05/31/26 Understanding...or Trust?

1:11 Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. I'd like you to have a seat. so uh this trinity sunday is um i remember it being referred to this even in seminary they called it the preacher's nightmare um and i thought like that's so funny i'm like why like why would this be called the preacher's nightmare and i think the reason is because um who uh the challenge of trying to capture communicate and convey the impossible to comprehend mystery of God's deepest identity, which, and you'd say, who could ever, whoever could do that? Who could explain the identity of God? And the answer is no one. That's why it's the nightmare. That doesn't mean we can't try, right? That doesn't mean we can't try because we know this today. Here's this incredible solemnity because it's the deepest mystery of who, because it's not just what God does. This is the deepest mystery of who God is, the very identity of God. So we have to at least try to communicate who he is. We can't do it. We have to try. But here's the thing.

2:17 When it comes to our lives, I don't think we will be judged on what we don't know. Like when it comes to the deep mystery of God, like can I explain this? I don't think we'll be judged on what we don't know. So many people, and they rightly ask the question, they say, what about people who don't know Jesus? What about those who never encountered the church that he founded, the Catholic Church? What about those people? What happens to them? And that's a big question because Jesus made it very, very clear, right? That he is the only way to the Father. That St. Peter, right, in his homily sermon on Pentecost had said, there's no name given under heaven by which men are to be saved other than the name of Jesus Christ. So we know that if we ever get to heaven, it's because of Jesus. There's no other way. Jesus is the only way. But at the same time, What about those who don't know? What about those who don't know Jesus?

3:09 They don't know his church. I think one thing we can affirm is that we will not be judged on what we don't know. My guess is the entrance into life, entrance into eternal life, won't come down to a theology test. Like, you know, can you identify the two natures of Jesus? Can you define the hypostatic union or define and explain the doctrine of the Trinity? But maybe you can. Maybe you can try and say, well, that means that what's Trinity mean? It means that God is one divine being and three divine persons. Another way to say it is God is one what, but three who's. This is great. But I think we can't be expected to know something that we can't fully know.

3:54 But we're still asked, there's something that's still asked of us. And what is it? Actually, I think we see it in the gospel. Today's gospel is John chapter 3. in John chapter 6 there is a powerful moment where Jesus is talking about himself in the Eucharist right where Jesus has there's three groups of people there's the crowds the disciples and then the apostles he's talking to all of them and he basically says he makes it very very clear he says my flesh is true food my blood is true drink unless you eat my flesh drink my blood you don't have life within you like there's this massive huge teaching on this the greatest gift Jesus is going to give us. And the response is remarkable. The response is they respond by saying, this saying is hard. Who can accept it? And then they leave. Jesus, again, this is very, very important for us because we have to understand this. They weren't being asked to understand what Jesus was saying. They weren't being asked to explain it to someone else what Jesus was saying when he said, my flesh is true food, my blood is true drink. Unless you eat the flesh, the Son of the Man, and drink his blood, you don't have life within you. They were not being asked to explain, understand, or teach this. They're being asked for something else. They're being asked for something more.

5:03 They might have had questions, and keep this in mind, questions are good. Struggle's not bad. For Catholics, we have to understand this. We have to understand that questions are good, data is good, knowledge is good. Asking questions and continuing to ask questions about God, about big things in life, that is what the saints have done. We have to keep a couple things in mind. first thing is there's a couple different ways for asking questions we can ask I think we can ask questions like children but there's two different kinds of kids who ask questions there's the kind of kid who asks the question because they want to avoid the answer they're kind of kid who asks the question because they want to avoid doing what they know they're being asked to do it's time to go to bed well why? well because it's late why? because the sun went down because why? they're asking questions because they want to avoid the answer they want to avoid acting on what they know But there's another way of asking questions that kids can ask when they say, Dad, why is it dark at night?

5:59 Just tell me. Their minds are filled with wonder and they just want to know. No, this is so fascinating because our brains are fascinating. I was talking to a man named Arthur Brooks recently about this mystery of God and how sometimes there are some kinds of people who struggle with the question of God more than others. He was talking about left brain and right brain and he made this point. He said, the people who are prominently left-brained might approach the question of God with added difficulty. He explained it like this. He said, left-brain thinking is fantastic at solving complicated problems. So left-brain thinking is fantastic at solving complicated problems. That's like problems that are linear, logical. They're kind of step-by-step. And right-brain thinking is fantastic for addressing complex problems. So things like that are dynamic problems, relational problems, or things that are unpredictable, or things that are not fully controllable.

6:54 So right brain is like complex thinking, and left brain is complicated thinking. And so he made this example. He said, so jet propulsion, the jet propulsion engine, that's a complicated problem. That is a left brain problem. The combustion engine, left brain problem. Solar panels, left brain problem. That basically, they're really, really complicated. But once you figure it out, it's done. Like jet propulsion, really complicated. But once you've solved it, okay, now it's done. Complex problems, they're not solvable.

7:27 Complex problems are more like relationships. They're more like meaning. Love is a complex problem. Grief is a complex problem. And so the challenge is this, is that if I approach God, like a complicated problem. With my left brain, like, I just need to figure this out. Like, let me just define what God is. I need to understand fully what does it mean for God to be three divine persons and one divine being before I can follow him. I'm approaching God like a complicated problem, a problem to be solved. but God's not a complicated problem any more than grief is a complicated problem. God's not a complicated problem any more than love is a complicated problem. God is a complex problem, like life and like meaning. It has to be lived.

