Cedric Pisegna - Affinity with the Trinity

TOPICS: Trinity

I’m Father Cedric Pisegna, the host of «Live With Passion». I’m so glad that you tuned into the program, because I believe that you’re about to be lifted up, especially in your prayer life. I wanna proclaim to you the gospel from Matthew chapter 28. «The 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain that Jesus had directed them, and when they saw the risen Jesus, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I’ve commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'»

This is a series about being lifted up. Now, we just heard the gospel, the gospel was from Matthew, and Jesus tells his missionaries, and I am one of them, he tells his missionaries to go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. And what is that telling us? It’s telling us that God wants relationship with us. He’s saying go out and proclaim the gospel, proclaim a relationship with me. Proclaim the truth that you can have new life in Christ. God wants relationship, and we want relationship with God, and I want to help you to have that. You can be lifted up, and notice in the gospel, Jesus said proclaim the gospel and baptize people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

My mother taught me as a Catholic, «In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen». It’s trinitarian: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One of the secrets of my prayer life that will help you to be lifted up, that you need to understand that we just don’t pray to God out there, arbitrarily, somewhere. Rather, God is a personal God. We believe in the three persons of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit. And if you want to have a prayer life that’s alive and lifted up, you need to have a personal relationship with each person of the Trinity.

I remember one time I saw an icon by Andrei Rublev. In 1425, he painted the Trinity as being three angels sitting around a table. And as you approach the icon, the open part of the table is nearest to the viewer, and the whole symbol, the meaning of this is that of course a meal is a time of intimacy. The three persons of the Trinity having intimacy, a depth relationship. But there’s a side open for the viewer, for you and for me, and the symbol is simply this, that God wants intimacy, something more with all of us.

I was watching a golf tournament one time, I’m an avid golfer, and the golfer was talking to his caddy, and this is a pro golfer, making a lot of money for every shot, and they were looking about where they wanted to hit it. Now, a golfer doesn’t just kind of pick out the future there, and how far it is, and then take a swing hoping it goes in a certain direction. No, he picks out a precise spot. He talked to the caddy and he said that man there in the orange, right by the tower, hit it right at him. And they have that precise aim, and that’s the same way it’s got to be in our prayer life, we don’t just talk to God.

Have a precise aim. Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, when you talk to one person of God, whether it be the Holy Spirit, or Jesus, or the Father, you’re talking to the whole Trinity. Zero in on each person of the Trinity, that’s really important. That revolutionized my prayer life. I wasn’t just talking to God out there somewhere, I developed a relationship with each person of the Trinity. And I want to say something, and I hope you get it. Underline this, put it in an italics. The Trinity is not a mystery to be solved. That’s what everybody wants to do. What’s the Trinity? How do we figure this out? It’s not something to be figured out, it’s not a mystery to be solved; it’s a relationship to be entered into.

Remember the icon? They’re sitting around a table, what is a table? A meal in the semitic world. It’s a time of a relationship, getting to know, intimacy, and that’s exactly what the Trinity is. And the Trinity is inviting us into this eternal love relationship that God has. And I love that Scripture that I just proclaimed to you. Go and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You see, Trinity is something that isn’t in the Scripture. You’ll never find the word Trinity, but we have Scriptures that tell us, reveal to us, that there is Trinity, such as this one from Matthew 28. And there’s another one that comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 13. «The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all».

If you’re Catholic, you recognize that because that’s the greeting at Mass. We greet you that way. We say, «The grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God, the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all,» and that’s Trinitarian. There is another Scripture, and there’s others in the Bible, I can’t go through them all, but way back in the book of Genesis, God says, «Let us create man in our own image». Notice the pluralistic, «Let us create man in our image». God is Father, Son, and Spirit, and we are invited into this beautiful relationship with the Trinity. Now, people want to try to figure this out. What is Trinity? Rather than saying what is Trinity, it’s more who is Trinity? As I said, very relational. And then we want to try to figure it out, so we need images.

Okay, I understand that and, I remember Saint Patrick, the great missionary, he talked about the shamrock with three leaves. Remember Fulton Sheen, great Catholic bishop and missionary? He talked about water, H2O, as being liquid, steam, and ice. It’s the same water, yet in three different forms. I like to talk about it as light. If you’ve ever seen a beam of light coming through a window, the shaft of light, it’s one shaft of light, but it’s light, heat, and energy. Three aspects of the one beam of light. And that’s a way, if you will, that you can kinda grasp what Trinity is. Trinity has three functions, Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier, Father, Son, and Spirit. But more than their functions, we have to relate to the Trinity in a personal way.

I remember one time I was studying in Jerusalem, and walking down the streets. I spent three months over there, and just walking down the street, and I heard this little boy talking to his father. He goes, «Abba, Abba,» and he was pointing at a window. He was pointing at some shoes in a shop, a shoe store, and when he said, «Abba,» my ears perked up, because we had just studied that in class, in Scripture class. Abba was the word that Jesus used, it’s an Aramaic word for father. But more than father, it’s a term of endearment. It’s an intimate term, a relational term. We use the word daddy, or papa, and that’s what that little boy was saying. He was saying, «Daddy, look, Daddy, look».

