Trinity Sunday June 7th
Well what with COVID and everything else that is going on this year, I really didn’t have my stuff together and so I find that Trinity Sunday has come round all to quickly. Here I am and you are quite rightly expecting an enthralling homily on the chemical formula, the DNA genome of the holy and blessed and undivided and glorious Trinity.
Sorry to disappoint but I know none of these things. This was probably explained in one of the many lectures at college where I saw the title of the lecture and decided that the intricacies of refreshing beverages at the local inn were preferable to going to a lecture on the Trinity.
So I thought that today I would tell you a story instead. It was a crisp, autumn day, the temperature was chilly but the sun was out and the leaves were turning magnificent colors.
I had been called to the local palliative care establishment to see a gentleman I had never met before.
His wife was there and they were both senior in years. His eyes lit up when saw me. He clasped my hand gently but firmly and thanked me for coming. We did what the Church does. Anoint, pray, read some scripture and commend. A sure and certain sealing into the mystery of Our Lords death and resurrection. When such occasions do happen, and they are always moving and exquisite in flavour.
But then there was something else which was left hanging in the atmosphere. Something more that needed to be said.
So in a rare flash of pastoral intuition that happens only on a full moon, on the 2nd month, of a year with the number 5 in it, I sat down again and asked
“Is there anything else that you would like to say or need to say?”
And with great tenderness he said
“I would like to tell you about the first time I kissed my wife. I tried not to blush, but of course my curiosity was piqued.
He told a story of how he and this attractive young woman found themselves one day walking together on a beach. The sky was overcast, it was cold and blowy; there were very few people around and the only sound was a few gulls cawing in the distance. As they walked on, their conversation quietly evaporated. Then they simply turned to each other and in the gentlest, tenderest way, they kissed.
“And you know Father” he said excitedly. “You know in the movies when a couple are kissing and the camera spins around and around while the violins play and the music swells.” I tried to nod sagely. “You know it was exactly like that. The earth seemed to tilt and spin and I can still hear the music even now 46 years later”. Clearly for him, it was though it happened just yesterday. So vivd and real and powerful for him was this memory.
I turned and looked at his wife, tears of love and joy streaming down her face.
So vivd and real and powerful for her, was this memory. “Now tell me Father, how did that occur? What made it happen?”
I had to confess I didn’t know the chemistry and the physiology of unbidden music and earth the rocking, but the gent and I came to the conclusion that the moment was of such significant and powerful love, that if affected their physical senses and ultimately it would affect their whole lives.
It was rare and lovely visit and when the gentleman did die, this was a story that was told and savoured.
And that my friends is your Trinity Sunday parable. Two people who’s love each other was so powerful that it was as if there was a third person, wrapping them up together and enfolding them in an endless, luscious embrace.
A love that affected their lives just as Gods love affects our lives and changes us daily into people who are so more beautiful and courageous than we ever dared to be.
The Trinity who’s love calls us on the adventure we call life and who really doesn’t have to say a lot. The God who loves and laughs out loud. The one who feasts and drinks and listens and sings and dances with us. The one who even today just simply says to us. “Come… enjoy me.. as I enjoy you”. All we have to do is turn again and look into His eyes. And then we may well find, just rarely, but no less authentically, that the earth spins, the music swells and the party begins.
