Catholic Caucus: Sunday Mass Readings, 05-26-13, Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

USCCB.org/RNAB ^ | 05-26-13 | Revised New American Bible

[Salvation]

May 26, 2013

 

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

 

Reading 1 Prv 8:22-31

Thus says the wisdom of God:
"The LORD possessed me, the beginning of his ways,
the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago;
from of old I was poured forth,
at the first, before the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no fountains or springs of water;
before the mountains were settled into place,
before the hills, I was brought forth;
while as yet the earth and fields were not made,
nor the first clods of the world.

"When the Lord established the heavens I was there,
when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep;
when he made firm the skies above,
when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth;
when he set for the sea its limit,
so that the waters should not transgress his command;
then was I beside him as his craftsman,
and I was his delight day by day,
playing before him all the while,
playing on the surface of his earth;
and I found delight in the human race."

Responsorial Psalm Ps 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9

R. (2a) O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars which you set in place —
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet:
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!

Reading 2 Rom 5:1-5

Brothers and sisters:
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have gained access by faith
to this grace in which we stand,
and we boast in hope of the glory of God.
Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions,
knowing that affliction produces endurance,
and endurance, proven character,
and proven character, hope,
and hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Gospel Jn 16:12-15

Jesus said to his disciples:
"I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,
he will guide you to all truth.
He will not speak on his own,
but he will speak what he hears,
and will declare to you the things that are coming.
He will glorify me,
because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.
Everything that the Father has is mine;
for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine
and declare it to you."

[Salvation]

Insight Scoop

The Trinity: A Mystery for Eternity

 

A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, May 26, 2013, The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Readings:
• Prov 8:22-31
• Ps 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
• Rom 5:1-5
• Jn 16:12-15

The apologist and novelist Dorothy Sayers dryly noted, in an essay titled “The Dogma is the Drama,” that for many people, even some Christians, the doctrine of the Trinity is, “The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the whole thing incomprehensible.” There are likely a few Catholics who would candidly admit, “Well, the Church teaches that the Trinity is a mystery—and it’s certainly a mystery to me!”

In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life” (CCC 234). It goes on to explain that this great mystery is the most fundamental, essential teaching in the “hierarchy of the truths of faith” and that it is a mystery of faith “in the strict sense”—it cannot be known except it has been revealed by God (CCC 237). A theological mystery such as the Trinity is a truth about God known only through divine revelation, not by reason or philosophy. It is like a well with no bottom from which we can drink endlessly, our minds and souls never going away thirsty.

Belief in the Trinity—one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is a distinctive mark of the Christian Faith. The first few centuries of the Church were filled with controversies and careful definitions regarding the one nature of God, the three Persons of the Trinity, and their relationship with each other. Yet the dogma of the Trinity cannot be proven in the usual sense of “proven” and “proof.” But this does not mean that the dogma of the Trinity is contrary to reason or that reason cannot be applied to understanding it to some degree (cf. CCC 154); it means that the Triune reality of God is ultimately beyond human reasoning. As St. Augustine remarked, “If you understood Him, it would not be God” (CCC 230).

Today’s readings do not use the term “Trinity,” of course, because it doesn’t appear in Scripture. But they are some of the many texts the Church has looked to as either foreshadowing the reality of the Trinity or giving explicit witness to it.  The reading from Proverbs is one of several Old Testament passages that describe the wisdom of God, which is often referred to as a sort of personal being or reality. Some of this language is taken up in the New Testament to refer to the Son, including St. Paul’s description of Christ as “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:24). Or, similarly, in a passage that bears a strong resemblance to today’s reading from Proverbs, the “one Lord, Jesus Christ” is described as the one “through whom all things are and through whom we exist” (1 Cor 8:6).

While the Old Testament contains hints and suggestions, the mystery of the Trinity was revealed with the Incarnation—first at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River, and then in His teachings. Jesus spoke of the intimate communion between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, including in today’s reading from the Gospel of John. “Everything that the Father has is mine,” Jesus tells the Apostles, “for this reason I told you that he”—the Holy Spirit—“will taken from what is mine and declare it to you.” The Father sends forth the Son so that, as St. Paul wrote to the Romans, we might have peace with God, while the Holy Spirit pours out God’s love, all so we might be justified and made right with God.

In his great work The Trinity, St. Augustine summed up the heart of the Church’s belief in the mystery of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by simply stating, “If you see charity, you see the Trinity.” God is One and three Persons; He offers His divine life and love to those who believe in Him (CCC 257). The Trinity is not just a mystery to us, but also for us.

