To hope is to connect: Homily for Sunday, June 15, 2025

To hope is to connect. It has been reported there are more open conflicts around the world today than at any time since 1946. Saint Irenaeus says to hope is to connect. And the Trinity is the perfect model for our hope. Readings for Today.

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To hope is to connect

As I suspect you are all aware, this year is the Jubilee year of hope, called by Pope Francis, and continued by Pope Leo. Speaking to those pilgrims in Rome, Pope Leo quoted Saint Irenaeus. “To hope is to connect.”
This quote from Saint Irenaeus captures two ideas that are of crucial importance for our current time. As today we celebrate Trinity Sunday, we live in a time where it can feel quite unhopeful.
There is an escalation of violence in the Middle East, as Israel and Iran lob missiles at each other. This after months of deep suffering in Gaza and in Israel. The conflict in Ukraine continues to drag on with no apparent end in sight.
And there is more. There is the terrible unrest in Haiti, conflicts in Sudan and South Sudan. And these locations are not the only ones. The list of conflict and violence is long indeed.
And there is also conflict in our own country. No doubt we have witnessed the protests in Los Angeles. Yesterday we learned of Minnesota legislators who were killed. And there is the conflict that arises when we do not wish to share our blessings.
There are people who do not have enough to eat, access to health care, decent and affordable housing and more. Moreover, there is the anxiety that arises when we are not sure what tomorrow will bring.
And so, it was quite fitting that Pope Francis chose the theme of hope for this Jubilee Year. But it is also important for all of us to recognize that hope is not simply about our lives having a storybook ending. It is not about optimism.
Hope is about the belief that we can be saved. That despite our flaws, our hardships, our difficulties, and those of others, we can be open to the ways in which God chooses to be active in our lives.
And as we celebrate Trinity Sunday, it is a reminder that with God all things are possible. We can have hope because we have a God who both loves us unconditionally and gives us the grace, the help, so that we can love God too.
But we are not to be passive followers of God. While God always takes the initiative in loving us, in calling us, in saving us, we are not simply passive bystanders. We must cooperate with the grace of God.
Yesterday, in his video message to those gather at Rate Field in Chicago, home of the White Sox, Pope Leo quoted, as he has in almost every address he has given since being chosen pope, Saint Augustine.
Here is what Pope Leo said. “Saint Augustine says to us that if we want the world to be a better place, we have to begin with ourselves, we have to begin with our own lives, our own hearts .”
This brings us to the second concept from Saint Irenaeus. Connection. And it should remind us of the second commandment Jesus mentions after calling us to love God. Jesus tells us the second commandment is like the first. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves.
We live in a time where perhaps we are reminded constantly that we are not connected. But do we accept that assessment too quickly? Is it that we are as divided, as polarized as we think, or is it that we do not think enough about the ways we are in fact connected.
Regardless, we all need to look inward to see if we love our neighbor as fully as we can. We need to ask ourselves, “Do we seek to discover the ways in which, by accepting God’s grace, we can view our common connections.
For today, on this Trinity Sunday, more than anything we are called to consider the model of the Trinity. It has been said that when a priest preaches on Trinity Sunday, he is likely to speak heresy. I will try not to fall into that trap today.
And I can avoid it when I consider that Saint John tells us everything we need to know about the Trinity. That while our curiosity is such that in the western world we want to solve mysteries, to solve the mystery of God, Saint John helps us. How do we understand the Trinity? By recalling that Saint John tells us that God is love.
This means that in the mystery of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the Lover, Beloved and the Love between them providing each one of us the model of how it is we are to be in the world, loving God and loving our neighbor.
In a world of darkness and maybe for some even despair, can we accept the grace of God to be beacons of hope in a dark world? Can we accept the grace of God to witness to what it is that God, in his goodness, can do for each one of us? And by extension, what God can do for everyone?
We simply cannot accept the message of the Evil One. The devil tells us that we can do nothing. That God cannot and does not love us. That the darkness will win, and we will lose.
But that it not what these events of Easter, and what Trinity Sunday, and the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, which we celebrate next Sunday, tell us about what is really true.
Pope Leo in his video message reminds us of what really matters.
“So I would like to invite all of you to take a moment, to open up your own hearts to God, to God’s love, to that peace which only the Lord can give us. To feel how deeply beautiful, how strong, how meaningful the love of God is in our lives. And to recognize that while we do nothing to earn God’s love, God in his own generosity continues to pour out his love upon us. And as he gives us his love, he only asks us to be generous and to share what he has given us with others.”

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