The Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity is not a feast for scholars; rather, it is a celebration for lovers.

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 50^th 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.

At the first Pentecost, Jesus chooses the very ones who abandoned and betrayed Him -- to be the wounded, forgiven healers that are to preach the Good News of God's gracious love and mercy.

I’m a big time Boston Celtics basketball fan.  One of the strengths of the Celtics is that they are a good defensive team.  They pride themselves on their ability to play a solid defense.

I give you the example of the Celtics as to illustrate the posture of the first apostles in the time before the Pentecost event.  They were huddled in the upper room behind locked doors out of fear.   They were clearly in a defensive posture, but unlike the Celtics, this was not a good place to be.   They were in a place of fear.

Defensive Christianity is not a biblical idea.  The posture of Christian disciples is not hiding in fear to protect themselves.  No, the disciples are sent.  To be a follower of Christ after his resurrection is to be sent.  In fact, our word “apostle” means “one who is sent.”

Personally when I worry about parish finances or pastoring in the face of criticism, it’s so easy to be defensive.  The grace all of us seek as Christian disciples is to be sent forth proactively to proclaim the Lord’s hope and joy in our midst.

 Jesus promised to send the Advocate, the Spirit that will guide us to all truth.  Jesus said to his first followers and to us:  “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  “Receive the Breath of God.”  In that moment, the Risen Christ raised those fearful, faithless disciples to newness of life.

This is what Pentecost is: the giving of the Spirit, the giving of new life, from the Father through the Son. The Holy Spirit is what makes it possible for people to go when they are sent. The Spirit is God's active, personal presence that accompanies those who are sent. Jesus says, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Go and forgive sins." That's what being gathered is all about: that the followers may be forgiven and renewed, sent and equipped, in order that all people may be reconciled to God by having their sins forgiven.

What would it like for you to possess the gift of forgiveness – the gift to forgive even those people in your life right now who don’t deserve it, even people who act unlovably?  This is the Gospel the Spirit impels the disciples to preach.  They can preach forgiveness because they have experienced it.

The Spirit-filled gift of forgiveness leads us to possess the gift of welcome – so much so that in our faith community there are no strangers or enemies.  Even more in our world, there are no strangers or enemies.

The Pentecost grace leads us to experience the gift of joy – all of life is a gift of God for which we are to be thankful.  Pope Francis calls to experience to experience the joy of the Gospel and to encounter the Lord and then to be missionary disciples who proclaim the joy of God’s love to one and all.

Now it may seem that the gifts of forgiveness, welcome, and joy seem too good to be true.   For all of us have been a little battle-scarred by the realities and fears of life.  Yet, we seek to experience Pentecost as the feast of locked doors.  Where are the locked doors in our lives?  Where do I find myself isolated in fear, living behind emotionally doors, and hanging on to anger and refusing to come out of hiding?

What are the fears, the insecurities, and the anxieties of your life that keep you behind emotional or spiritual locked doors?  Will I be accepted and loved if I step out of my comfort zone?  What keeps me from reaching out in service of a person in need?

With the grace of Pentecost, locked doors are blown open.  At the first Pentecost, Jesus chooses the very ones who abandoned and betrayed him – to be the wounded, forgiven healers that are to preach the Good News of God’s gracious love and mercy.  The strategy of Jesus is that the disciples were forgiven forgivers.

Jesus hasn’t changed his strategy with us.  Who are we as the faith community of Holy Spirit?  We are God’s forgiven sons and daughters.  In the feast of Pentecost, we receive the gift of forgiveness so that we will be sent forth to share the forgiveness and mercy of God with one another and with all.  Pentecost promises that the Holy Spirit can be released in each one of us so that we experience an inner peace of forgiveness and love.

How blest are we to be the Church of the Holy Spirit   -- the Church of the Pentecost event.  We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.  And yes, we are a Pentecostal people.  That is not to give us a cardiac arrest to think we are Pentecostal.  Rather, we are a faith community that is to claim the gifts and the charisms of the Holy Spirit that we were given on the Day of Pentecost.

The great truth of Pentecost – for the first disciples and us as well – is that the Holy Spirit has the power to enlarge and expand the human heart if we allow the Spirit of Jesus within us to grow and enliven us with the power to live, with the power to forgive, with the power to welcome and receive all others in Jesus’ name.  That power, the power of Pentecost becomes our own.

Today’s first Scripture reading tells the story of Pentecost for the first Christian disciples.  They experienced conversion.  Their lives were transformed.  They proclaimed the good news of the love of Jesus.  There was a fire in their bellies that shaped their entire lives.

On this day of Pentecost, as we now come to the Table of the Lord, may we reflect and claim our God-given giftedness.  Allow yourself to be loved by the Spirit of the Risen Christ.  I assure you if we allow ourselves to be loved by the Spirit of Jesus, our lives will be transformed with an inner peace and joy.  Then we will be energized in a Spirit-filled way to commit ourselves to using our God-given giftedness in the service of one another.

Have a Blessed Day.

Jesus tells us to look for Christ in one another and to be Christ for one another.

Today at St Joseph’s,  it is the Seventh Sunday of the Easter Season; it is Mother’s Day; and it is First Communion Sunday.  This is the Day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it.

Mothers, thank you for the love you share with your children, with your family, and with your parish family.  We thank God for our own mothers – living and deceased.  Our moms are most often the first people who have taught us to pray.  May we never forget to pray in the way and the manner that our moms have taught us to pray.

We celebrate First Communion another time at St. Joseph’s.  Thanks be to God.  Our precious First Communicants are a gift to our parish community; and in the sharing of the Eucharist together, we are more closely united to each other in the sharing of the Eucharist.  We ask God’s many blessings to be with our First Communicants this day and every day.