(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the June 3, 2007, issue of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)

[Salvation]

Insight Scoop

"The Trinity: Three Persons in One Nature" by Frank Sheed

 

The Trinity: Three Persons in One Nature | Frank Sheed | From Theology and Sanity | Ignatius Insight 

The notion is unfortunately widespread that the mystery of the Blessed Trinity is a mystery of mathematics, that is to say, of how one can equal three. The plain Christian accepts the doctrine of the Trinity; the "advanced" Christian rejects it; but too often what is being accepted by the one and rejected by the other is that one equals three. The believer argues that God has said it, therefore it must be true; the rejecter argues it cannot be true, therefore God has not said it. A learned non-Catholic divine, being asked if he believed in the Trinity, answered, "I must confess that the arithmetical aspect of the Deity does not greatly interest me"; and if the learned can think that there is some question of arithmetic involved, the ordinary person can hardly be expected to know any better. 

(i) Importance of the doctrine of the Trinity

Consider what happens when a believer in the doctrine is suddenly called upon to explain it — and note that unless he is forced to, he will not talk about it at all: there is no likelihood of his being so much in love with the principal doctrine of his Faith that he will want to tell people about it. Anyhow, here he is: he has been challenged, and must say something. The dialogue runs something like this:

Believer: "Well, you see, there are three persons in one nature."
Questioner: "Tell me more."
Believer: "Well, there is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit."
Questioner: "Ah, I see, three gods."
Believer (shocked): "Oh, no! Only one God."
Questioner: "But you said three: you called the Father God, which is one; and you called the Son God, which makes two; and you called the Holy Spirit God, which makes three."

Here the dialogue form breaks down. From the believer's mouth there emerges what can only be called a soup of words, sentences that begin and do not end, words that change into something else halfway. This goes on for a longer or shorter time. But finally there comes something like: "Thus, you see, three is one and one is three." The questioner not unnaturally retorts that three is not one nor one three. Then comes the believer's great moment. With his eyes fairly gleaming he cries: "Ah, that is the mystery. You have to have faith."

Now it is true that the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity is a mystery, and that we can know it only by faith. But what we have just been hearing is not the mystery of the Trinity; it is not the mystery of anything, it is wretched nonsense. It may be heroic faith to believe it, like the man who

Wished there were four of 'em
That he might believe more of 'em

or it may be total intellectual unconcern - God has revealed certain things about Himself, we accept the fact that He has done so, but find in ourselves no particular inclination to follow it up. God has told us that He is three persons in one Divine nature, and we say "Quite so", and proceed to think of other matters - last week's Retreat or next week's Confession or Lent or Lourdes or the Church's social teaching or foreign missions. All these are vital things, but compared with God Himself, they are as nothing: and the Trinity is God Himself. These other things must be thought about, but to think about them exclusively and about the Trinity not at all is plain folly. And not only folly, but a kind of insensitiveness, almost a callousness, to the love of God. For the doctrine of the Trinity is the inner, the innermost, life of God, His profoundest secret. He did not have to reveal it to us. We could have been saved without knowing that ultimate truth. In the strictest sense it is His business, not ours. He revealed it to us because He loves men and so wants not only to be served by them but truly known. The revelation of the Trinity was in one sense an even more certain proof than Calvary that God loves mankind. To accept it politely and think no more of it is an insensitiveness beyond comprehension in those who quite certainly love God: as many certainly do who could give no better statement of the doctrine than the believer in the dialogue we have just been considering.

Continue reading ""The Trinity: Three Persons in One Nature" by Frank Sheed" »

[Salvation]

Insight Scoop

"The Trinity and the Nature of Love" by Fr. Christopher Rengers

The Trinity and the Nature of Love | Fr. Christopher Rengers | From the November 2007 issue of Homiletic & Pastoral Review 

It is only through revelation that we have come to know that God is one and three. To understand the doctrine completely is beyond human ability. But to explore the Holy Trinity by appealing to reason and human experience is very worthwhile.

In fact, the Trinity, as the struggles of the first centuries of Christianity show, must be discussed in order to define who Jesus is and why Mary may be called Mother of God. Our most common Christian gesture and the words that go with it in the Sign of the Cross turn our thoughts to the Trinity. This simple practice presents us with contrasting mysteries, bringing together suffering, mortal human nature and unchangeable, eternal divine nature. The tracing of the cross points to painful death while the words point to the source of all life, the Holy Trinity.

Prayerful contemplation, discussion and exploration have a continuing purpose. The fullness of all life, creativity and power that is in the Trinity provides ever-expanding horizons for contemplation, thought and incorporation in helpful, practical ways into human life. Two "explorers" almost a millennium apart offer viewpoints of unique interest. They are the little-known Richard of St. Victor and our present Holy Father, Benedict XVI. The latter's work An Introduction to Christianity [1] appeared originally in German in 1968, and is not magisterial teaching. It is rather the product of a profound philosopher and theologian. It delves into the ultimate nature of reality in the Trinity and the ultimate meaning of person.

