE ACCURATE TERM) WAS AN ENLARGED VERSION OF THE CREED OF NICAEA, WHICH WAS PROMULGATED AT THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA (325). IT WAS FURTHER ASSUMED THAT THIS ENLARGEMENT HAD BEEN CARRIED OUT AT THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE (381) WITH THE OBJECT OF BRINGING THE CREED OF NICAEA UP TO DATE IN REGARD TO HERESIES ABOUT THE INCARNATION AND THE HOLY SPIRIT THAT HAD ARISEN SINCE THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA.
ADDITIONAL DISCOVERIES OF DOCUMENTS IN THE 20TH CENTURY, HOWEVER, INDICATED THAT THE SITUATION WAS MORE COMPLEX, AND THE ACTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE NICENO-CONSTANTINOPOLITAN CREED HAS BEEN THE SUBJECT OF SCHOLARLY DISPUTE. MOST LIKELY IT WAS ISSUED BY THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE, EVEN THOUGH THIS FACT WAS FIRST EXPLICITLY STATED AT THE COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON IN 451. IT WAS PROBABLY BASED ON A BAPTISMAL CREED ALREADY IN EXISTENCE, BUT IT WAS AN INDEPENDENT DOCUMENT AND NOT AN ENLARGEMENT OF THE CREED OF NICAEA.
THE SO-CALLED FILIOQUE CLAUSE (LATIN FILIOQUE, “AND THE SON”), INSERTED AFTER THE WORDS “THE HOLY SPIRIT,…WHO PROCEEDS FROM THE FATHER,” WAS GRADUALLY INTRODUCED AS PART OF THE CREED IN THE WESTERN CHURCH, BEGINNING IN THE 6TH CENTURY. IT WAS PROBABLY FINALLY ACCEPTED BY THE PAPACY IN THE 11TH CENTURY. IT HAS BEEN RETAINED BY THE ROMAN CATHOLIC, ANGLICAN, AND PROTESTANT CHURCHES. THE EASTERN CHURCHES HAVE ALWAYS REJECTED IT BECAUSE THEY CONSIDER IT A THEOLOGICAL ERROR AND AN UNAUTHORIZED ADDITION TO A VENERABLE DOCUMENT. – FROM ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA

Sample Homily

Jesus Christ reveals to us the fullness of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As the eternal Logos (Word) of the Father, Jesus the Son of God, in assuming our nature, is for us the face of God. Through his Incarnation, Ministry of Proclaming the Kingdom of God, Suffering and Death on the Cross, and his holy Resurrection – Jesus shows us that God is Love. So that this Love, which is God may abide in us forever, the Father gives us the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Love, the Spirit of Life in its fullness.
In Eastern Christianity this fullness of life given to us by the Spirit, that shapes us to be more like Christ each day is called “theosis”, “metanoia”, “deification”, meaning to be “god-like” or “divinization”. In the Syriac Tradition this idea of “theosis” can be seen in the early Syriac Fathers for example, in the Demontrations of Aphrahat, called the “Persian Sage”, in Demonstration VI he reminds us that in taking on our nature, the Son of God bestows upon us his nature. Aphrahat writes:

All this humility did our Savior show us in Himself. Let us then also humble
ourselves, my beloved. When our Lord went outside of His nature, He walked
in our nature. Let us abide in our nature, that in the day of judgment He may cause us to partake of His nature.

It is central to our faith that “God became man, so that man could become god”, as so eloquently expressed by St. Athanasius in his On the Incarnation. This process does not end with death, but continues beyond the grave. What the East has called the “final theosis” and the West “purgatory” has been reconciled in the teachings of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which states:

III. THE FINAL PURIFICATION, OR PURGATORY
1030 All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.

Jesus reveals to us that God is Love, and that God desires that we his children, might become co-heirs to eternal life, so that we might live in the love of the Holy Trinity forever.