This is my homily for today, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Cycle B. Today's readings are here.
"[B]ehold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."
That must have been comforting news to the Eleven who were gathered on the mountaintop, because we know they were beset by doubts. “They worshiped but they doubted”. Does having doubts ring any bells? Isn’t that something all of us can understand, especially when it comes to God: we have this struggle going on inside us: we have faith, but we doubt. We believe, but we also unbelieve. We want to live holy lives, as citizens and even adopted daughters and sons of the Kingdom of God, but it seems that everything else in our lives, both inside us and outside ourselves, tries to pull us back into the kingdom of worldliness and sin.
And remember: these eleven on the mountain with Jesus were not his casual fans: these were Jesus’s most committed followers, those whom he had called by name, those who, as St. Peter once told him, had given up everything to follow him. If even these eleven struggled with their faith, perhaps it’s not surprising that we should, too.
Today, on this solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, I want to talk about one particular faith struggle: the struggle to believe that God is not distant: that even though these readings we proclaim Sunday after Sunday are about events that took place thousands of years ago, God didn’t withdraw to some faraway place; he’s here today, remaining with us, close to us. Or as close to us as we’ll permit him to come.
If you’re old enough to remember pop music from the year 1990, you might recall that the pop singer and actor Bette Midler had a monster hit that year, a song called “From a Distance”. “From a Distance” had been recorded a few years earlier by a singer/songwriter named Nanci Griffith, and if you’re curious enough about the song to visit YouTube or another music service to listen to it, I highly recommend the Nanci Griffith version. Midler’s 1990 recording of “From a Distance” reached number 1 on the adult contemporary chart, and the song won the Grammy for Song of the Year the following year.
“From a Distance” is quite an interesting song, and quite lovely, especially Nanci Griffith’s version. Its lyrics describe the longing we have for what seems to be missing from our world and our lives: things that might have been lifted from the pages of the Sermon on the Mount and Catholic Social Teaching: preserving the beauty of God’s creation, and building peace between peoples, and kindling hope in our hearts, and ending hunger and disease, and all of us living harmoniously with one another. And in the bridge, it invokes God explicitly: “God is watching us, God is watching us, God is watching us…”
But I have to say, there is one thing which I think the song doesn’t get quite right, and it’s right there in the title of the song. “God is watching us…from a distance”. From a distance: the song suggests that God is far away from us.
For the songwriter, a woman named Julie Gold, I am sure she expressed an honest sentiment: that God watches us from a distance. Haven’t all of us felt like that, at one time or another? That God is far away, or even entirely absent from our lives?
Today I want to urge us to stand against this idea that God is distant, that he’s far away from us. Because in fact, God isn’t far from us. He’s close. He’s watching over us, not from a distance, but close by. God is present and active in our lives.
Today’s readings are so comforting, because they reassure us that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are not distant: he is watching us, walking with us, protecting us and inspiring us.
God the Father made us, and made the earth and all its blessings. But the Father isn’t watching all the beauty and growth around us during this season of Spring from a distance. That’s not his way. He’s been actively intervening from the beginning. That is the great story of the Old Testament: how God the Father cared for his people, leading them from slavery, feeding them in the desert, giving them the Law so we can live in accordance with his wishes, sending prophets to correct us and call us back. God the Father hasn’t been distant; he’s been watching over our every step, every word, every thought.
And then, in the fullness of time, God acted to bring us even closer to him. He sent his son Jesus into the world. And God the Son didn’t keep his distance: Jesus walked among us, performing wonders, healing illnesses, casting out demons, and teaching us about God’s Kingdom. And that Kingdom wasn’t some distant place, some far-off event: No, it’s right here, right now. It isn’t finished yet, but it’s begun. It’s like those flowering and blossoming plants around us, still growing but not yet at full ripeness.
And then God the Father and God the Son sent God the Holy Spirit to us. And God the Spirit is with us even today. God the Spirit gives us many gifts to help build and sustain his Kingdom. God the Spirit is the one who gives us whatever knowledge and wisdom we have, and he is the one who inspires us to see the world, not with the world’s eyes but through eyes of faith. He is the one who fills us with hope and desire to work for all those good things in the song “From a Distance”: to end hunger, to cure illnesses, to end war and bring peace, even to places like Israel and Gaza and Ukraine. And it is God the Spirit whom, in just a few minutes, the Father will send upon the gifts of bread and wine, to make them holy so that our Lord Jesus Christ may become sacramentally present for us here.
