We must forget how to count

Most Holy Trinity 2017

Once a year we dust off the Holy Trinity, have a look at it and then put it back on the shelf. Perhaps, we even tell ourselves. “Okay, next year, if I have the time, I will try to give it a closer look.” The mental gymnastics of trying to make three, square with one is just too demanding and off-putting. But asking, why three persons and not just one, may tantamount to asking “why is the sky so high”? Notice that we Christians have four gospels, not just one. One might have thought that we could have stopped with one, saying to ourselves, “Let’s just go with Matthew (for example).” But no, an effusive, ubiquitous and overflowing-with-love God requires at least four gospels to talk about God and Christ. So, merely speaking of God in a one-dimensional way would certainly be presenting an impoverished idea of God.

One of the church fathers said, “When we talk about the Trinity, we must forget how to count.” He was simply recognising that, at first glance, the Trinity is a mathematical impossibility. After all, how can one equal three? We must throw away our math, not because the Trinity is a logical muddle, but because we need a different kind of logic. It took St Augustine, fifteen books to try to think about it, because God is God and we are not. Because God comes to us with a complexity and effusiveness, an ubiquity and a plenitude that boggle our modest minds; it is no wonder that we have trouble thinking about God. No wonder the Trinity boggles our imaginations too.  I am sure that is probably the right way to put it. The problem with the Trinity is not that this is a bunch of nonsense, but that God is God, and in God’s particularly glorious, mysterious and effusive way, we the creatures and the recipients of a love so deep, cannot find words to describe it. When we think about the Trinity, we must forget how to count.

I guess we can move pass the mental block of talking about so lofty an idea as the Trinity by not starting to think of the Trinity as some incomprehensible doctrine of the Church, though the mystery of God would always be beyond our comprehension. Think of the Trinity as our earnest, though somehow groping, attempt to put into words what has been revealed to us of the overflowing love of God. Christians are not those who believe in some amorphous, vague and abstract concept of God. Christians believe in a highly personal, interactive God who has chosen to reveal Himself to us as the Trinity. Christians are those who believe that God is best addressed as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, all three are One, and we do so not because of mere speculation, but because this very God had intentionally revealed Himself to us in this manner. Christians don’t have to keep going back to the drawing table to come up with a new version of a deity that fits his personal taste. Any such deity would not truly be God, but an abstraction of our minds, made in our image and likeness. No! Christianity does not present a speculative idea of God but a God who has fully revealed Himself and now expects us to relate to Him and worship Him as Three Persons in One.

It is true that when God came to us in the flesh, in the person of the Son, the Incarnate Word, God did not say, “Call me by my proper name, ‘Trinity.’” You don’t have to be challenged by skeptics to survey the Bible to come to the conclusion that the word “Trinity” can be found nowhere in the pages therein. Coming from someone who has read the Bible, many times, I can only say that they are right! The word “Trinity” does not appear at all. The reason is simple. God didn’t have to. We did. That is, on the basis of our experience of God as complex, ubiquitous and overflowing with love as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, all three attested to in many verses in the Bible, we just naturally started speaking of God as Trinity. The Bible didn’t have to use the word “Trinity” but the Bible certainly spoke of God as three persons.

Early on in his massive treatise on the Most Holy Trinity, St Augustine, the great Doctor of the West, had seven statements about God that could summarise his entire work. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. The Son is not the Father. The Father is not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not the Son. And then, after these six statements, he adds one more: There is only one God.

In other words, Christians are not tritheists, we do not believe in three Gods as the Mormons do. Neither do Christians subscribe to some form of modalism – One God who appears in different forms, assumes different avatars, or wear different hats. The oneness of God is crucial to our faith. Not just as a concept but because it points to the way in which we are called to live. We are called to be one as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one. Each has their own distinct role in the godhead. So within the unity we also see diversity. As Christians who worship one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we are called to reflect their life to the world. So the divisions in the church are not just a sin, they are a sin against the nature of God.

