What is the most essential tenet of our faith? What is the principle and foundation form which our faith rises or falls? What is the central claim of our faith?
(Pause for thought...)
Hopefully you paused and actually thought about the questions posed. Think about some of the beautiful things we hold because of faith: Jesus is true God and true Man, Mary is immaculately conceived, Jesus founded the church on Peter, the rock, the blood of jesus redeems us, the bread and wine become real presence of Christ at the Mass, we are all part of the mystical body of CHrist, our sins are forgiven each time a new we celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation, the Trinity (one God and three persons).
All of this an more is part of the beauty awaken by faith. But it flows from somewhere.
The central reality of faith is the fact that God has spoken. As the psalmist puts it, our God comes, he keeps silence no longer. God speaks to us. He wants to be heard. The God of eternity has broken the silence and has addressed himself to us feeble, weak, mortal women and men.
This is why the psalmist in today's readings states, "what is man that you think of him."
God has spoken. Because of this reality, our life of faith takes off. We believe what we believe because God has shown himself to us, he has pulled back the veil between time and eternity and we have caught a glimpse of who he is.
The Most Holy Trinity has made himself known.
He is a communion of love. The three persons of the blessed Trinity are distinct yet the they remain a unity, they are different but the same in love. They rejoice in the goodness of the other, seeking to glory one another and giving themselves to one another.
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Now shift your focus for a moment. Think about product testing.
Every product that is produced has to be tested and approved. Consumer testing is important to ensure that the product fulfills the claims the manufacturer makes on its behalf.
Every product must go through the test: toilets, blenders, shoes, refrigerators, medication...and the list goes on and on.
I recently read an article illustrating the reality of product testing. Brian Chesky, the founder of AIRBNB, online travel lodge place, as taken it upon himself to test his product. Through airbnb someone looking for lodging can rent an apartment, house, tipi, igloo, european castle.
Brian in order to test his product has chosen to live by booking places through his own business on a weekly basis. He said the best way to take the pulse of the product is to use the product. Since 2010, for the last three years he has been relocating every week through his own company website.
This gives new meaning to product testing.
Product testing isn't just for the inanimate objects. IT is also for us.
St. Paul tells us in today's second reading that we are justified by faith thus we have gain access to grace so that we can boast in our afflictions because afflictions, afflictions produce endurance, endurance proven character, proven character hope that does not disappoint.
Through the grace of God, we are being testing. God wants to make sure that we live up to his claims for us that we are made in his image and likeness. The Trinity, this communion of love is the root of our existence; it is also the fulfillment of our existence.
All that happens in life is meant to put us back on tract.
As we celebrate the feast of the Trinity, we recognize not just who God is but who we are called to be as those justified.
God wants to conform us to be like himself a communion of love that creates space for the other, a communion of live that rejoices in the goodness of the other, a communion of love that seeks to magnify and glorify the other.
The afflictions we encounter are those things that are meant to stretch us, re shift our focus, to put us back in rhythm of theTrinity we both profess and adore.
By our life we give honor to this revelation we have received.
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