Trinity Sunday, May 26, 2002:

Father Owen's Homilies

Homily for Trinity Sunday which is May 26, 2002

Moses and God had a great relationship. They could be direct with each other. They each could show anger. Moses could protest his inadequacies in the presence of the Lord. The Lord God could punish Moses his friend because Moses hesitated to strike the rock at Meribah so water could flow from it. They could talk to each other as friends.

In the first reading for this Trinity Sunday we have an account of a meeting between Moses and God on Mount Sinai. Moses lugged the stone tablets of the Law up the hill. The Lord comes down in a cloud, stands before Moses. The God that Moses knew “proclaimed his name: Lord.” Then it says, “The Lord passed before him and cried out, The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” What the Book of Exodus describes seems strange to me. It is as though God marched back and forth in front of Moses boasting about these great qualities.

Sometimes I feel that we forget these qualities of the Lord of being slow to anger and being kind and faithful. But this is Trinity Sunday and our Trinitarian God is just this way. How do we know that? Because of the revelation of the Friend of Moses in the flesh in the person of the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. It is that same Jesus who sent us the Holy Spirit who allows us to serve our sisters and brothers with Love.