The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Year B
Theme: How to Sell God? 如何推銷天主？
In the gospel passage today, the risen Lord commissioned the eleven Apostles to “Go, therefor, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20a). This became the raison d’être of the Church which must be apostolic, meaning the Church is built upon the foundation of the Apostles. We rely on the Apostles and their successors to know our articles of faith and our practices of worship. She is also catholic, meaning her members come from all nations and not one particular people. Moreover, baptism in the name of the Blessed Trinity, not in the name of Christ nor Paul nor Peter etc. is the rite of initiation into this Church. The Blessed Trinity is the most holy. Therefore, the Church is also holy, not in the sense that all her members are holy. In fact, all her members are sinners in different degrees. The Church is holy in the sense that she provides a community in which the Blessed Trinity can sanctify her sinful members. Lastly, the Church is one because there is only one true God of the Blessed Trinity. Naturally, we shall ask how we should make disciples. In the jargon of a modern commercial society like Hong Kong, how we should sell God? Bear in mind that we must know our clients well enough and speak their languages fluently in order to sell our ideas. Therefore we should know our target audience.
Let us take a look at the first reading today which comes from Deuteronomy 4. Moses was making his parting speeches, drawing conclusions from the forty-year experiences of the Israelites in the wilderness before they entered the Promised Land. Moses helped the Israelites make sense of their empirical experiences as a people delivered from their slavery in Egypt. Those experiences were not subjective but objective common experiences of six hundred thousand people (Exodus 12:37, Numbers 1:56, 26:51), spending forty years in the wilderness between Egypt and Canaan. It was towards the end of forty years before they entered in Canaan. Moses was actually speaking to the second generation of Israelites whose parents left Egypt some forty years ago. Bear in mind that every year since they left Egypt, they celebrated the feast of Passover, recounting the exodus events. The Israelites were handing down their traditions meticulously because this was their covenant with God. Moses said, “However, be on guard and be very careful not to forget the things your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your hearts as long as you live, but make them known to your children and to your children’s children” (Deuteronomy 4:9). What were the things they had seen? Moses continues, “Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, with strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the LORD, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?” (4:33-34) Moses was referring to the famous Ten Plagues (Exodus 7-12), the Crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 14), the miracles of manna (16:9-35) and striking water from rock (17:1-7), fighting battle with Amalek (17:8-16) along the way to Mount Sinai/Horeb to receive the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19). The fact that the Israelites were alive after going through all those adverse situations made them witnesses of the existence and works of a God called Yahweh. You may ask even if those experiences were not legends, what relevance do they have with the life in the modern world?
Other than truths derived from natural sciences, there are other fields of organized knowledge about our social lives. Human beings are social animals and physics, chemistry, biology and astronomy are unable to explain our social intercourses adequately because unlike physical objects, we have memories and experiences. Our behaviours adapt and change according to history and situations. Nevertheless, we cannot deny the coherence and consistence of these social interactions which no branch of physical sciences is powerful enough to explain. Firstly, physical sciences pride themselves of being objective and their practices are repeatable. As such, they are unable to deal with value systems which enable human beings to make choices and bear moral responsibilities. Values are subjective! Furthermore, physical scientists cannot reduce human love in terms of the chemistry of hormones; human perceptions in terms of electric pulses running through the retina and natural human languages in terms of the organization of synapses among the nerve cells etc. Simply put, they are unable to put a human mind/soul/spirit and observe its movements under the microscope! Therefore, the naïve belief in the power and advancements of technologies is in itself superstitious! Let us be fair towards other branches of social sciences such as psychology and sociology and maintain an open mind to broader values.
As for the relevance of the biblical narratives to modern life, we have to accept the consensus of historians, supported by the discoveries of archaeologists that across human civilizations, there are similar patterns of rises and downfalls, evolutions and revolutions, social stratifications and power struggles, sibling rivalries, co-operations and betrayals etc. To weave all of them together, “A time to give birth, and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant … A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:2-8). In short, human beings are not made up of physical particles and animated by physical energies alone. We are historical animals with experiences. The time dimension is not neutral! When we make sense of those patterns of experiences, we build up traditions, cultures and civilizations. We learn the successes and failures of ours’ and others’. The Bible contains many records of universal existential struggles shared by all humanity. It inspires all peoples to struggle and improve their situations and conditions from generation to generation. Whether we are able to make good use of its messages depends on our own choices. If we rashly blush the Bible aside and judge it irrelevant, or modify it to suit our political agenda, we bear full responsibility of blame when awful consequences come about.
For Christians who believe in the authority of the Bible, the second reading today promises benefits beyond all costs. St. Paul says, “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:16-17a). Christians believe in a God with finer details than Jews. Both believe in one God, but Christians believe that there are three Persons in one God, Father the Creator, Son the Redeemer and the Spirit who is the love between the Father and the Son. St. John says well, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Love is outgoing towards others. Thus we love and care for the benefits of other peoples as well. God is eternal and as heirs of God, we inherit an eternal life and its glory beyond all sorts of nameable utilities.
Of course, whether to believe in God or not is a complicated philosophical problem. As a first step for modern people to know the importance of believing in an eternal God, it is worthwhile to explore the flawed and oversimplified “Pascal’s Wager” and choose wisely. Amen.
God bless!
2021 Reflection
Picture Credit: oclarim.com.mo
