Loving Jesus
Homily for Trinity Sunday
June 4, 2023
Homily for Trinity Sunday
June 4, 2023
Homily for June 4, 2023
Trinity Sunday
One of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola—those “exercises” in which Ignatius invites us to imagine ourselves to be right there with Jesus at different points in his life and to notice, not so much what we are thinking but what we are feeling—is to imagine ourselves with Jesus as he is with the Trinity at the very moment the Trinity decides to send the Son into the world. It is a famous-enough exercise that the Welsh priest and poet R. S. Thomas wrote a poem about his experience. Here is Thomas’ poem, “The Coming”:
And God held in his hand
A small globe. Look he said.
The son looked. Far off,
As through water, he saw
A scorched land of fierce
Colour. The light burned
There; crusted buildings
Cast their shadows: a bright
Serpent, A river
Uncoiled itself, radiant
With slime.
On a bare
Hill a bare tree saddened
The sky. Many people
Held out their thin arms
To it, as though waiting
For a vanished April
To return to its crossed
Boughs. The son watched
Them. Let me go there, he said.
This week, why not set aside some time to do this exercise, to imagine yourself to be right there with Jesus at the moment the Trinity decides to send the Son into the world. Set aside some time—maybe thirty minutes, or fifteen, or even ten—and go to a place where you know you won’t be disturbed. Close the door; turn off your phone; let the doorbell go unanswered, and your landline, too, if you have one. Maybe take a few intentional breaths to settle yourself, and ask God for the grace to imagine yourself to be right there with Jesus at the moment the Trinity decides to send the Son into the world. And remember to allow yourself to pay attention, not so much to what you are thinking but to what you are feeling. For—spoiler alert (and I will “spoil” it for you because Ignatius does so as well)—Ignatius is so confident that what we will feel is love because (according to Ignatius) the more we allow ourselves to know Jesus, of course the more we will come to love Jesus. Jesus is so good, so attractive, so… beautiful, believes Ignatius, that the more we allow ourselves to know Jesus, of course the more we will come to love him, the more we will come to have (in the words of Ignatius), a “felt, interior knowledge” of God’s love for us.
Wouldn’t we all like to have a “felt, interior knowledge” of God’s love for us? So why not this week set aside some time to imagine yourself to be right there with Jesus at the very moment the Trinity decides to send the Son into the world, asking God for the grace to help you imagine and to reveal to you what God wishes for you to know? Which will be (insists St. Ignatius) a “felt, interior knowledge” to the extent that God knows we can bear it, of the love that God has for you—yes, you!—the love that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit has for you.
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