We didn’t come here today so that God could be distant from us. We come here to encounter God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, in Word and in Sacrament. And the Three Persons in one God doesn’t stay distant from us. The closeness of God is something we can experience, here today and throughout our lives. God the Father is just a prayer away. God the Son is here with us already: we know he is with us whenever two or three, or even three or four hundred, gather in his name as we are here now. And God the Spirit is filling our hearts and souls, if only we will open them to him.
And God wants to walk with us, not only on Sundays when we come to church, but on all the days of our lives. In our relationships and marriages, in our families, in our work and our study and our leisure time. In our society. God has established a kingdom so we can dwell with him always – even starting with our lives here on earth.
God isn’t distant. He’s right here: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Let us welcome him into our hearts and into our lives. And let us proceed with the work of building his kingdom.
I guess I take those lyrics to mean that from God's perspective, which is eternal, all the things that seem so important and worth squawking, fighting, and killing over right now seem petty.
ReplyDeleteAs I recall, the moon landings and International Space Station ushered in a lot of talk about how, viewed from space, there were no national boundaries and you could see creation as a unified and interconnected thing, as God intended. Distance = perspective and insight, not necessarily remoteness.
I'm unclear whether, as a Catholic, I must believe that God is with me personally and is recording my every thought and deed for future judgment purposes, like the Central Scrutinizer in the Zappa song, if we're going to drag pop music into it.
Or whether it is sufficient to believe that God made us, God sent Jesus to teach us, and God provides the Holy spirit to provide insight and encouragement if we pay attention. I face a variety of medical and financial challenges, and I know God expects me to rise above them and stop being such a bitch about it. I have the Psams and saints to help. Some days that works.
Anyway, better homily than the local sermon series on heresies. This week it was the Protestant heresies of Martin Luther. Possibly Father could use some distance and stop re-fighting the Reformation and alienating all us folks who came from Protestant families.
I used to hear about something called the Akashic Record, but I think that was kind of a new-agey thing. I don't believe God has security footage to nail us with at judgement. More like Psalm 139. "When I walk or lie down you are before me, ever the maker and keeper of my days".
DeleteGod is everywhere and in everything, as we learned as Unitarian children. Or "God is in us as we are in God, as the sea is in the fish and the fish in the sea" if you would rather take it from Catherine of Siena.
DeleteAnthropomorphic notions of God always seem limiting. I guess some people get comfort from feeling that God knows and cares all about their personal problems or is busy keeping tabs on their sins.
Sometimes it’s very hard to believe that God cares about us and our problems. God very often seems distant or totally absent. I want to believe but it’s often very hard to actually believe it.
DeleteThe local parish has a "Tell us long have you loved the Lord!" question on its Web site. Everybody testified joyfully to having loved God from their earliest memories and testified that God had never let them down. I don't doubt the sincerity of the respondents, but they all sound like they're in on some special club info that nobody clued me in on. Great for the converted, excludes people like me piddling around on the margins who just don't get it.
DeleteWell, you’re not the only one. As you know I have spent most of my life struggling to believe in a personal God who loves me and cares for me. Even harder to believe when I read the news about all the suffering of so many people everywhere. Tragedies all around - individuals, and whole peoples. Whole countries.
DeleteI saw something recently that I can't get out of my head. It was film of Israeli settlers from the West Bank destroying food-aid packages intercepted on the way to Gaza. And we are told God is not distant, he's right there.
DeleteYes, I saw that, too, and it is chilling. Settlers tend to be ultraZionist, and I hope that those vandals do not represent Israelis generally anymore than the Jan 6 thugs represent most Americans.
DeleteI think the genocidal settlers do represent Israelis at this point. Look at what was done to indigenous and blacks here. This is another mass bloodlust going on against a resistive indigenous population that refuses to submit to lower status. The Palestinians even have the nerve to insist that they exist. It's happened here many times. Cherokees adapted to the US system and ways were exiled from their homeland anyway. Blacks becoming successful in Tulsa were burned out and murdered.
DeleteThese Israelis are humans doing what humans often do. Evil to other humans. We should not aid and abet them in this. We should not support this dynamic.
There's an idea around for thousands of years that if we just hunt down and kill all the bad people, things will be good. But the dividing line between evil and good runs inescapably through every human being. It is the internal war that must be won.