But Jesus gave us that word, daddy, for God, the unknowable God, the Almighty God. Jesus brings it into a relational term of papa. Remember what he said to Mary Magdalene? He said don’t cling to me, I’m ascending to my God and your God, to my Father and your Father. See, God created us, too. He’s our Father. I am so glad that God gave me a beautiful image of Father. I had, everybody feels like they have the best dad, most people, they have a good father. And I had the best, I feel. He was such a good man, a gracious man. In fact, people come up to me sometimes and they say, «Cedrick, what kind of a name is Cedric? Is there a Cedrick, a Saint Cedric»? And I go, «Well, no, not yet. But there’s one in the making».

Actually, what happened was that’s my dad’s name. I’m a Cedric, Junior. My dad gave me his name. I’ve got his nose. I’ve got his hair. But more than that, he was a friend. I had a personal relationship with my dad. He always taught me that the sky’s the limit, to become the best that you can be, and I have a series about that. And he taught me that I could trust him. He was so trustworthy, and he never failed me in that aspect. We got to be good friends, and I could always trust him. I found out, I was watching the news just recently, that in the state of Mississippi, atheists are trying to get off of the license plates in Mississippi, they’re trying to get off, «In God We Trust».

The bottom line is, is that in God we trust. Maybe you didn’t have a good relationship with your father. Well, I’ll tell you right now that you can experience healing. One thing that I hear from people is that when they talk about God, their image of God, and oftentimes this happens in religious circles, unfortunately, they sense that God is so perfectionistic, and so holy, and God is holy, such that they feel that if they make any kind of a mistake, God is going to punish them, and God is out to get them. It’s like this big computer in the sky. Well, the truth is, is that God is holy, God is almighty, but he’s not out to get you. It says in the Scriptures, «If God is for us, who can be against»?

I want you to get this. Romans 8, God is for us. My dad was for me. He was my biggest supporter and my best friend. And I found somebody in life who supported me, who was for me, who was always wanting me to do my best, who I could trust. That’s exactly the way that God is, and that’s why Jesus said call him Abba. That’s an Aramaic word, and it’s meant for us, too. That in our prayer life, we ought to be saying not God, but Abba. In fact, it says in the Scriptures, it’s Galatians that that God poured the spirit of his Son into our hearts, so that we can cry out, «Abba, Papa, Daddy».

And I want you to, in your prayer life, zero in on God as your Father. That’s really important. Now, when you pray to your Father, this is what Jesus said. Go to your closet, go to your room, pray to your father in secret, and your Father who sees you in secret will reward you. I love praying when there is a community, and that’s part of my prayer life, but I especially love praying when I go to my room. And sometimes I even go into my closet, shut the door, and it’s nice and quiet. No putting on airs, no faking anything, just speaking heart to heart with God.

God created 7.9 billion people, right now, at this moment as I’m filming this, 7.9 billion people on the face of the earth, and he’s Father to all. It rains on the just and the unjust. The sun shines on the good and the bad. That’s God’s love. And he created you, every heartbeat, every moment, every breath is a gift. «For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes wouldn’t perish, but have eternal life». He’s in love with you, so much that he sent us Jesus. Let’s talk about Jesus for a little bit here. We just heard the gospel. The gospel, Jesus, the Great Commission, this is our mandate as missionaries. To go into the whole world, proclaiming the good news, baptizing people, notice, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

As Catholics, we make the sign of the cross. It’s all about a relationship with Jesus. Jesus is also a person that we can have a relationship with. Notice, he said, «And I am with you until the end of the age». That’s the Gospel of Matthew. Remember how the Gospel of Matthew begins? «The Virgin will have a son, and you shall name him Emmanuel, a name that means God with us». The middle of the gospel, «Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am with you». And then the end of the gospel, «Go proclaim the gospel. I am with you». So, the beginning, the middle, and the end of the Gospel of Matthew, it’s saying that Jesus is with us. You know what the word «with» means? It means to be close to, alongside of, near to. That’s what we all hunger for.

And in our prayer life, oftentimes it doesn’t feel like it, I understand that. It feels like God is distant, and not near us at all, or close to us, but that’s where you gotta walk by faith and not by sight. Prayer is more than just your feelings, you must trust, just like I’m trusting right now as I proclaim to you this television program. I’m trusting that Jesus is right near me, standing right with me, helping me. And it’s the same in your prayer life. He’s with you, he promised that. Walk by faith and not by sight. Remember, God revealed himself to Moses as gracious, and slow to anger, and merciful, and kind. Remember what Jesus said? «Learn from me, I’m meek and humble of heart. Come to me all you who are laboring and heavy burdened, and I’ll give you rest».

Some of you are just tuning into the program, you haven’t been going to church, you really don’t have a relationship with Jesus. You are being invited to something more. «Come to me,» Jesus said, «All of you who are heavily burdened». And there is burdens of all kinds, «And I will give you rest». You see, he wants relationship, he wants something deep, he wants something very personal. Now, there are all kinds of suffering that people are going through, and the solution to our trials, and our difficulties, and our adversities, this is the solution that the Bible gives us to all the sufferings physically, and all the hardships that we go through. God says I’m with you, close to you, near you. And when God is with us, you know what I’ve decided, or what I’ve discovered? When God is with us, we can do it. We can face the adversities.

