I think most of us know what it feels like to have somebody make assumptions about us before getting to know who we are. Maybe that caricature is formed because they hear one or two things about you and suddenly they think they have you figured out. Maybe they know your job, your politics, where you’re from, your age, your personality, one mistake you made, or an impression from somebody else and they build this whole image in their mind. This experience is so frustrating because you know: “That’s not really me…it’s only one part of my life. You’ve decided who I am without actually knowing me.”
On the other hand, we’ve all done the same thing to other people as well. We meet someone and within thirty seconds we’ve got them classified and labelled. We assume we know what they’re like, what motivates them, what they value, how they’ll act. We create an image of them instead of taking the time to actually know them as they are.
Throughout human history, we’ve even done this with God. That’s the background behind the first reading today. One of the important details are those tablets Moses takes with him…They are not the first set that were given to him.
The first tablets had been made by the hand of God himself. During those forty days on Mount Sinai, God revealed himself to Moses, and that revelation was expressed by the commandments, written on those tablets. But when Moses came down the mountain, he found the people worshipping the golden calf. In anger and grief, he shattered the tablets and destroyed the idol.
When we think about the golden calf, we assume the Israelites chose a different god to worship. But that’s not accurate. Instead of waiting for Moses to return and share God’s revelation of himself, they crafted an image of the God they wanted. A god they could manage. A god they could shape, control, and understand on their own terms. The golden calf was truly a load of bull!
That tendency to define God according to our desires and expectations is still one of the great human temptations. We often try to tell God who he is instead of letting him reveal himself to us. We prefer a God who fits neatly into our expectations, our politics, our comforts, our schedules, our opinions. But every image we create of God on our own always ends up too small, too limited, too incomplete. The true God will always stretch us, challenge us, and sometimes even unsettle us.
That is why today’s first reading is so beautiful. After the sin of the people, Moses goes back up the mountain carrying two new tablets. But this time the tablets are blank. Moses approaches God with openness. No assumptions. No demands. No attempt to remake God in his own image. He simply asks the Lord to reveal himself once again.
Those blank tablets become a model for us. That is how we are supposed to approach God: with open and docile hearts. Not telling God who he must be, but allowing him to show us who he truly is.
When we let God reveal himself to us, we not only learn who God is …we also begin to understand who we are. Scripture tells us that we are made in the image and likeness of God. If our understanding of God becomes distorted, eventually our understanding of ourselves and other people becomes twisted as well.
In her wisdom, our Church makes sure we take time to celebrate and reflect each year on the mystery of the Trinity. There is no way human beings would have come up with the Trinity on our own. One God. Three distinct Persons. The Father eternally giving himself to the Son. The Son eternally receiving from the Father. The Holy Spirit proceeding from that eternal exchange of love. A God whose very essence is relationship, communion, and self-giving love.
This is something God had to reveal. It is a mystery so deep and beautiful that eternity will not be long enough to exhaust it. Even more astonishing is that we are invited into that divine life. The second Person of the Trinity became man to save us. The Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit to remain with us always. Through the sacraments, the very life of the Trinity is poured into our souls.
But we can only receive that gift if we approach God with “blank tablets”, with openness and humility … allowing the Lord to reveal himself as he is instead of trying to reduce him into what is comfortable or convenient for us.
This is also true when it comes to worship.
Most of us can think of parts of the Mass we might wish were different. Maybe we wish worship were shorter. Or easier. Or more entertaining. Maybe sometimes we think: “Why can’t I just pray on my own at home or out in nature?” But in his wisdom, God has asked us to worship him in a particular way. He gathers us together. He feeds us through Word and Sacrament. He teaches us to pray as a Church and not simply as isolated individuals.
Why? Because worship is not primarily about giving us what we prefer. It is about allowing God to form us. There are graces he wants to give us here that we cannot give ourselves. There are truths he wants to teach us that we would never learn if we only worshipped according to our own preferences.
The wisdom of Trinity Sunday is this: we do not create God. We receive him. We allow him to reveal himself to us by approaching him on his terms, not ours.
So perhaps the challenge for us today is to ask ourselves: where am I still approaching God with something other than blank tablets? Where am I demanding that God conform himself to my expectations instead of allowing myself to be changed by him? Where have I crafted my own image of the Lord instead of allowing the living God to reveal himself in truth?
May God give us the openness of Moses. May he give us the grace to approach him with blank tablets and open hearts. And with that openness, may we be drawn ever more deeply into the life and love of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
