Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, May 26, 2024 – Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40; Romans 8:14-17; Matthew 28:16-20

I am going to do a little roll call here:

Father Knows Best, Lassie, I Remember Mama, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, The Brady Bunch, Eight is Enough, The Jetsons, The Flintstones, The Wonder Years, I Love Lucy, Reba, The Beverly Hillbillies, Malcom in the Middle, Family Matters, The Simpsons, One Day at a Time, The Addams Family, Full House and, later on, Fuller House, Family Ties, Home Improvement, The Middle, Everybody Hates Chris, Arrested Development, The Jeffersons, Growing Pains, Punky Brewster, Who’s the Boss?, How I Met Your Mother, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Different Strokes, My Two Dads, Webster, Smart Guy.

I am sure that, someplace in that litany, you heard the title of one or more of your favorite family sitcoms. And, probably, someplace in that litany, you heard the name of at least one show you detested. At worst, our family sitcoms were formulaic, sexist, prejudicial, insular, naive or unrealistic and capitalistic. Hmm? Probably true. At best, they were reflective of the culture, they were values orientated, they were inclusive, and they were ground-breaking. Choose which side you want to be on. 

But they’re all based on one ongoing and never-changing pattern. Two spouses, mutuality, reciprocity, intimacy, and creativity. Children of some sort, trust, reliance, affection. And that works all different ways. All those qualities I just mentioned - mate to mate, both mates to the children, each mate individually to each of the children individually, children to children, children to both parents, children to each parent individually. It’s a very complex set of relationships but each one of them has all of the qualities I just mentioned. Not only that, but in the storyline some of those qualities spill over, family unit to family unit.  

The Blessed Trinity is the biggest intellectual challenge for every believer. And some of the most famous theologians have tackled the concept with understandings that were better-than-average, is all we can say, about a mystery. Their explanations were better than average. St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Patrick. But the Blessed Trinity remains, always, a mystery. So how can we approach it? I think maybe we should approach it from the very first statement about what God is like.  

In the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, the writer says, “And God said, ‘Let us make man - meaning the human species - let us make man in our image and likeness.’ And God made man – again, the human species - in his image and likeness. Male and female He created them. And He said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth. Subdue it.” “Subdue it” not in the sense of wringing every bit of life out of it but, rather, bringing order out of chaos and fruitfulness out of emptiness. When God says, “Let us make IN our likeness,” He wasn’t talking about our looking like God, because God doesn't look like anything until Jesus comes along. He is talking about what we are. And what we are is mutuality, reciprocity, intimacy, creativity. That’s what we are. 

Usually, moral creatures will hold up the Blessed Trinity as a model for families. What I suggest is that, if you want to understand just a little bit about what the Blessed Trinity is, use your image, your model, of what the ideal family would be like. Your ideal family. And that will help you to understand the Father, and the Son, and their Holy Spirit.