The chapter "Belief in the Triune God" makes a helpful comparison between the nature of matter as now conceived in physics and the nature of substance and relation in the Trinity. The phrase quoted to explain the structure of matter as "parcels of waves" brings the comparison into focus.

Continue reading ""The Trinity and the Nature of Love" by Fr. Christopher Rengers" »

[Salvation]

Insight Scoop

"The Creed and the Trinity" by Henri de Lubac, SJ

 

The Creed and the Trinity | Foreword to The Christian Faith: An Essay on the Structure Of the Apostles' Creed | Henri de Lubac 

This book does not pretend to impart any information to the learned historians of the creeds, save that, for better or worse, the author has often made use of their works. Nor does it deal in depth with any of the current theological problems, although it does not avoid alluding to them in passing. Nor should one seek in this book a systematic study of trinitarian doctrine or Christology. Its purpose is not even, at least not directly, pastoral. Rather, we have tried to make it a sort of introduction to catechesis, addressed to all those who, either in preparing candidates for baptism or in teaching children or in day-by-day preaching to the Christian people, are entrusted with this most beautiful of all roles: handing on the faith received from the Apostles, always and infinitely fruitful even as it was when they themselves received it from Jesus Christ.

Like everyone else, the believer is able to observe the changes, slow or sudden depending on the times, in people's mentalities and interests, the variations that occur in language. Without becoming enslaved to theories (themselves subject to so many vicissitudes) that seek to account for these changes, he does not necessarily remain insensitive to the repercussions of this historical development of culture or cultures upon theological work and even, on occasion, upon the very expression of his faith. If he himself is not conscious of it, the Magisterium guides him to make him understand that in certain circumstances renewal is necessary and that one would be condemned to wither and die if one did not ever consent to adapt or change anything. But at the same time he sees with great clarity that the treasure he has received as his inheritance is not the fruit of a perishable culture. The Christian tradition, that living force in which he shares, is rooted in the eternal. If he strives to be faithful, the newness that rejuvenates his heart is not exposed to the erosion of time. Consequently he is not in the least tempted to a certain kind of forced advance in which a number of those around him are indulging. He can only see in that, as Pascal would say, a confusion of orders. He knows in advance: in the letter of the Creed which he recites with his brothers, following so many others, there is infinitely more depth in reserve and timeliness in potential than in all the explanations and critical reductions that would affect to "go beyond" it. He knows this in advance, and experience and reflection reveal it to him a little more each day.

Above all, this Creed teaches us the mystery of the divine Trinity. It is in this mystery that our faith consists. It is for us both light and life. Nevertheless, it is very necessary for us to recognize that this is not always easy to understand and is not readily apparent to everyone. For a number of Christians, and not just those who retain only a vague, conventionalized version of their faith, this seems to be a sealed mystery. Is it proper to blame those who have the task of instructing us? It would be more just to take this blame upon ourselves. We do not always know how to embrace the most pregnant truth, which must slowly produce its fruit within us. Impatient as we are, we would like to understand immediately, or rather, in our shortsighted pragmatism, if we are not shown practical applications for it right away, we declare it to be abstract, unassimilable, "unrealistic", an "empty shell", a hollow theory with which there would be no point in burdening ourselves.

This is what Faustus Socinus and his disciples thought, as witnessed by their Catechism of Racow (1605): "The dogma of the Trinity is contrary to reason. It is absurd to think that by the will of God, who is reason and who loves his creatures, men must believe something incomprehensible and useless to moral life and therefore to salvation." This was also the opinion of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, agreeing in this respect with all the Christians of his century seduced by the "lights": the Trinity, in the judgment of the Savoyard Vicar, was a part of those things that "lead to nothing useful or practical". Now we must really be convinced that, when we allow ourselves to indulge in such thoughts, it is we who are thus living superficially, outside of ourselves. The Christian who does not trust the fruitfulness of revealed truth, who consents to interest himself in it only to the degree to which he perceives the benefit in advance, who does not consent to let himself be grasped and modeled by it, such a Christian does not realize of what light and power he has deprived himself. [1] He does not see that in consenting to hear--if it may be called that--only the voices that promise him a response to his immediate questions, he is himself renouncing the opportunity to grow in self-understanding and depth while shutting himself up within the limits of his own narrow experience. Sometimes he even reaches the point of imagining he can no longer find any meaning in a hackneyed, "out-of-date" concept, when in fact he is dealing with a mystery he has not yet glimpsed.

Continue reading ""The Creed and the Trinity" by Henri de Lubac, SJ" »

[Salvation]

Regnum Christi

How to Grow in My Faith

| SPIRITUAL LIFE | SPIRITUALITY

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Father Edward Hopkins, LC

 

John 16: 12-15

“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”

Introductory Prayer:Lord Jesus, I believe in you. I believe you have called me to the faith and to share that faith. I trust that you will fill me with your spirit of courage and truth so that I might faithfully assimilate and transmit the faith. I love you. I want to love you more with my prayer and with my life, and so grow in the unity of the love you share with your Father and the Holy Spirit.

