The Most Holy Trinity, Year A, John 3:16-18

Where to start?

"I don't know where to begin." When we are faced with something new; a relationship, a problem at work or at home, we find ourselves right back at square one. We must go back to the drawing board and think about how we are going to move on.

Our life as a Christian begins when we are baptised in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The journey that we start when we are baptised is a journey alongside the Trinity and really the journey is about constantly deepening our relationship with this beginning, the Trinity.

For most of us, even 'professional religion people', the idea of the Trinity is difficult to understand. The Trinity is a frustrating mystery; nobody seems to be able to explain it. We are often tempted to overtake the problem and move on to things that are easier to solve, like fixing the roof, putting down tarmac on the car park, or fund-raising for the school. All of these are noble and necessary for the good of our community, but they can take away from the very necessary task of sitting still and thinking about something as fundamental to our faith as the Trinity. "I don't know where to begin."!

My Dad comes from Cork. There is something quite particular in the Cork psyche that must advertise itself, especially on All-Ireland Sunday. Cork people wear red and white football jerseys, wave red and white flags, paint their faces red and white, and I'm sure if Guinness brewed a red version of its famous stout, they would heartily drink it. I can see the various flags that the Cork fans use from the basic red and white, to the more elaborate Maple leaf of the Canadian flag, to the red sun on a white background of the Japanese flag. All in all, no one could walk down from Drumcondra train station to Croke Park on All-Ireland Sunday and mistake the Cork fans for any other county.

In a very similar way, like Cork people are from Cork, we as Christians are from the Trinity. We speak in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We are baptised, confirmed, married, sent to preach the Gospel in the name of the Trinity, and we end our lives in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. When we pray, we begin in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This is the identifying mark of what it is to be a Christian. We pray and act in the name of the Trinity.

Each person of the Trinity has a specific role in the life of the Church. The Father calls us to himself, the Son redeems us in the name of the Father, and the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to respond in love to the Father and to the Son. The Trinity then is not removed from our lives, we are called into the life of joy that is in the Trinity, living the covenant call of the Father, the salvation of the Son, and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Pentecost Sunday, Year A, John 20:19-23

There are many things in our world that we cannot see. Many things that we fail to understand fully. Some of us have the privilege of learning about a particular part of our world and hopefully sharing it with other people.

Things like, electricity for example. You can google the image "Earth at Night" which is a composite image of the whole planet taken at night-time. All that you can see are the outlines of the countries and the clusters of civilisation where people have constructed large cities and small villages, all with one thing in common. Light. They are all lit up by electricity.

And yet, we cannot see electricity. In a way it is the purest form of energy. We cannot see it, and yet we can see it's effects. We flick a switch and the light comes on. Indeed, if we are really fancy we clap our hands and light comes on!

Even though we cannot see it, we have a good idea what electricity feels like when we touch it! And, if we stand near a high-voltage power line, or at the side of a sub-station, at times we can hear the buzz that large amounts of electricity make.

In the Bible, the Holy Spirit is spoken of as wind or breath, as a dove, as fire and as other natural phenomena. Wind is a good image for the Spirit of God because again we cannot see it clearly, but we can see it's effects. The dove as a bird that symbolises the peace that exists between God and man is another great symbol for the Holy Spirit. The Spirit as fire tells us something about the burning zeal in our hearts that can come about in us because of the Spirit of God dwelling within us.

The Holy Spirit is like the electricity that keeps the Church alive. The Holy Spirit has sustained the Church for 2,000 years through triumph and tribulation, through sin and grace. It is by the grace of the Holy Spirit that others shared with us the Good News of Jesus Christ, and it is by the same grace of the Holy Spirit that we share the Good News by passing it on.

What is the Holy Spirit? Theologians tell us that it is the love that is shared between God the Father and God the Son. They tell us that we share in that love – that love is the electricity that drives our participation in the life of God.