I doubt that anyone here remembers that in my sermon delivered half a year ago, on Sunday of the Holy Family, I referred to the James Webb Space Telescope. At that time, it was very topical (it had just been launched into space) and I found the story of its creation a useful analogy for the subject of my sermon. In that sermon, I waxed lyrical over the telescope’s development, its specifications, fantastically complicated intricate design and scientific prospects. However, its price tag was astonishing: 10 billion US dollars! On top of that, there are the ongoing costs of running the programme. What do we have for all that money? An instrument that looks into the distant past that we can summarise with the classic quote: ‘A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…’ (Star Wars) Many can justifiably question the wisdom of spending so much money on a project that will not produce any practical results, nor will it improve people’s lives. One could argue that the money could have been spent better than splashing it on this scientific vanity project, now parked one million miles away and facing away from the Earth.
A similar kind of argument could be made about the subject of today’s feast. The Holy Trinity, one God in Three Divine Persons. This is arguably a concept that’s not easy to get your head around. Those passionate about religion – defending it or fighting it – make arguments for or against it. But for most people – let’s be brutally honest – this is not something that keeps us awake at night or boils our blood. Most Christians take it in their stride, blessing themselves in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit without a second thought. That’s the way we were taught and trained in the faith. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that our faith is irreflexive, mindless or empty.
When you think about it, with virtually everything we do in a similar manner; once taught, learnt or trained how to use cutlery, put on clothes, drive a car and so on, we regularly do those things without each time falling into a deep meditation on them. But at some point in the past someone did. Our modern lives – rife with convenient solutions, comforts, and sophistication that we take for granted – are the result of various mindful reflections in the past. Some were triggered by incidents or accidents; others by curiosity that led to experimentation, research, studies or ventures. Many of them could have been labelled as blue-sky thinking, wasteful and without direct practical implications. For example, when Copernicus claimed that the Earth revolves around the Sun, it didn’t instantaneously improve anyone’s life one bit. In fact, for a while, it made the lives of those early scientists who followed a little harder, when they faced some strong opposition. However, the indirect impact of that discovery made many modern inventions possible. There are many other discoveries that – unlike Copernican heliocentrism – are much harder to comprehend unless we have detailed and deep knowledge of a particular area of expertise. But it doesn’t stop us from reaping the benefits they bring.
In today’s feast of the Most Holy Trinity, we are celebrating the internal life of God as revealed by Jesus Christ. Over the centuries many theologians have made efforts to understand and explain the theological and mystical intricacies of the Triune God. Have they succeeded? The answer must be negative if we use the strict criteria of modern science applicable to the observable physical world. But God isn’t part of such a world; God is transcendent; a fancy word that means ‘beyond or above the range of normal or physical human experience’ (Oxford Languages). That means that any attempt to comprehensively explain transcendental realities in terms of the physical world must fail as we don’t have the terms or vocabulary to describe them. Out of necessity, we use images, comparisons and referrals to have a glimpse of the spiritual world. Only having reached our ultimate destination, transformed in the resurrection, will we experience and have full knowledge of God. ‘For now, we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.’ (1 Corinthians 13:12)