In the Upper Room on the Eve of His Passion, the Lord prayed for his disciples gathered around him in today’s Gospel’s account.  At the same time, he looked ahead to the community of disciples of all centuries.  In his prayer for all disciples of all time, he saw us too, and he prayed for us.  He prayed that we be consecrated in truth.

In today’s Gospel, we are listening to the prayer of Jesus to His heavenly Father. 

This takes place on the Last Supper with Jesus very conscious of His impending death on the cross.  Jesus does not see his death as an ending, but rather his going home to His heavenly Father.

Overhearing Jesus at prayer is our way of understanding the identity of Jesus and our participation in the divine plan.  The mission of Jesus is to become our mission.  What is this mission – to release divine love into the world.

May the prayer of Jesus be our prayer as well.  May we make the Lord’s name known; may we do the work the Lord has given to do; may we witness to the joy that is God’s gift to us; and may we be consecrated in truth.

To consecrate someone means to give that person to God.    We are set apart for God.  It is the journey of turning away from the world and a giving over of ourselves to the living God.   Being given over to God means being missioned to witness to divine love.  We must be available for others, for everyone.

Jesus does not pray that the Father take us out of this world, although he recognized the world can be a dangerous place to be.  Jesus prayed that we be protected from the evil, and that we live with joy, and that we be consecrated in truth.

Jesus tells us to look for Christ in one another and to be Christ for one another.

Have a blessed day.

If we truly :"get" this one statement -- "As the Father loves me, so I also love you." --then we have understood a primary Gospel message.

For some time now in the world of Great Britain, the headlines have been abuzz:  Prince Harry will wed Megan Markle at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle on May 19th.  All the pageantry and pomp and splendor of this great spectacle are certain to be watched by millions.  There will be a horse-drawn, gold-lined carriage, the beauty of Megan’s wedding gown, the historic beauty of the Windsor Castle, and the inspiration of the ancient liturgy.

All of it will be scrutinized in a riveting fashion by people from every walk of life.  Why?  Because it’s a love story.  We can’t get enough of love stories.

There are the cherished love words of the apostle Paul describing both the mystery of human love and divine love:  Love is patient; Love is kind…Love believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things…the greatest of these is love.

Jesus loved love stories too.

The heart of this Sunday Gospel addresses the issue of love head on:  “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.”  If we truly “get” this one statement –“As the Father loves me, so I also love you” – then we have understood a primary Gospel message.

Look back in the Gospels and see for yourself.  All of the great stories Jesus ever told – the prodigal son, the Good Samaritan, the woman caught in adultery, the washing of the feet, the cleansing of the lepers, the curing of the blind and the lame – all of these tell the same single tale:  Each of us is graciously, eternally and infinitely loved.

As a result of this boundless love relationship that Jesus offers to each of us, he makes only one single request – the very same one he gave to his disciples:  “This I command you:  love one another.”

What are the love stories of your life?  In your family life, with the love you share with your spouse, with the love you share with your children and grandchildren, does this not make you more aware of how your life is blessed?  The love you receive in your family life is a precious, precious gift.  Equally the love you give to your family makes you a better person. 

For myself, I have had so many opportunities to experience the love story of my priestly ministry.  Recently, I presided at the funeral liturgy of my brother-in-law Larry Hill – a brother-in-law who was a brother to me.  During this liturgy, I could feel the love of my sister Anne for her husband of so many years;  my heart went to my sister in her grieving.  Their sons, Matthew, Kevin, and Justin, shared beautifully their love for their dad; my brother and sister proclaimed the Scripture readings; grandnephews were the altar servers; and Larry’s granddaughters led us in the intercessions.   As I reflected on this liturgy, I was very much in touch with the love that I experience in our family life.

Going back to the words of Jesus, “As the Father loves, so I also love you.”  How do you experience the love of Jesus in the ordinary moments of your day?   As I walk down the corridor of St Joseph’s School at the beginning of the school day, I am moved by the precious gift of our school children -- their simple enthusiasm and love of life is such a beautiful God moment for me.

I so invite you to be grateful for the God moments that are a regular part of your day  --  the sunshine of the day, a friendly smile from someone you hardly know, or someone expressing gratitude for your help and thoughtfulness.

In today’s Gospel, you are given a sitting at the Last Supper as the Gospel is taken from the conversation Jesus had with the apostles on the night before He died.  I remind you of three actions of Jesus at the Last Supper that reveal the entirety of the Gospel.

           

--the institution of the Eucharist in which bread and wine became the Body and Blood of Christ Himself.  We are a Eucharistic community who give thanks to the Lord our God and are fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord.

            --Jesus washed the feet of his disciples to give us an example that we are to do likewise.  We are to wash the feet of God’s poor and we are to serve one another following the example of Jesus who came to serve and not to be served.

            --Thirdly, Jesus spoke those words to us:  “As the Father loves me, so I love you.”  Plain and simple, we are God’s beloved.  May we know and experience the love of God each and every day.  As God’s beloved sons and daughters, we are told in the commandment given to us  is that we are to share what we have been given.

My prayerful question for you is:  what loving words can you speak to help others understand God's presence?   In talking recently to a dad and his son, dad wanted his son to experience the love of Jesus in the sacrament of the Eucharist.  In his own way, the son was motivating his dad to make the Eucharist more a part of his life as well.  What was so beautiful was that dad and son were speaking words of love to each other.

What words of love can we speak to the needy and the poor in their midst?  Do the poor in our midst hear words of love being spoken to them by the faith community of St Joseph’s?

Will the members of your family hear words of love that you speak today?

Will I speak words of love to the parishioners in need on this day?

As a result of this boundless love relationship that Jesus offers to each of us, he makes only one single request – the very same one he gave to his disciples:  “This I command you:  love one another.”

Have a Blessed Day.