by Fr. Edward Foley, Capuchin<\/em><\/p>\n There are many possible motivations Some of you are taking this opportunity to reconnect Others of you might be looking for a moment of reassurance, And, maybe more than usual, many might be looking for meaning Whatever your personal or religious quest, however, Trinity Sunday is not a feast Maybe if this was \u201cEnd Racism\u201d Sunday, But maybe, just maybe, if we dig deeply enough One image that often comes to mind for me about this feast This particular exam was all focused on a \u201csingle word\u201d Offered annually since 1932 until it was discontinued in 2010, Applicants themselves discovered the word While applicants endured 12 hours of written exams Preaching on this Trinity Sunday also threatens to be An easy way out is for the preacher Such parroting, however, misses the theological imperative Now you might be scratching your head We\u2019ve seen the classic Trinitarian images Quite frankly, the last thing we need at this moment There are other images of the Trinity, however, There is, for example, the image of the Trinity More sobering, however, is the Trinitarian image This Trinitarian image recalls the execution of an innocent man As Crivelli theologizes in parchment and paint, And in that holy crucible, We are a stiff necked people, as Moses proclaims, And like the Father and the Spirit, And in that suffering Paul warns the followers of Jesus in his time Our Catholic-Christian faith is not a shield against racism Rather it is a mandate for action Catherine LaCugna, in her now classic exploration of the Trinity This means mirroring the mutuality And so I come to a final image of the Trinity: God has made a covenant with us in Christ As we pray for peace and reconciliation in these troubling times, <\/p>\n Featured Images courtesy of \u00a0The Associated Press\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n [1]Sarah Lyall, \u201cOxford Tradition comes to this: \u2018Death\u2019 (Expound),\u201d https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/05\/28\/world\/europe\/28oxford.html<\/a> Maybe this mystical liturgy – this shapeshifter of a feast – is actually \u201cStop the violence\u201d Sunday, is \u201cEradicate Prejudice\u201d Sunday, and yes, eve is \u201cNo More George Floyds\u201d Sunday under the guise of the Trinitarian mystery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":52326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3119,3294],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-plaza-new-ws","category-ars-praedicandi"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nfor joining in this live-stream liturgy from Old St. Pat\u2019s today.<\/p>\n
\nwith a beloved faith community,
\nold friends,
\neven distant family members
\nwho are sharing in this moment of digital communion
\nfrom various locations.<\/p>\n
\nof tranquility,
\nmaybe even of reverence
\nin these tumultuous and decidedly irreverent times.<\/p>\n
\nfor a way of discerning a thoughtful path,
\nappropriate just action,
\nor even the very presence of God
\nin what could appear to be a godless moment
\nin our national narrative.<\/p>\n
\nyou might find the feast that the church presents us today
\na little baffling, possibly mystifying
\nor maybe even disappointing.<\/p>\n
\nthat necessarily stirs the heart,
\nfires the imagination,
\nor inspires religious fervor
\nlike an Easter, or Pentecost,
\nor even a St. Patrick\u2019s day in certain quarters.<\/p>\n
\nor \u201cStop the violence\u201d Sunday,
\nor \u201cEradicate Prejudice\u201d Sunday,
\nor even \u201cNo More George Floyds\u201d Sunday,
\nthere might be a little more enthusiasm
\nfor what otherwise sounds like a feast
\nright out of the pages of some stuffy catechism
\nor obscure theology book.<\/p>\n
\nwe might discover that this mystical liturgy,
\nthis shapeshifter of a feast,
\nis actually \u201cStop the violence\u201d Sunday,
\nis \u201cEradicate Prejudice\u201d Sunday,
\nand yes, even is \u201cNo More George Floyds\u201d Sunday
\nunder the guise of the Trinitarian mystery.<\/p>\n
\nis from a now defunct exam
\nformerly given at All Souls College in Oxford
\nas part of the application process for that college.<\/p>\n
\nyes \u2026 a 3 hour essay on a single noun!<\/p>\n
\nthe unveiling of the word was once such a noteworthy event
\nthat non-applicants gathered outside the college each year
\nwaiting for news of \u201cthe word\u201d to waft out.<\/p>\n
\nby flipping over a single sheet of paper
\nand seeing it printed there, all alone
\nas one writer aptly described it:
\nlike a tiny incendiary device.<\/p>\n
\nover the previous two days,
\nit is the \u201cone-word\u201d essay that candidates remember best.
