(Trinity Sunday 2007: This homily was given on June 3, 2007 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Proverbs 8: 22-31; Romans 5: 1-5; John 16: 12-15.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Trinity Sunday 2007]
The dogma of the Trinity—which teaches us that there is one God in three Divine Persons—may sound theoretical and abstract, but in reality it has some very practical implications for our daily lives.
I’ll share just one of those implications with you in today’s homily—one that relates to a controversial social issue of our day.
The dogma of the Trinity reminds us that the one, true God is actually a FAMILY of Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Each is omnipotent; each is omniscient; each is eternal; each is God.
If this is true (and of course as Catholics we believe it is)—if God is indeed a Trinity of Persons—and if we are made in God’s image and likeness (as Scripture tells us we are), then so-called “gay marriage” is not within the realm of human possibility.
Oh sure, a state or society can choose to make it legal through a legislative act or through a judicial decision. But if such a thing happens (as it did a few years ago in
Let me explain . . .
In the Blessed Trinity, the Father loves the Son with an intense, perfect, eternal love. That love is so intense that it’s actually another Person—the Holy Spirit—who, as the Nicene Creed tells us, “proceeds from the Father and the Son.”
So please notice, in the Blessed Trinity, love is fruitful: the Father loves the Son, and from that love the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally.
In a speech he gave in
All this having been said, if a marriage here on earth is to reflect the life of the Trinity properly, that marriage obviously must be FRUITFUL (or at least it must have the natural potential to be fruitful).
It must be fruitful (or at least potentially so), because the Father’s love for the Son in the Blessed Trinity is fruitful.
But a so-called “gay marriage” can never be fruitful, can it? You learn that in Biology 101. Two men cannot have a natural child of their own; two women cannot have a natural child of their own. It’s impossible. Only the marriage of a man and a woman has the natural potential to be fruitful!
There are many reasons to oppose gay marriage. One of the most important, of course, is that children thrive best when they’re nurtured by a man and a woman who are committed to one another in a traditional marital relationship (studies have shown this again and again). Legalized homosexual marriage, many experts tell us, will eventually lead to legalized polygamy, incest and pedophilia—and possibly even to legalized bestiality! It will destroy the institution of marriage as we have known it. It will certainly lead to the passage of laws specifically designed to stifle religious freedom; and it will mean that children in public schools will be taught that sodomy and traditional marriage are morally equal—and you as parents will have nothing to say about it.
But standing behind all these reasons—and all the other valid ones—is the simple truth that gay marriage is “ungodly” because it’s “anti-Trinitarian.” The love of the Father and the Son in the Blessed Trinity is fruitful. The love in a gay relationship is not.
And it never can be.