The feast of the Holy Trinity comes as a challenge to most of us. How can we see our lives as somehow connected with this mystery of God’s inner life? Each of us lives in a primary set of relationships which open up a door to understand ourselves and more so our God, in whose holy image we are created. Family comes as the primary set of relationships which defines us as persons.
Just think about the birth of a child in your family. Just remember how that network of relationships forms around the child, nurtures the child, and changes all the persons in that network. Many of you have shared how becoming a grandparent has transformed who you are as a person. Your joy spills out. You feel unimagined delight and unexpected wonder all occasioned by this little girl, this infant boy who comes into your family circle and changes everything.
Being a person means being in a network of relationships. Those relationships define who you are, they let others know who they are, and begin an endless process of transformation. If you are a mother or a father, a sister or a brother, a wife or a husband, an aunt or an uncle, a child or a parent, you are engaged in this wonderful dance which is the network of relationships you are.
From our first reading about creation, we heard again that we are created in God’s image. God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. If you exist as a person in relationships and you are created in God’s image, so you can understand that God also exists as persons in relationship.
The second reading lets you in on the quality of those relationships in God: the Father/ the Mother is Love, Jesus is Grace, the Spirit is Communion. Just think about those words: Love, Grace, Communion. All those words point to relationships. Because God dwells in an energy of holy relationships you also live in an energy of holy relationships.
You all know that when those relationships function at their best, you and all in your network are thriving. Yet you also know that you and all in your network are human and you stumble and fail. So you also know that that energy of love includes the power of forgiveness which allows you to start over, to repair the damage, to create the relationships afresh.
This weekend people across our country are observing Gun Violence Awareness. You were invited to wear orange today to remember the plague of violence devastating our nation because of guns. Let me share some statistics with you. In 2022, 20,200 people were killed by guns. 995 children ages 0-11 were killed or injured.
5, 157 teenagers ages 12-17 were killed or injured. We experienced 647 mass shootings, 650 murder suicides (one in Linden this year), 26,328 suicides, 1,626 unintentional shootings.
All this violence violates our identities as interconnected persons, persons in life giving relationships with other, persons who nurture other persons. What can you do as a Christian to turn this violence around? Each of you are a member of the Body of Christ. You are Christ in the world. Part of Jesus’ mission was to save the world from the evil which corrupted the human family. As a member of the body of Christ, you have a role to reverse the evil in the world.
Yesterday, I attended an event sponsored by Moms Demand Action in the Rahway River Park. They handed out materials and I am sharing with you some things you can do. Do you have 2 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes or more? You can find something you can do to counter our culture of gun violence. I invite each of you to find something you can do, some way you can made a difference, some way you can work with God to reverse the evil in our world.
You may feel that the problem is too big for you to solve. You are right, you cannot change the world by yourself alone. But together we can make a difference. Find the thing you can do and then faithfully do it.
God is working in the world, working to change the culture of violence, and God needs you to achieve God’s goals. We are all interconnected with God, interconnected with one another. Even as we have a God who is grace, Love and communion, may you discover yourself as sharing in that grace, love and communion. Discover yourself working with God to create a healthy world, a peaceful world, God’s non-violent world.