living in mystery . . . Trinity Sunday A 2014

GK Chesterton, that famous catholic author once said that he became a Christian because of its belief in the Trinity.   So what, you may ask?  If Christianity, he said, was only made up of human beings with a human intellect and a human understanding, then he could not have thought of a concept that is not only difficult but even impossible to grasp or explain: the idea that God exists as one but in three persons.

This is one of the things the Trinity reminds us about ourselves today.  Our belief in the Trinity reminds us that there is truth in the world that we do not and cannot fully understand.  Our belief in the Trinity reminds us that our understanding is limited, that there are things in this world that will always remain hidden and mysterious, truths beyond our conceptualization, truths beyond our imagination even, and truths beyond what our language can capture and describe.  Many times if you notice our experiences of God are far richer than what we can say about it or read about it in theology books, indi bala?  And so today we are reminded of mystery, that we are living in the presence of mystery and even in the presence of so many things mysterious.  Sang bata kita dumduman pa ninyo ang drama sa radyo mundo mistico, kalibutan sang mga misterio, kalibutan sang mga katingalahan, kalibutan sang mga indi mapatihan, apang nagakabuhi sa panumduman, mundo mistiko.  Dumduman nyo na?  Wala pa tele-novelya sang una.  Nagapamati kami sina sa radio, wala tv, samtang nagapangurumbot sang habol kay nahadlok kami kay ginpatay na nila ang kinke kag petromax.

But mystery and the mysterious in our lives are not the horror or the horrible, tiktik, tamaho, mantyo, capri, or whatever vile.  The mystery that I am referring to are those things, events, and experiences  in my life and perhaps in your life that many times go beyond our understanding, defying our logic and reasoning, and escaping our intelligence and what we thought was our acumen and grasp of things.  Many times we stand dumbfounded not able to explain events.  Many times we stand perplexed not able to explain in words what we are going through.  Many times we find ourselves unable to comprehend those things we merely label as suerte, malas, natabu-an, naka-tsansa, aksidente kag milagro.  Why do good people suffer?  Why do bad people prosper?  Why do the innocent die? Why do I have to get sick?  We live in the mysterious. 

And yet we also live in mystery.  mysterion in Greek means hidden, “it indicates what is impossible to know, a reality we are unable to grasp with our own intellect.”  However for a believer  mystery is not just a lack of understanding and comprehension of things and events.  To live in mystery is to know what was formerly unknown.  And what is that - that God loves us, in fact God so loved the World that he gave us his only Son.  And this love is revealed to us in Jesus. 

We live in mystery, we live in the knowledge that God loves us and has loved us from the beginning, from eternity.

Our first reading is a prayer of Moses inviting the Lord to accompany them in their journey, to walk with them, to live among them despite their wickedness and sin.  It banks on the characteristic of God’s love – fidelity, kindness, graciousness, mercy and slow to anger.  To live in mystery.  We will not know everything, we cannot explain so many things and yet we know that God loves us and he will always do so because he is faithful, he is kind, he is gracious, he is merciful and he is slow to anger.

Today I complete my 21^st year as a priest.  In this day I recall what I said when I gave some words of thanksgiving after the ordination mass.  I remember myself saying, “in my life I have come to know where my efforts end and where God’s grace begins.”  I did not give out stampitas as was traditional then.  Instead I gave out seedlings of langka and mahogany to remind me that my work as a priest is merely to plant, to water and to care but it is God who makes things grow.  They are now 21 years old and some of them were made into tables and chairs, some have given fruits. Pray for me that I will never stop telling people in my words and in my life that the Lord is faithful and kind, the Lord  gracious and merciful and slow to anger.  We live in this mystery and we preach this mystery that God loves us and he always will for all eternity.