The Trinity lives in a perfect community of love and we are called to grow together in love. Thus, the call to live in community is the call to reflect the love of God in whose image we are made. Love cannot be just an abstraction or a word. Love must always have its object. There must always be something or someone to love. It was not enough for the Trinity to exist alone as a community of love, sufficient unto itself. So it was out of love that the world was created in all its wonder and diversity. And it was love that called man out of nothingness and placed him as the crown of creation, granting him the very spark of divinity, the ability to freely choose whether to accept that love or to reject it. Love is part of our DNA.

God the Holy Trinity didn’t create the world like a wind up clock and set it on its way, whilst watching from a distance. God continues to love and to involve Himself in creation, with and sometimes despite our help. God is constantly reaching out to the world, drawing it to Himself. This was the mission of Christ and continues to be the mission of the Church. A Church that doesn’t reach out, that does not draw in, is not a church formed by the effusive Trinity. Likewise, a Christian who doesn’t want, in love, to go out and tell somebody is not one who is formed by the relentlessly reaching out and drawing in that is the Trinity. Each of us too, as members of that Church, have a fundamental duty, which is in our very nature, our very DNA, to reach out to others and draw them into the communion with Christ, and through Christ, into communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit. This is mission of evangelisation.

Thank God that our relationship with God is not dependent upon us taking the initiative. The Trinity refuses to leave it all up to us. In Jesus Christ, through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, in the wonder of creation that bears the permanent imprint of the Father Creator, the Trinity keeps reaching toward us, keeps leaving hints for us, indications that we live every moment of our lives upheld by a living, resourceful and ever out-reaching God. If we are to be true to our calling as Christians we also need to learn more about the Trinity. Not just once a year on Trinity Sunday, but in a way that infuses the whole of our faith; so that our lives reflect the life of the Trinity, so that it affects the way we live as Christians. The Fathers of the Church were right when they told us to stop counting. Yes, when we think about the Trinity, we must forget how to count – we must remember to start loving. 

Wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church

Pentecost 2017

A priest friend of mine narrated an incident that took place just a few weeks ago. He was invited to grace a multicultural event, which was showcasing the diverse cultural talents of the multi-national workforce. My friend noted, that this colourful event somehow reminded him of the local Catholic Church. During the event, there was a quiz, and a Pakistani man was asked a question pertaining to his country. “What is the capital of Pakistan?” His confident and immediate answer was, “P!” (The capital letter “P”).  Another worker, who hailed from Vietnam was asked to say something in his native language; and he proudly pronounced, “Việt Nam”.

If you found that amusing, I’m not sure if you would find the following amusing though. If someone were to ask you, “What does ‘Catholic’ mean?” Perhaps, you may give this answer, “Diversity” or “Inclusivity.” Perhaps, you may not find this funny, but theologically, it is hilarious (at least to me), because “catholicity”, “diversity” and “inclusivity” mean different things. In fact, one may say that the two popular values of modern society, “diversity” and “inclusivity” are actually polar opposites. Diversity means one size does not fit all; inclusion, on the other hand, means one size fits all. Diversity means we are allowed to shop around; inclusion means that there are no exceptions. One cannot logically support both at the same time. We have to choose. Either we believe in pluralism, which is what diversity means, or we believe in uniformity, which is what inclusion means.

There are plenty of good reasons to support diversity and inclusion within the context of any society, including the Church. But being Catholic is something quite different. Catholicity is what holds together the polarities of diversity and unity. Notice, that in our Creed, we profess that we believe in the “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church” and not in a “diverse” or “inclusive” Church. Is there a difference? Yes, many!

What does it mean to be “Catholic”? The origin of the word is to be found in St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, “He has put all things under His feet, and made Him as He is above all things, the head of the Church; which is His Body, the fullness of Him who is filled, all in all.” (1:22-23). The catholicity of the Church here refers to her possessing the “fullness” of Christ, the church is the body of Christ in His fullness and perfection. It must be kept in mind that “catholicity” is based in Jesus Christ – and in such a way that “catholicity” is, in its deepest nature, a quality or an attribute of Christ, and the church is “catholic” insofar as it is rooted in Christ and based in Christ as its head. As St Ignatius of Antioch puts it, “wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.”