8:23 It has to be navigated. It actually can't be solved. Now, again, there's things we can say about God. As we already said, that God is three who's and one what. But that doesn't solve God. God is a complex problem. And we can only enter into and then live the mystery of who God is. And here's what we have to, all of us have to be okay with that. so we can look at God like that that child who just wants to avoid doing what they're asked but yeah but yeah but yeah but or we can look at God and say oh my goodness God how many what's it like to be three divine persons in one divine being God what is it to exist from all eternity what is it to exist before time existed even there's before there was such a thing as before those kinds of questions we ask those questions with wonder we ask those questions with trust but we also sometimes we can ask those questions with conditions right we can come up at God and say well here's the deal I'll only accept here's my condition I'll only accept if if I can see only accept if you can prove it to me only accept if I can understand let's go back to John 6 I'll only under accept if I can understand this you realize there were people not just people but disciples who left Jesus over this teaching on the Eucharist. Remember, once again, they said, this saying is hard, who can accept it?

9:51 this saying is hard. Who can accept it? But Jesus wasn't asking them to understand it. He was asking for them to accept it. He wasn't asking for them to explain it. It wasn't about explaining or understanding. It was about trusting. is about trusting. This is so key. That's why the whole story basically kind of ends with Jesus, as all these people are walking away, Jesus turns to the apostles, the 12, and he says, will you leave too? Will you also walk away? And what does Simon Peter say? Simon Peter doesn't say, I understand this. Simon Peter doesn't say, I can totally teach this. Simon Peter looks at him and says, Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We've come to believe and are convinced that you're the Holy One of God. Peter doesn't understand it, but he accepts it.

10:44 Why? Because he trusts. That's what faith is. Faith is trusting a person. In this case, it's trusting the second person of the Trinity. Then we have to understand this, that it's trusting, not understanding, that we're all called to. That's what God is asking of us today. trusting, not understanding, which is more than mere belief, right? In the gospel, what does Jesus say today? I'm going to John chapter three. He says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him might not perish, but have eternal life. So he says this belief, but it's really fascinating because later on, Jesus makes a contrast. And the contrast isn't between belief and unbelief. The contrast in John chapter three is between those who believe and those who disobey. So Jesus is making it very, very clear that belief is not just kind of like intellectual assent, like, oh yeah, no, I believe that God's a trinity.

11:41 It's belief versus disobedience, which means to say that that term that Jesus uses for belief isn't just I understand or isn't just I accept this, but it's more. It's I accept this, I trust this, and now I'll obey. That's why we know this, we know this. Once again, it's less about knowing the right answer and more about submitting myself to the truth who's God himself. I don't think that many of us are going to stand before God and need to know the right answer to a test. But we will stand before God and we'll be asked whether or not we submitted our intellect and our will, our heart and our whole lives to the truth that is God himself. That's what faith is, right?

12:32 Faith is the surrender, the submission of our intellect and will to God who's mystery and to God who's more. Pete Holmes is a comedian who's out there these days. And at one point, Pete Holmes was talking about the tour manager for Led Zeppelin, right, the band. And he said that the tour manager for Led Zeppelin has one of maybe the best definitions of God that Pete Holmes himself, who was Christian, but he kind of wrestles with faith, that he ever came up with. And the definition was this. The description of God was this. He said this. God is the blanket that we throw over the mystery to give it shape. The God is the blanket, that's the blanket we use, to throw over the mystery, capital M mystery, to give it shape. I saw some comments when he said that. People are like, no, no, no, that's horrible. I don't think it's that bad. Why? Because God is not a complicated problem to be solved.

13:25 He's a complex reality to be engaged with. He's always going to be more. This is the, we get to, on this day where we celebrate and commemorate and honor and enter into the mystery of God's very identity, God will always be more. In fact, I think it was Richard Dawkins. Richard Dawkins, who was the famous atheist, who had said this. He said something like this. He said, if there was a God, at one point he was like, okay, fine, maybe there is a God. He said this, but if there was a God, he would be vastly more complex and beyond anything we could possibly imagine. To which a Catholic would say, yep. We'd say, exactly. vastly more than anything we possibly could imagine. But then we'd also say, but also, he revealed himself.

14:13 Also, he has let us know him. That's why we're here today. That's why we're in mass right now. Because God has revealed himself. He actually wants us to know him, even if he's always going to be more, even if he's always going to be this mystery. He's revealed himself in creation. He revealed himself in the Old Testament. He revealed himself in Jesus. He revealed himself in his very identity that his deepest identity is what? Not just that he's good. Not just that he's just. Not just that he cares. That the deepest identity of God in the Trinity, the deepest identity of God is that he is love. and we can know him. we can know the mystery. The capital T, the capital M, mystery. And this last thing. even more, especially on a day like today.

15:09 We don't just get to know and say something about the capital T, the capital M mystery. We get to enter into covenantal relationship with him. When I say covenantal relationship, I mean not just kind of like in passing or we're just part of his creation, although we are, but he's entered into covenantal relationship. What's that mean? Is that he's made us family. The God whose love made us just specks of dirt on a rock in space. He has made us his family.

15:45 He adopts us as his children because of what Jesus has done for us. And then through the Holy Spirit given us in baptism. We're made his kids. so I think this I think we will not be judged on what we don't know but we will be judged on what we do with what we've been given. We won't be judging what we don't know. We will be judging what we do with what we've been given, and we've been given truth, and we've been given grace. And today, once again, we've been given the invitation to even when we don't understand, the invitation to trust Him.