June 7, 2009: Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Many intersting things happen to me at Walmart. Few days ago, I went into Amite Walmart to get a haircut. I took my white-tab out of my clerical collar, so the lady did not know that I was a Catholic priest. I'm sure the first question on her mind was, 'Why would an Asian guy be up here in Amite?' So she asked diplomatically, "Where are you from?" I replied, "Dallas." "Oh. Where do you work?" I replied, "I'm a Catholic priest in Independence." "Oh. How many children do you have?" I replied, "Catholic priest do not get married." "Oh. I don't know anything about Catholic religion." That's about all that I revealed about myself. I'm sure she was quite curious and wanted to ask more personal questions. But I chose not to reveal. After all, I'm in Walmart where every other second over the speakers you hear, "Shoppers, come over to the deli section where we have a great deal on delicious ham."

Few days later, I was in Walmart again shopping and a young man asked me, "What are you?" I replied, "Why don't you guess?" "A priest?" "Yes." He said, "Can I ask you about something?" Then for next 15 minutes, in the soda pop isle, I answered questions about why Jesus cried out aloud at the cross, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me." (Matt 27:46) His question was, if Jesus was part of the Holy Trinity (one God in unity), how could Jesus say that he was separated or abandoned from the Trinity? Doesn't this put to question whether Jesus is God? Now I challenge you to be in that same isle with me to answer a profound mystery of our faith when slew of people are reaching over you to grab six-packs of diet coke.

Here at a Walmart soda isle, a young man was asking a profound question: who is God? If God as the Church teaches is Trinity, what does that have to do with my life? One observation that I made about that young man was that he was curious and was not indifferent. If he was indifferent about faith, he would not have engaged me. But his mind and his heart thirst to know. And many of you who are sitting in the pews, you have the same thirst as well. Why is there curiosity in us to know who God is? Why was there curiosity in that Walmart hairstylist to know more about this enigmatic Korean priest who showed up in a remote town of Amite, Louisiana? Mystery draws us to know more. Hence St. John the Baptist's disciples left him to go over to Jesus out of that mystery. Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi, where are you staying?" He said to them,"Come, and you will see." (Jn 1:38-39)

Whenever I'm at a new parish, my appearance (as an Asian) draws questions. Where are you from, how did you get here, where is your family, etc... So I give my standard spiel: from Texas, came to Baton Rouge because of work as an engineer, my parents live in Dallas, and my sister is in Maryland. Really, the questions center on my family story. Every one of us here has a family story about how we came to live in Independence or Husser. Our family story tells others about our roots, to whom we are related to, what our forefathers did for the community. Each of us is not solitude; we belong to a family, a family with a history. Depending on to whom we talk to we are open to tell our story.

Likewise, "God in His deepest mystery is not a solitude, but a family, since He has in Himself fatherhood, sonship, and the essence of the family, which is love." (Pope John Paul II) We don't get the full picture of God as family in the Old Testament. In our First Reading from the Book of Deuteronomy Moses recounts what God has done for the people of Israel--God created them, spoke to them, and led them out of Egypt. And Moses exhorted his people to keep God's commandments so that they will prosper and be blessed. As you read the Old Testament, you learn that God is one; there is not much clue about the inner life of God. Yet there is a curious verse from the Book of Genesis that reveal something more. In Genesis 1, we hear God say, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." The word 'us' hints that there is more to God.

With the Gospel, Jesus reveals God as a family. In today's reading, Jesus himself mentions all three of God's family members in one sentence. "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." (Matt 28:18-20) The Apostles and disciples at first had difficulty understanding this. Philip asked Jesus, "Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us."" (Jn 14:8) It will take further teaching and finally the Pentecost experience for the disciples to 'get it.' They will remember what Jesus said to them, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you." (Jn 14:15-18)

How is the Holy Trinity relevant for me? It is as relevant as making the Sign of the Cross, "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." In this short prayer, we tell ourselve and others the story of God's family to whom now we belong as sons and daughters. We praise the Father who has created us, the Son who gave up his life to redeem us, and the Holy Spirit who made us sons and daughters of God. And as St. Paul tells us in our Second Reading, it is by the Holy Spirit that we no longer fear God but we cry aloud and say, "Abba, Father!" "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him." (Rom 18:14-17)