HOMILY FOR MASS FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY (YEAR C) ST ANTHONY’S DAY + 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF AUSTRAL PARISH
ST ANTHONY OF PADUA CATHOLIC CHURCH, AUSTRAL, 15 JUNE 2025
Some years ago, a friend of mine was discussing the Holy Trinity with his Jehovah’s Witness sister and others who were strongly opposed to this Catholic doctrine. His interlocuters insisted that Catholics don’t really believe in the Trinity, because whenever someone asks about it, they mumble evasively that “it’s a mystery.” My friend encouraged them to come to Mass on Trinity Sunday to hear what it’s all about from a more authoritative source.
One of them actually came to Mass! And come the homily, the parish priest began: “The Blessed Trinity, ah well, it’s a great mystery, too hard for us to penetrate or for me to explain. So I thought we might reflect on something else today.” He proceeded to ask them to close their eyes and imagine themselves on a beach holding hands with Jesus…
Challenging as it may be, today’s feast recalls the central mystery of our faith revealed to us by God Himself: that God is a three persons not one, in one God not three. So God is a community. Yet modernity is ambivalent about the very idea of community. On the one hand, we yearn for companions, traditions, shared identity, common projects. We talk of the need to “recover a sense of community” and “build up community.” And there are some real efforts to do so.
On the other hand, we can dignify with the name ‘community’ what is little more than warm, fuzzy feelings among like-minded people. Or we romanticise families, neighbourhoods and the ‘international community’ when we should be scrutinising their flaws or dysfunction. Or, worst of all, we empty the tag of meaning by applying it to phenomena like ‘the gambling community’ and ‘the recreational drug-user community.’
Then there is the politics of it all. Dictators and racists often use community talk to exclude people who are not like them. Some citizens blame ‘the community’ for everything, failing to take responsibility themselves. And bureaucrats cover up cost-saving deinstitutionalisation and abandoning the mentally ill, disabled and elderly with the euphemism ‘Care in the Community.’
All of which can leave us disillusioned, even cynical, about community talk. We can also feel so let down by institutions or groups that we no longer trust them. Some go so far as to deny the very existence of community, as when British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously said there’s no such thing as society, only individuals and families.[1] On that view, we are atoms bouncing off each other as rivals or transactional collaborators, and life is mostly ‘survival of the fittest’.
What might Church teaching that God is a communion of persons say to our 21st century doubts about community?
First, the persons of the Trinity act with and through one another. In our reading from Proverbs, Wisdom is personified as One begotten by God before all time, seated beside God when the heavens and earth were made (Prov 8:22-31). It is, of course, the Second Person of God, the ‘master craftsman’, the Son in whom the Father delights (cf. Mt 3:17 etc.). All that is has its being through Him (Jn 1:3; Col 1:16-17).
He it is who, proclaimed in the prologue of John’s Gospel as the eternal Word of God, promises today that after His return to the Father we will continue to hear His Word through a third Person of God: “I have yet many things to say to you, too many for you now. But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth… [and] declare what is mine to you.” (Jn 16:12-15; cf. 1:1-18)
And so, God’s great work of creating and redeeming is the work not of one but of all three divine persons, each playing a part. And the Spirit of Truth, abiding always in the Church, is the voice of the Son, as the Son is of the Father. None speaks ‘on his own’, but all for all, as their words create and sustain the universe, redeem and sanctify humanity. This is more than collaborating in a work project: it is ‘communion’.
Secondly, this great mystery about God is also about us. In the Trinity, we encounter distinct persons, not merged into one another, nor opposed, but fully themselves and yet united in perfect love and mutual indwelling. Individuals like ourselves, with our own gifts, temperaments and aspirations, are free to choose and act, create or destroy, love or hate. Yet for all our agency, we flounder when isolated. Made in the image of the Triune God, we are hardwired for relationship.
Thirdly, the Trinity shows that identity and mission come from community. God the Father is Father only insofar as He eternally begets the Son. God the Son is Son only insofar as He is eternally begotten by the Father. The Holy Spirit is the bond of love between them, eternally breathed forth by them. God the Father speaks the Word from all eternity and in time sings Him as a love song to creation. The Son speaks those divine words and sings those heavenly tunes, in His life on earth. And the Spirit continues the conversation and concert in our time. Who each Person of God is and the tasks He accomplishes are given in the communion of those divine Persons.
So, too, for us: much of our identity comes from genealogy, family, ethnicity, church, neighbourhood, citizenship. These things are not just incidental, but shape much of who we are. We might resist, critique, or revise some received ideals and projects, but mostly we receive them from those around us and adopt them as our own. So, too, in our faith lives: in giving and receiving, acting with a Christ-like selflessness, we become children of God. Contrary to modernity’s cult of the individual, much of our happiness is found with and through each other. We flourish by being ourselves, but to be truly ourselves we need relationships of trust, sacrifice and sharing. These form and inform us, liberate and challenge us, nurture and support us, as we become the persons God created us to be.
Above all, we need the Triune God Himself—Father, Son and Spirit. He reveals Himself, not to confound us with an insoluble theological puzzle, but to invite us into a life of deeper communion with Him, and through Him with each other.
For 60 years, the parish of St Anthony of Padua Austral has been a community of persons who, like the Blessed Trinity, live and act as one, form relationships of trust and care, and find their true identity and mission together. We see this in your worship and devotions, your active groups and ministries. We see it in those sponsoring or organising our celebrations today and the good works you do all year round. As old-timers move away and newcomers arrive, the area is changing rapidly and with Fr Ronnie I’m convinced that, with Christ and St Anthony guiding the parish, you can successfully transition from our archdiocese’s last rural parish into one of its largest and most vibrant suburban parishes in this generation. With good liturgy, formation and outreach you can ensure that the faith is transmitted to the next generation in this young area.
This is a parish where the personalities and gifts of diverse members are brought together in service of God and community, where the Gospel is proclaimed joyfully, the gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed sacramentally, and the Church built up energetically. May the love of the Triune God continue to animate this communion for generations to come. Congratulations 60-year-olds. Ad multos annos!
[1] Margaret Thatcher, ‘Woman’s Own or No Such Thing as Society’, in Speeches, Interviews and Other Statements of Margaret Thatcher (London: Margaret Thatcher Foundation, 1987).
INTRODUCTION TO MASS FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY (YEAR C) + ST ANTHONY’S DAY + 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF AUSTRAL PARISH – ST ANTHONY OF PADUA CATHOLIC CHURCH, AUSTRAL, 15 JUNE 2025
Welcome friends to St Anthony of Padua Church Austral for what is, fittingly enough today, three feasts in one! First, today’s Mass of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity is a celebration of the central mystery of our faith.
Secondly, we gather on the closest Sunday to St Anthony’s Day, so we can observe the feast day of the parish.
And thirdly, we mark today the 60th anniversary of the parish of Austral being established in 1965. Amongst your various pastors, you’ve had some great stayers in Fr Weaver, Fr O’Byrne, Fr Short and Fr Hayes and I’m sure they are all very proud of the community established here. I salute their successor, Fr Ronnie Maree, with his Assistant Priest, Fr Adrian Suyanto, who are continuing that great pastoral leadership.
It’s a joy to be with you to celebrate the Eucharist on this triple feast. To everyone present, a very warm welcome!