\nHistorian Robin Briggs describes his 1964 essay innocence
\nas \u201can exercise in showmanship
\nto avoid answering the question.\u201d [1]<\/p>\n
\nan exercise in homiletic showmanship,
\nthe preacher dancing around
\nthis almost impenetrable mystery
\nwithout broaching much less answering
\na series of pointed, even blunt questions, such as:
\nwho really cares about Trinity Sunday? Or,
\nwhat difference does today\u2019s liturgy really make?
\nOr what on earth does this feast have to do
\nwith racial injustice,
\nwith the divide between law enforcement
\nand the citizens they are to protect and serve
\nor with the unquenched rage
\nthat is erupting on our streets?<\/p>\n
\nsimply to parrot lines from today\u2019s readings,
\nfor example,
\nthat all we need to do is to believe,
\nas the gospel directs,
\nthat we should give each other a holy kiss,
\nas St. Paul instructs,
\nor that we must bow down in worship,
\nas does Moses in the first reading.
\nThen all will be right with God, and this sacred festival honored.<\/p>\n
\nsitting there like a mystical incendiary device
\nas we confront the explosive mystery of the Trinity.<\/p>\n
\nquestioning how this charming dogma,
\nthe happy community of Father, Son and Spirit,
\ncould possibly be inflammatory, incendiary, or explosive.<\/p>\n
\nof Father and Son regally enthroned in heaven
\nwhile basking in the Spirit\u2019s light, [2]
\nor the classic icon by the great Russian painter Andrei Rublev [3]
\nof three handsome angels
\ngathered around a table, blessing a cup.
\nThose seem anything but incendiary
\nand light years away from providing any credible response
\nto the current tumult.<\/p>\n
\nis leadership in heaven or on earth
\nplacidly gathered around a table
\nor sitting on a throne from afar
\nunengaged in this life and death struggle for justice.<\/p>\n
\nthat might more effectively disclose something
\nof the incendiary nature of this doctrine and feast
\nand nudge this liturgy of the church
\ninto closer dialogue with the tormented liturgies
\nunfolding on our city streets.<\/p>\n
\npainted in the tradition of the Crow people by John Giuliani. [4]
\nIn this depiction Christ wears a warrior shirt
\nof ermine skins,
\nindicating that he is an \u201cold-time warrior
\nwho has captured his enemy\u2019s gun.\u201d
\nHow\u2019s that for incendiary?
\nJesus as a gun-capturing warrior \u2026
\nshielded by a warrior wise father
\nand enfolded in the wings of a sacred eagle and Great Spirit.
\nNow there\u2019s an image of the Trinity that fires my imagination
\nand prompts not only reflection,
\nbut a distinctive call to action.<\/p>\n
\nby the Italian Renaissance painter Taddeo Crivelli [5]
\nin which the entire Trinity seems suspended on the cross:
\na virtually crucified Trinity on a blood red background
\nembracing the sacrifice of the only-begotten<\/p>\n
\nand places the Father and Spirit
\nas eternal witnesses to this inhumanity
\nsanctioned by legitimate local governmental authority of the time
\nand witnessed by a throng of enthusiastic bystanders.<\/p>\n
\nJesus did not die alone on the cross,
\nfor the Father and Spirit were nailed there with him.
