This, the Sunday after Pentecost, is celebrated in the Catholic Church as Trinity Sunday. We focus, albeit for a few fleeting moments, on the momentous and unparalleled revelation of God as Father, Son and Spirit of Truth. This dogma or doctrine of faith is the basis of everything else Christians believe and teach. It is the fundamental content of Christ's message to the world: He came to bear witness to the Father, to reveal to mankind the God that all religion searches for.
Yet the doctrine of the Trinity is usually relegated to the meanderings of theologically inclined eggheads. The normal Catholic Joe who has to pull a nine-to-fiver just to stay alive and who, with any luck and a bit of good will, gets a little religion into his life on the occasional Sunday might not give a whole lot of thought to the meaning, much less the relevance, of seemingly obscure dogma. There are bills to pay, kids to school, a marriage to keep alive, vacations to plan, things to buy and sell... and, well, who has the time or the appetite for not-terribly-useful religious insights?
If that's the case with many a well meaning believer, what to say about the many, many people who consider all religious doctrine (especially Christian) just so much gobbledygook?(Please get to the point, Fr. Karras, the season finale of Desperate Housewives starts in a few minutes!!!)
Hmmm...
(to be continued...)
