Trinity Sunday, May 26, 2013 (Proverbs 8:22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15) One thing is clear on the

Feast of the Holy Trinity (even if nothing else is): the word for wisdom in Hebrew and in Greek and in Latin is feminine in gender. The Hebrew hokmah is the same as the Greek sophia and is the same as the Latin sapientia. Because of this, some modern scholars have opted to build on this grammatical point to reformulate the traditional language, by using feminine references to describe the Trinity. The problem is that neither language nor any gender specificity can adequately capture what is contained in the mystery of God. Some scholars have suggested that we should become comfortable with referring to the Trinity not only as the traditional Father, Son, Spirit but also as Son, Spirit, Father and Spirit, Son, Father lest we think that the Son and the Spirit are in some way subordinate to the Father, who always seems to be first in speaking of the Trinity. The reality of the doctrine of the Trinity is that all three possess the fullness of divinity, which is part of the reason we call it a mystery. We cannot understand a mystery; we can only experience it. The references of Spirit, Son and Father emerged naturally from the Scriptures themselves. But that choice does not make God any more a father than a son or a spirit. God remains a mystery. With the fullness of divinity resting in all three persons it should be easy to understand why non-believers look at us in disbelief when we claim that there is only one God. God is mystery indeed. In the Proverbs reading, personified wisdom is doing a selfdescription, when we join her in the middle of her speech. She describes her own presence with God even before the creation of the earth, and when the creation began, Wisdom was like a child playing on Gods newly created earth. And Wisdom herself delighted in

human beings. The implication is that humans should pursue wisdom, because the one who is wise is close to God, who delights in wisdom. The Gospel actually illustrates one of the problems of interpretation because the passage seems to subordinate the Spirit to the Son (He will glorify me because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.). Yet so has the Son glorified the Father. The much more to tell you that you cannot bear now should not be understood as some new revelation of divine truth. That is why the Spirit of truth will speak what he hears (or has heard) from the Son. The Son also says everything that the Father has is mine and the Spirit will take from that everything as the Spirit declares it. Some people find this unsatisfactory and seek further revelation wherever they can find it. For the Christian, all truth resides in the Son, and learning what truth has been revealed by the Son is the work of a lifetime. There is no easy way but there is a certain way and that is by returning to the Son again and again as we do in the Eucharist as Word and as Sacrament. This is not some great unrevealed mystery. This is the experience of the Church since its founding. We are of Christ. We are in Christ. We are about Christ. We are with Christ. The Spirit guides us to Christ. In this way it is really the Spirit who guides us to all truth because the Spirit guides us back to Jesus, who is all truth. Fr. Lawrence Hummer