This past
week from Tuesday to Thursday, my St.
Bernard’s Seminary classmates from several dioceses – Syracuse,
Hartford, Ct., Rockville Center, Providence, RI, Jacksonville, FL, along with
my classmates from Rochester—got together for our 50th year reunion. It was a joy re-connecting with some
classmates whom I have not seen for many, many years. What did we share and talk about? The conversation did not revolve around the
theology of the priesthood. We did not
focus on the important truths of our Catholic Catechism. Rather, we talked about the people who have
touched us and whom we have touched -- the joys and the challenges of sharing
our lives with so many people. Our
priestly ministry has been a love story of the many people we have shared the
merciful love of Jesus with. Priestly
ministry is about relationships – our relationships with God and with one
another.
I use our
conversations at our 50th year reunion as a way of introducing this Feast of
the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. Embedded
within us is a Trinitarian Spirituality.
We believe in God the Father who is our creator and life-giver. All is a gift of God. We believe that God sent his only begotten
Son, Christ Jesus, into the world to reveal God’s love for us and to be our
Savior and Lord. We believe in God the
Holy Spirit who, on the great feast of Pentecost which we celebrated last
Sunday, was sent to us as the Breath and the Spirit of God who will be with us
all days until the end of time. We are
the recipients of the gifts of the Spirit that are to be used and shared in the
service of one another and the building up of our faith community.
There have
been many books written on the dogma, the doctrine of the Trinity – of three
persons in one God. Yet, just as our 50th
year reunion did not focus on doctrine and dogma; rather it was all about the
relationships that have been so life-giving for all of us. So too, a summary of the great mystery of the
Trinity is that God is love. God is
revealed as a communion of persons. The
love that is within the union of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is shared
with us. As the Gospel proclaims: “God so loved the world that He gave us His
only Son so that everyone
who believes in Him may not be lost, but may have eternal life.”
Our
participation in the life of God is seen in the liturgical greeting that the
priest gives immediately following the sign of the cross in every Mass. “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.”
This feast
day of the Blessed Trinity is not a feast for scholars; it is a celebration for
lovers. We celebrate the mystery of the
inner life of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, The inner life of God is communal, is
relational; it is family, In
contemplating the Trinity, we reflect on the family of God. Today is feast of God’s love and mercy. Pope Francis Writes that mercy reveals the
very nature of the Most Holy Trinity.
Moses is the
first person to address us in today’s Liturgy of the Word. We get to eavesdrop on a homily he preached to
inspire his people to strengthen their commitment. If we listen as heirs of his tradition, we
hear him call us to remember our own experience of God. He took his people through their memories of
the Exodus and hearing God’s voice. That
suggests that we too might recall how and when we have been aware of God’s
presence, of God’s love, of God’s grandeur.
He’s recommending that we allow this Day of the Lord to claim some of
our time so that we can remember and appreciate the ways we have come to know
God in our individual and communal lives.
On this
Memorial Day weekend, may we remember those who have given their lives in the
service of our country. We gather in
prayer as a grateful nation and a grateful people. This leads us into the Eucharistic mystery as
we gather to give thanks to the Lord our God.
Today’s
Gospel describes Jesus’ final appearance to the disciples and his commissioning
of them to carry on the work of evangelization.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Go,
therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing time in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that
I have commanded you.” This is a much expanded vision than the earlier mandate
to go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
One of Pope
Francis’s favorite themes is the commission given to us by the Lord himself is
for us to be missionary disciples. This
call demands that we meet people where they are; we accompany people in the
journey of life wherever we find people; and we proclaim to them their
God-given dignity as God’s beloved sons and daughters. As missionary disciples we don’t wait for
people to come to us, we are commissioned and sent forth to raise people up
wherever they are and help them to claim the love that God has for them.
As we
celebrate and seek to understand the mystery of the Trinity, we try to explain
the meaning of the Trinity in words, but it must be known in the experience of
God that goes beyond words. As we
participate in the divine life of God in the sacraments, we share in the love
of God.
And so, we
begin our liturgy and most often we begin our prayer and we were baptized: “In the name of the Father and of the son and
of the Holy Spirit.” We profess our
faith and trust in the God who is love.
The final
sentence of today’s Gospel are the words of Jesus; “I am with you always, until
the end of the age.” The divine presence
will remain with the disciples perpetually.
As the disciples of the Lord, may we hear those words of Jesus spoken to
us: “I am with you.”
Have a
Blessed Day.
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