St Cyril of Jerusalem, from the 4^th century, in his Mystagogical Catechesis (No. 18), dedicates an entire paragraph to explaining explicitly the meaning of the third mark of the church. According to St Cyril, catholicity means: first, the worldwide expansion of the church; secondly, the universality of the teaching: the church teaches everything that is necessary for salvation; thirdly, the correct way of venerating God, which is valid for all human beings; fourthly, the universal power to forgive sins; and fifthly, the universal work of salvation for all humanity, which is manifest in the fullness of the means of salvation. Thus he combines the geographical aspect of catholicity with the aspect of doctrinal and salvific perfection.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarises the various layers of nuances of the word “catholic” in these two paragraphs: “The word “catholic” means “universal,” in the sense of “according to the totality” or “in keeping with the whole.” The Church is catholic in a double sense: First, the Church is catholic because Christ is present in her. “Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church.” In her subsists the fullness of Christ's body united with its head; this implies that she receives from Him “the fullness of the means of salvation” which He has willed: correct and complete confession of faith, full sacramental life, and ordained ministry in apostolic succession. The Church was, in this fundamental sense, catholic on the day of Pentecost and will always be so until the day of the Parousia.” (#830) “Secondly, the Church is catholic because she has been sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole of the human race.” (#831).

Though many continue to use the concepts of diversity, inclusion and catholicity interchangeably, you may have noticed that from the above definitions of the word ‘catholic', that there is no convergence between the various notions. The concepts of diversity and inclusion focus on ‘us’. Catholicity, on the other hand, focuses on Christ and His universal mission. When we prefer the former over the latter, we risk falling into the same trap of the people who attempted to build the tower of Babel, who strived to “make a name for (themselves); (saying) otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (Gen. 11:4), the danger of erasing God from the equation. Diversity and inclusion, being purely human projects, eventually lead to greater fragmentation and polarisation.

Catholicity, on the other hand, acknowledges that it is the work of the Holy Spirit that makes the difference, just as it is the gift of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost which reverses the Tower of Babel divisions of humanity. After that “they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). Those are marks of catholicity and remain so with us today, “correct and complete confession of faith, full sacramental life, and ordained ministry in apostolic succession” (CCC #830). These are works of the Spirit to which Scripture bears witness, and there is no true or lasting unity without them.

Our focus on catholicity needs to be restored - that even though we are different and scattered all over the world we are joined together in Christ because “there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all” (Eph 4:5). There is no need to add any other ingredient into that equation.

In the last precious moments of His Life before He was parted from His disciples to die, Our Lord Jesus Christ did not pray that they would be able to tolerate their differences while each sought his own vision of the truth and personal fulfilment. Nor did He pray that they would agree in everything. He prayed for them and “those who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be one”. But how? “As you Father, are in me and I am in you may they also be in us, that the world may believe that You have sent me.” (John 17:21). It is through our dwelling in Christ as the branches draw on the life of the vine (John 15:4,5), and His dwelling in us, that unity is given and made fruitful.. So if you wish to build unity, build up your relationship with Christ. It is this relationship with Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, that is the foundation of our life and work, without which there can be no catholic unity.

Prayer is Waiting

Seventh Sunday of Easter Year A

Many of you are familiar with the Novena Prayer to the Mother of Perpetual Succour which is prayed in many parishes before Saturday’s anticipated mass. Since, it seems to be a weekly occurrence, most people fail to recognise that “novena” actually refers to nine days of prayers (The word novena comes from the Latin word, “novem,” which means nine). The prototype of the novena is the Novena to the Holy Spirit and it comes from the Acts of the Apostles, when Mary, the Apostles and all of those in the upper room prayed for nine days while waiting for the promised Holy Spirit. Although a novena is a private and sometimes public devotion, few realise that this is the only devotion instituted by Our Lord. The heart of any Novena is the same as the first one. “He had told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised.” On the tenth day, Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon them and the Church was born.

What would have happened if they had given up and left? We can only speculate. If they had left, they would never have been present to experience the Pentecost. And without the Pentecost, the gospel would not have been carried to the ends of the earth. In fact, the entire New Testament may never have been written and the Church would not exist today. Imagine that!  But, the persistence of Christ’s followers and His mother to wait for the promise, ended in fulfilment. On the Feast of Pentecost, tongues of fire appeared on each of their heads declaring the coming of the Holy Spirit and the Church was born.

