GLORY BE TO THE TRINITY
SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON SUNDAY JUNE 7th 2009
“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost: as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen “.
The Gloria Patri is sung or said at the end of the psalms at Morning and Evening Prayer. It is always included in the divine office whenever psalms are said. However it is not added to the psalm at Mass – because when we hear the readings at the Mass Sunday by Sunday, the psalm is meant to be in the context of Scripture readings, and follows the Old Testament reading.
Today is an exception. “Glory be to the Father…” is added to the psalm because it is Trinity Sunday!! It actually proclaims what Trinity Sunday is about…..it is about praising the Holy Trinity. Most people think it’s about trying to explain the Trinity. Every preacher tries to wrestle with this every year.
The first thing we need to realise is that any understanding of the Trinity involves the fact that we ultimately worship the holy and undivided Trinity. Trinity Sunday is not really proclaiming a doctrine, but proclaiming that we worship God revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And that is why the Athanasian Creed – the great Creed that expounds the doctrine of the Trinity – has a statement about the Trinity in these words: “And the Catholic Faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity”. That is the essence of the “Glory be….” – it is about worshipping the Holy Trinity.
Many people get confused and think that second part of the “Gloria Patri” is stating that the world will never end. Indeed, “As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end” seems to say that the world will never end.
This is a misunderstanding. What we are actually saying is this: Glory be to the Holy Trinity, Father…and as it was in the beginning, such glory shall continue for as long as the world never ends. It’s about praising God the Trinity forever – as long as there is a creation to praise the Trinity. This is taken up by Psalm 93 when it refers to God as existing from everlasting.
But what has the encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3:1-16 got to do with the doctrine of the Trinity? It doesn’t seem to be a doctrinal encounter or Jesus teaching about the Trinity.
Looking at the gospel, however, not only reveals the Trinity, but also how the Trinity relates to us personally.
It begins allegorically with a question that many people ask: Why do you have to believe such a complicated doctrine – can’t you just be a good person to be a Christian?”
Nicodemus comes to Jesus secretly. At first he flatters him – or is it a back-handed compliment? “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him”. Is he suggesting that Jesus isn’t a teacher – perhaps just a worker of signs. After all Nicodemus was a Pharisee – he knew all the teachings about God from the Scriptures and from his own tradition in the Jewish faith.
It was the signs that Jesus did that attracted Nicodemus to him. It wasn’t what Jesus had been teaching – Nicodemus probably thought he knew better. However, he does admit that the signs indicate there is something of God here in Jesus.
That is surely the problem for many people in our society. They see signs of Christianity – welfare, justice, good works, healing, people full of joy and peace, and often able to cope with problems better than other people. But they don’t want to commit to the Church that these Christians belong to. They don’t want to believe in what Jesus taught. This is what Nicodemus is represents.
So to the answer that Jesus gives to Nicodemus immediately: “Unless one is born anew”. Not just a new vision, not just a new way of doing things, not just change for the sake of change – but a new birth. It’s far more extravagant than just changing the way we think.
Then comes the teaching: “Unless one is born of water and the spirit”.
Now Jesus introduces the Holy Spirit. In so doing Jesus is actually introducing the Holy Trinity. Nicodemus has already referred to God the Father, and is coming to terms with who Jesus is…..now Jesus brings in the Holy Spirit. We are indeed in the territory of the doctrine of the Trinity.
Signs are not enough, Jesus says to Nicodemus – you have to believe. And you have to believe that there is a third person of the Trinity who can accomplish this new birth.
Nicodemus was familiar with John’s baptism of water – a baptism of repentance in the River Jordan. But John Baptist himself said that someone would come after him and baptise with the Holy Spirit. And that is exactly what Jesus is offering to Nicodemus.
You will remember on another occasion that Jesus said John was great – but that even the least in the Kingdom of Heaven was greater than John. For to enter that kingdom required more than John’s baptism. It required a baptism in the name of the Trinity.
Jesus’ last command to the apostles was to: “Go, teach all nations, and baptise them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. That is what they did, and that is why we are here today.
But they could not have done that unless they understood the Trinity and believed in it. From the beginning, to be a Christian was not only to follow Jesus, but was to be baptised in the Trinity, and to understand that it was a truth from God, a teaching of Jesus.
Having got to this point, we now have Jesus’ affirming the doctrine of the Trinity. Nicodemus says: “How can this be, how can I be reborn?” Jesus replies that he speaks of heavenly things, of heavenly truth – because he is from heaven. “He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man”.
Jesus is claiming that he is equal to the God whom Nicodemus believes in and worships – that he is in fact the second person of the Trinity. Jesus is more than a teacher. He is the divine Son who existed in heaven before he was born. “The Son of Man who came from heaven”.
Equal to the Father, but obviously different.
In Jesus we see the very life of heaven, the very life of God, revealed to us in human form. Revealed to us in a way that not only can we understand, but can have a personal relationship with.
But he says more. It is not enough that the Son of Man should come down from heaven – he must also be lifted up. What wonderful phraseology we have here. Now Jesus is indicating his mission as Son of God – to die on the Cross so that the world may live.
Finally Jesus refers to the Father in his great statement: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”. The Father gives us his Son, the Son gives us the Holy Spirit. Three persons equal but different, united in the Holy Trinity.
God gives, whether Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. And nothing is beyond his love. It extends from Nicodemus to the whole world in the life-giving death of the Son.
So the message today is that the Trinity is not complicated – it is a union of love, like any union that you or I have of love.
The Doctrine of the Trinity marks out the Christian religion as both different and apart from all others. One God – yet revealed in three persons. Christianity is not another religion of prayer and good works; it is not another religion of individual salvation; nor is it the path for an individual to attain ultimate bliss.
Christianity is a religion that redeems the world – and it is focused on a community of love, which we call the Holy and Blessed Trinity.
The Doctrine of the Trinity which we celebrate and worship today is the highest truth from God – and ultimately it focuses on worship.
“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen “.