“Some days, I
really wish I could just be a hermit!”
That was the message a friend of mine posted on Facebook a couple weeks
ago. “Some days, I really wish I could
just be a hermit.” <pause> It was obvious that she was having a bad
day, and apparently, she had an urge to escape – to get away from a crazy world
and annoying people. Rather, just go off
and be alone, self sufficient, nobody to care for, to cook for, to be
bothered by. I think we all probably
have that feeling from time to time. It
could be that we’re aggravated by bad drivers on the road, or maybe frustrated
with the spouse or kids, or parents, boss or co-workers, maybe you’re angry at
the President, or the last President, or Congress, or the Pope or the Bishop,
or the weather forecaster – or whomever.
And sometimes you wish you could just steal away to a desert island, or
a mountain cabin, and just be
by yourself.
Reading what my
friend wrote brought to mind the story of Noah John Rondeau. Noah was in his mid-40s at the start of the
great depression. Wanting to get away
from it all, to escape from bread lines and a collapsing economy, he hiked deep
into the High Peaks of the Adirondack mountains, built himself a little log
cabin, and lived the life of a hermit for most of the next 40 years. Hunting and trapping, Rondeau lived off the
land, a life of fierce and rugged independence.
He proudly proclaimed himself the mayor of Cold River City, New
York, population ONE.
And isn’t there
something in us Americans that admires that sort of independence? We hold rugged individualism in high
esteem. The self-made man, the self-made
woman. Relying on nobody else.
“Today if only I
could be a hermit.” Wishful thinking, I suppose,
BUT we know that we can’t do that. In
fact, we know we’re not made for that – that it’s not natural or good
for us humans to be alone. For we, who
were created in God’s image, are made for relationship.
Today’s feast of
Trinity Sunday is, in fact, a celebration of our belief in a God who is
not a hermit, a God who is not far away and isolated, but a God who is in
relationship, and in fact, IS relationship. God, a communion of three persons, in
relationship. A family, if you
will. The catechism taught us that this
is a great mystery – this One God in three persons, a unity, not of a single
person but a Trinity of one substance:
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
And we believe
that God is not just any relationship, but a relationship of perpetual,
ecstatic, unstoppable, life-giving LOVE. Ecstatic, unstoppable love. A relationship of self-abandonment, of complete
and total self-giving. Holding nothing
back.
Oh that sounds
all very well and good, and it’s wonderful theology (I mean I have to tell you
something to show for the last 4-1/2 years of theological schooling, don’t I?),
but what is the practical application of this teaching? I mean, what does this have to do with you,
or me, with our lives? With my
family? My community? Or the world in which we live? And the answer, I think, is this: EVERYTHING.
Everything. How we see God has everything
to do with how we, as Christians, are called to live out our lives.
You see, we who
are named Christian are called to live out our lives in loving relationship in imitation
of our Trinity God. We who were made in
His image are called to live in His image. And we are called to love in His image
– loving in this same complete self-giving, this same unstoppable love, holding
nothing back. And we are called to love
not only those close to us, but all of God’s children, all who are made in
God’s image.
Problem is, too
often we live as hermits. Oh, maybe
we’re not physically separated, but aren’t we often emotionally distant? I know in some of my own relationships I find
myself “checking out,” becoming self-absorbed, self-centered. And it’s not only in my immediate
relationships – it’s easy to tune out the poor and hungry of the world by
pressing a button on the remote or with a click of the mouse. And even if we ourselves are not hermits, we
can set up walls around our little groups to keep ourselves safe and keep
others out, keep others excluded.
But let’s do
some imagining, do some “what if’s.” What
if everyone loved the way our God does? This
Trinity of unstoppable love?
Imagine, if you
will, relationships of husbands and wives not based on some 50-50 give and
take, but rather on a 100-100 covenant of give and give some more! In complete, unstoppable, life-giving
love.
Imagine families
in which the well-being of the others were our only concern, where we let go of
hurts and grudges and give forgiveness we’ve been holding back.
Imagine church
communities that are open and loving and welcoming to all - to individuals
and to other communities. Imagine five
parishes lovingly becoming united as one.
Imagine cities
and towns and nations where we aren’t content that someone, some place is
sleeping in a cardboard box tonight. Not
content that this very day, the lives of some of our tiniest brothers and
sisters will end before birth.
And imagine a world
in which we simply cannot rest knowing that somewhere on our planet a child is
starving to death. <pause>
Our marriages,
our families, our parishes and communities, our nation and World – these are
OUR trinities – our relationships - where we are called, with God’s help and
grace, to love as God loves, completely, holding nothing back.
My sisters and
brothers, our lives here are a time and place where we are called to learn to
love as God loves. A time and place of
preparation for our eternal relationship – for we who were baptized in
the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, have this Godhead as our very eternal
destiny: Blessed John Paul tells
us “the Trinity lies before us as the goal to which our history is
directed, as the homeland for which we long.” <pause> The
heaven for which we long is not a place, but it’s a sharing, a participation,
in the very life and love relationship of God.
And as we
contemplate that great day of rejoicing, when one day we will enter fully into
the life and love of our Trinity God, our Eucharist today gives us a foretaste of
that day, a hint of the joy that will be ours, and the nourishment and strength
to enable us to love ever more perfectly, ever more as God loves.
So we go forth
from here today unified, renewed and strengthened. To live in ever more complete self-giving
love, to each other, to our communities and world, and to the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
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