They sang "America the Beautiful" at Mass this past Sunday. I could not do it. Maybe again someday.
Yes, I agree that we should not be funding these horrors. Relations with all foreign governments should ideally be based on their track record on human rights. I think we are more likely to take steps in that direction under Biden than Trump. Trump just wants to be an arms dealer, offering WMDs to whoever's willing to shuck out a lot of money and sweeten the deal with real estate development perks for the Trumplings at Trump Inc.
DeleteMeantime, the Farm Bill is under debate in Congress. SNAP benefits, which are funded by Ag, have not kept up with inflation, and they are inadequate to current needs. For example, an elderly couple with an annual income of under $25k is eligible for about $20 per month (though that varies by state). That's not much more than the equivalent of your monthly grocery chain's coupons. Every little bit helps, but please consider asking your elected reps to adjust the scale to reflect inflation.
Jean, yes, and Medicaid and Medicare are going to be under fire, too, in a Trump administration.
DeleteSocial Security is running out, which will trigger auto cuts. Ronald Reagan suggested eliminating it for the wealthiest retirees. But many opposed that idea because the deal is that it's basically an investment program, not a giveaway. Lots of facets to the SS mess, but it needs overhaul of some kind. Hopefully it will become less stressed when us Boomers die off.
DeleteHas Trump said he's interested in entitlement reform? That would be a big shift for him.
Deletehttps://www.vox.com/politics/2024/3/12/24098773/trump-social-security-medicare-cuts-entitlements-position-2024
DeleteAs president Trump wasn't much interested in entitlement reform. But in an interview on MSNBC in March he said that he was open to it. Then his campaign said that he wasn't. As the Vox article cited above said, "Trump's reflections on public policy tend to bear only a loose resemblance to coherent thought."
I actually worry a lot more about things such as Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025". Trump may not have coherent thoughts on a lot of public policy issues, but the people behind Project 2025 certainly know what they want.
I really like that homily, Jim. This line kind of summarizes it: "God isn’t distant. He’s right here: Father, Son and Holy Spirit." He seeks intimacy with us.
ReplyDeleteOur pastor is on vacation. We had a retired priest subbing in. He gave a really short homily, but I don't think anyone held that against him. He said that he had just gotten back from Omaha. He's a Cubs fan and had ridden Amtrack to Chicago to see some games
What does "seeking intimacy with us" mean, though? To influence our actions toward kindness and mercy through the teachings of Christ seems right to me. But who knows? We were not encouraged to discuss this type of thing in RCIA. I suspect I am one of the many called but not one of the few who are chosen to be in the in-crowd of believers.
ReplyDeleteTaking Raber to the veterans services and antique show now, so that's it for me pestering everybody with my "I don't get it" questions. Happy Memorial Day.
ReplyDeleteHave fun at the antique show. We have been having a vintage cars event here this weekend. I always enjoy seeing the cars from the 50s and 60s.
DeleteI am not completely sure what the song's lyrics mean. I understand the composer/lyricist, Julia Gold, has declined to explain it. It's not a current song, but it popped into my head when I was thinking about the readings. As I recall, it was the subject of quite a lot if religious discussion (and, probably, homilies) when it entered the public awareness some 30 or so years ago. When I gave the homily, I asked people to put a hand up if they had heard the song. Most had.
ReplyDeleteWe have video screens and an audio system in the church, and I contemplated playing a YouTube visldeo of the song, perhaps a version that also displayed the lyrics. IfmmVut our systems aren't no-brainers, and it would have consumed add'l minutes of mass time.
Jim, thanks for linking the song, I did go and listen to the Nanci Griffith youtube. It is quite lovely, I had never heard that song before. But I agree with you, From a Distance is incomplete. It's really hard to get our heads around God being both transcendent and immanent (autocorrect keeps trying to make it "imminent", but they are two different words).
DeleteI am thinking of another song, " In the Garden", quite often sung at funerals. But I don't think we attain that level of consciousness of God until we get to heaven.
I am not surprised that Julia Gold declined to explain her song. Often artists will say that they want people to decide for themselves what their art or music means.
As Betty says with regard to any artwork, if someone asks you how long it took to make it, the appropriate answer is "all my life."
DeleteWould be a good day to say the Serenity Prayer..
ReplyDelete