I have a friend of mine who found out that she has pancreatic cancer. And she is a person that prays for people that ask for prayer in my ministry. And right now she knows that she’s dying, but she says God is with me and I can face this. I can do this. My life is in God’s hands. Wow, she so inspires me. That’s the ultimate, when you know that you’re going to die. You see, when God is with you, it’s all over but the shouting. Pray directly to Jesus. He’s close to you. He is the name above all names. «At the name of Jesus, every knee will bend and every tongue proclaim to the glory of God that Jesus Christ is Lord». He’s the name above all names. The only name in which we can be saved. We pray in Jesus’s name.

Come to Jesus just as you are. It says in the Scriptures that God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, he has adopted us as his children, and the spirit cries out, as I’ve said before, Abba, Daddy, Father, because this isn’t just something we’re drumming up, it’s the spirit moving from our heart, crying out in that Arabic word, Abba, Daddy. Because it’s true, we’ve been adopted through the death and resurrection of Jesus. We are now God’s children. And the Spirit, let me talk about the Holy Spirit. I have to tell you, my ministry, those of you who know about my ministry, my ministry is devoted to proclaiming who the Holy Spirit is. Because the Holy Spirit has revolutionized my life.

I used to be a fallen-away Catholic. I wasn’t going to church, but when the Spirit came and touched my heart, I had this born-again experience, I had this rebirth. I’m a new creation in Christ, and everything changed for me. All of a sudden, I was able to have a relationship with God that was real, and that’s exactly what I want for you. I want something real. I crave quiet and solitude, times of silence, because that’s when you can commune with the voice of God, the communion of the Holy Spirit. That’s right from 2 Corinthians. The communion, that’s the beginning of Mass, the greeting at Mass, the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you. Do you know what that word «communion» means? It means to have intimacy. It means oneness. It means union. That’s our heritage as Christians, that we have communion.

People talk about, you know, my spouse, when we got married, I found my soulmate. I love that. I think it’s wonderful if you find your soulmate, the person that you can relate to, that understands you, that you can share your deepest, darkest secrets with. This may sound strange, but I’ve found my soulmate, and it’s not a woman. The Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Wow, the Spirit completes me. There’s fruitfulness, realizing your potential, communion with God, knowing that you’re on the way to heaven. That’s what it says in the Scriptures, that the Spirit is the assurance of eternal life, the foretaste of the glory to come. Have you ever experienced the glory? The glory is the pleasure, the ecstasy of God.

And when the Spirit comes, whoo, the glory comes, and then you know that you’re a child of God. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, even now. That’s that witness of the Spirit, the glory, the wonderful. Do you understand that we are invited to relationship, Father, Son, and Spirit? This is why he sends out missionaries. This is why the Great Commission, the Great Commission, of course, is to go to all people, and that’s exactly what I love about television. The genius of television is that we go beyond the walls of the church to all people, people that aren’t coming to Mass, that aren’t going to church on Sundays, and we’re proclaiming the heart of God, the fire of God, the fervor of God. That God wants depth with us, something real with all people, but why? Because he’s the Father of all people and he created all people.

I belong to a religious community. You see my religious habit. I’m a Passionist. We were founded in the 1700s in Italy. This is our 300th anniversary. Founded by a man named St. Paul of the Cross, Paul Danei, subsequently canonized St. Paul of the Cross. And he went around Italy preaching, proclaiming the love of God, proclaiming the cross of Jesus to all people. And he had a saying, «Love is ingenious». In other words, love is creative, love is innovative. And that’s the genius of television, that through the ingenuity of technology, we can now come into your homes with the truth of the gospel, and proclaim this wonderful love of God, and invite you to be lifted up in your prayer life, and to know God in a deep, personal way.

I’m inviting you not just to pray, but to understand that God is your Father, and you can trust him with everything that you are. That Jesus is your best friend and he’s with you. That the Holy Spirit is your soulmate, and completes you, and revolutionizes our life. And that’s why I became a priest, to be able to proclaim this glorious gospel. That’s why missionaries have been sent out through all the ages, and that’s why we know that we know that God is wooing us to a relationship, searching for us, searching for you, searching for me. Pray to your Father. Pray to Jesus. Pray to the Holy Spirit. When you pray to one, you’re praying to all three, and develop that relationship.

I want to leave you with St. Patrick, the great missionary to Ireland. I talked about him a little bit earlier. And he was about to go before the king of Ireland because he wanted to evangelize Ireland. He had to get permission. He could’ve been killed and he needed protection. And he prayed something called the Breastplate of Saint Patrick, and it goes like this. He said, he prayed, «Christ before me, Christ Beneath me, Christ behind me, Christ on my left, Christ on my right, Christ with me, Christ in me». And that’s my prayer for you, that you will realize that Jesus is with you. And because of that, you can know God in a deep, personal way. The Holy Trinity isn’t mystery to be solved, it’s a relationship to be entered into, and may Almighty God bless you, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.