\nThe unity of Father, Son and Spirit
\nthus was not sundered by crucifixion,
\nbut welded even more fiercely together in that brutal moment
\ncaptured in this cosmic family portrait.<\/p>\n
\nas blood and water poured from the side of Christ,
\na movement in baptism and eucharist was born,
\na way to authentic life was inaugurated,
\nand a church was birthed
\nwhose only redemptive road
\nfor those who dare to make the baptismal journey
\nis through the messiness of humanity,
\nthrough the trials and challenges
\nthat purify us in God\u2019s scorching spirit.<\/p>\n
\na society marked by goodness and grace
\nbut also by wickedness and sin,
\narrogance and power mongering,
\nracism and injustice.<\/p>\n
\nno matter what the color of our skin
\nor our national origin,
\nby taking on the baptismal garment
\nwe are all nailed to the cross of prejudice and inequality.
\nAnd when one Emmett Till dies,
\nor a Michael Brown,
\nor an Eric Garner,
\nor a Trayvon Martin,
\nor a Laquan McDonald,
\nor a George Floyd,
\neach created in the image of God,
\nwhen one dies, the whole body of Christ suffers.<\/p>\n
\nanother movement must be born again,
\nChristianity need be renewed
\nand the promise of resurrected human dignity for all
\nmust be restored.<\/p>\n
\nthat they must mend their ways and learn to live in peace.
\nThat admonition is greatly amplified today.<\/p>\n
\nnor is it a symbol to hide behind in these heart wrenching times.<\/p>\n
\na call to stand with Christ the spiritual warrior
\nreplacing the guns with hospitality,
\nthe violence with empathy,
\nthe prejudice with respect,
\nand over all of these, embodying a spirit of selfless love.<\/p>\n
\npresents the three-in-one God as a God who is \u201cfor us.\u201d
\nFor LaCugna the doctrine of the Trinity is not some fancy theory
\nbut has practical implications for Christian life,
\nan understanding of Trinity
\nthat demands \u201cliving God’s life with one another.\u201d [6]<\/p>\n
\nthe all-embracing personhood,
\nthe eternal respect,
\nthe divine care for every child of God,
\nthat is the very definition of this three-in-one holiness.<\/p>\n
\na literary image from the Italian poet Dante
\nwho in the final canto of his Divine Comedy
\nbrings the reader into the presence of God.
\nBathed in light in the ascent into paradise
\neverything in the universe is connected in love.
\nThen 3 circles of identical dimensions appear,
\neach with its own color,
\na striking image of unity and diversity.
\nBut maybe, most incendiary,
\nat the center of the 2nd circle, the Christ
\nis painted la nostra effige,\u00a0<\/em>[7]
\nthe human image and likeness.
\nHumanity, itself, is taken up into divinity
\nand the face of each child of God,
\nthe face of every George Floyd and Emmett Till,
\nis eternally embedded in the Trinity.<\/p>\n
\nthat this holy Three-in-Oneness
\nwill be forever for us, and forever be with us.
\nThat covenantal commitment, however,
\nmakes a startling, incendiary demand of us creatures,
\nthat we be not only faithful to God
\nbut that we commit ourselves to be forever
\nfaithful each other,
\nla nostra effige,<\/em>
\nliving an eternal one-ness
\nwith each human being
\nand honoring them as God\u2019s own continuing incarnation.<\/p>\n
\nwe also commit ourselves, as the poet muses,
\nto be for and with each other,
\nto go wherever the other must travel,
\nto witness their dying and their rising,
\nand through it all never, never leave them alone, [8]
\nthrough Christ our Lord. Amen.<\/p>\n
\n
\n[2]http:\/\/www.mybscc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/trinidad-768×480.jpg
\n[3]https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Trinity_(Andrei_Rublev)
\n[4]http:\/\/www.bridgebuilding.com\/narr\/gctr.html
\n[5] http:\/\/www.getty.edu\/art\/collection\/objects\/225482\/taddeo-crivelli-initial-b-the-trinity-italian-about-1460-1470\/<\/a>
\n[6]Catherine LaCugna, God For us: The Trinity and Christian Life <\/i>(New York: HarperCollins, 1991), p. 411.
\n[7] Dante, <\/span>Paradiso, <\/span><\/i>Canto 33, line 131.<\/span>
\n[8]<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Rory Cooney, \u201cCovenant Hymn.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"