The lesson learnt from the first novena instituted by the Lord is that sometimes prayer is about waiting. Prayer requires faith; faith requires patience; and patience requires waiting upon the Lord. To wait patiently for God is to trust in God’s unfailing love for us. To wait patiently is to pray with hope that we are not abandoned or forgotten by God. To wait upon the Lord is to recognise that He is our Lord and Master. How God does His will is up to Him. We cannot control God or tell Him how to accomplish His plan. He will do His will in His way. If only we could plunge into the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? (Rom. 11:33–34).

But waiting on God can be the most difficult, and perhaps the most confusing part of the prayer process. We live in a world of instant everything. We value speed. This is true not only in our culture at large, but in our spirituality and prayer. We rush through our prayers because we have other more urgent matters to attend to. We look for shortest masses. The quicker, the better. Many rush off immediately after communion or before the final blessing and announcements. Yes, waiting in prayer is not an easy kind of prayer to practice. When we pray, we want to see results; and we want to see them now!  And if that answer doesn’t seem to be forthcoming, we begin to wonder if God has abandoned us or if He really cares about us at all. We fail to recognise that when you treat prayer as if you have the right to tell God how to do His work, you will be disappointed. God does not take instructions. We wait, He doesn’t. But when you realise that God’s ways are not your ways, that His ways are superior to your ways, you will not be thrown off balance when circumstances seem to be leading you away from God’s will rather than toward it.

Something happens to us in this kind of waiting. There is purpose in waiting. Waiting on God forces us to look to Him. We are brought to attention. The prayer of waiting draws us into a place of stillness and quietness before God where we open our hearts to listen and receive the good gifts of guidance, wisdom and blessing. Waiting in prayer expands our hearts to accept God’s will instead of pushing for our own agenda. A deeper container is carved in our souls–a container that will be able to receive more of God’s life, more of God’s love and grace. When we wait with hope it is like sitting in the dark of night before the first rays of dawn appear. We know that dawn will come, yet we cannot hurry it. We can watch and wait with hope to receive the first lights with joy.

It is during the waiting time that many people drop out of the school of prayer. When not receiving their answers as they expected, many conclude that prayer doesn’t work—at least not for them. While the waiting time is the most difficult part of the process, it is also the most important. Waiting gives God the opportunity to redefine our desires and align our purposes and vision with His. What appears from the earth-perspective to be a delay on God’s part is really the time when God is working behind the scene, beyond our senses. During the waiting time, we are operating by faith.   Trials cause us to persevere by deepening our knowledge of God and relying on Him more intentionally. That is why in the midst of our daily frenzied activities, our Christian life needs to include times of contemplation and prayer to simply be with God in the stillness and to wait upon Him in loving anticipation of what He would do with us.

Waiting as an essential element of prayer helps us not to treat novenas and other special prayers as quick fixes. As Jesus told His disciples, we must pray constantly and never give up (Luke 18:1). It’s important to remember that just because we say a novena for nine days, it doesn’t mean our prayers will be answered on the tenth day, or the twentieth or hundredth day. Like any prayer, a novena is a spiritual exercise and a way for us to draw closer to God, not a bartering system. Sometimes we have to pray for a long period before we see any results. Why? We don’t know. As much as we grow impatient, we need to recognise that His timing is an astounding thing. What we do know is that Jesus always has our back and He knows what’s best. We mustn’t become disheartened or give up saying novenas because we don’t immediately see the fruits of our labour. The Blessed Virgin Mary and the apostles obeyed the Lord’s instruction to wait and pray and scripture tells us that their fidelity and vigilance finally paid off.

So, let us continue our novena to the Holy Spirit, to Pentecost. Next month, we will be having our Novena of masses in preparation of our Parish Feast. These nine days are dedicated time to prayerfully wait in the “in-between’ times, between seeking and finding, between chaos and calm, between fear and courage, between endings and beginnings, between sunset and sunrise, between hopelessness and thanksgiving. In that waiting, let us choose to align ourselves with the love of God – our God who sometimes sneaks quietly in through the cracks of this world and sometimes shouts brazenly from the mountain top. May our waiting and our praying make us more open to receiving the Holy Spirit and more capable of showing the grace of God in all that we are and all that we do.