Petition:Reveal yourself to me, Lord.

1. Knowledge of the Truth: The Blessed Trinity is a mystery that far surpasses our comprehension. Yet it also reveals the most basic process of faith, of Christian maturity. When we receive faith, it is like a seed that needs development: “You cannot bear it now.” The Holy Spirit guides us to a fuller understanding so that our faith can show itself in our lives. We come to a better understanding of God, ourselves, our lives and others, especially in a world that tends to distort them. We must be convinced that we need to grow, to deepen our faith, and to widen it to encompass all the dimensions of our lives. To stop learning about our faith (that which we believe) and to stop growing in our faith (that by which we believe) is to thwart the Holy Spirit’s plans over our lives. He has more to tell us! Do I believe it and seek it? How?

2. Accepting and Living the Truth: Jesus here identifies the truths of faith – as well as what the Father “has” – as “his”. So the faith is something personal to be possessed. It must be made our own! Faith is not made our own by reducing it to mere sentiment or subjective conviction. It is the same for everyone. We must adjust to it, not adjust it to ourselves. It is personal but not therefore different for each, like choices on a cafeteria menu. As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI clarified in the homily before his election: “An ‘adult’ faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ” (Homily, April 18, 2005). Do I fully possess my faith? Or do I feel it forced upon me, as though something foreign? Is my faith heartfelt as well as accepted by my intellect? Do I make it my own by accepting it, embracing it, loving it, growing in it, exercising it, defending it, sharing it?

3. Evangelization: The unity of the Trinity is not static, but a living dynamism. They live and act in unity. “He will take from what is mine.…” This has two implications. The mission of the Holy Spirit is precisely to remind us of what Jesus taught (Cf. Jn.14:26). He is faithful to his mission by teaching Christ. For us, too, possessing the faith leads to sharing it. What is alive tends to grow. "Those who have come into genuine contact with Christ cannot keep him for themselves, they must proclaim him. This proclamation must not be imposed but proposed ‘with confidence…’" (Pope John Paul II, Address of June 5, 2001). We must proclaim the one truth we have received. “He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears.”  Our love for Christ can be measured by how faithful we are in transmitting his message without alteration. How great is my love for him?

Conversation with Christ: Dear Jesus, send me your Holy Spirit so that I might better know and love you. Grant me a hunger to know you better, to experience you more deeply. May my knowledge of you set my heart on fire so that I cannot keep you to myself. Aid me in faithfully communicating you and your message of love.

Resolution:I will (re-)commit myself to a regular study of my faith using the Catechism or the Compendium to the Catechism.

[Salvation]

Three Persons in One God: More Than Just Doctrine

by Michael Baruzzini on May 24, 2013 ·

“Let us make man in our image,” God says in the book of Genesis (1:26), using a curious plural that seems out of place in the scriptures of a monotheistic faith. Indeed every other reference in the early Creation story speaks of God in the singular except this instance. Catholic exegesis has long seen in this grammatical peculiarity an early hint of the doctrine of the Trinity. Though fully revealed only with Christ’s coming, God began uncovering the mysterious nature of his own existence early in his revelation to man. The doctrine of the Trinity is unique to Christianity and serves to set our theology apart, but there’s more to this doctrine than a simple theological assertion to be accepted and then left alone. The Trinity matters.

The Church teaches de fide that the existence of God is knowable by natural human reason. The idea of God developed by Western Greek philosophers on the basis of reason before the advent of Christianity congrues remarkably with aspects of God as found in revelation, such as His omnipotence and omniscience, His unchangeability, his nature as an ultimately simple and absolute Being which is in fact Being Itself.

This philosophy is sound and edifying, yet alone this rational vision of God can be somewhat cold and distant. Greek philosophers, on first hearing the message of Christianity, were scandalized not only by Christ’s ignominious death, but by the very suggestion that such a transcendent God could care for man. Christ’s sacrificial death on the Cross is “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” writes Paul, having in mind the (not unrespectable) wisdom of the Greek philosophers (1 Corinthians 1:23). For Christians, it is precisely the revelation of the Trinity that sheds light on the way in which the detached and abstract God we know by reason can also be the dynamic, sacrificing Christian God of love. If God really is a Trinity of love and relationship, his creation of man and desire for a relationship with him becomes more plausible than it would seem solely under the cold calculation of the philosophical picture.

Returning to Genesis, we see that this first hint of the Trinity is made precisely at the moment when God creates man, as the scripture says, in his own image. This clue is very important, because it reveals that God’s Trinitarian nature tells us not only about him, but also about ourselves as well. If God’s existence as a Trinity means that his own nature is in some mysterious sense relational, and we are made in that same image, then relationality is an intrinsic part of our own existence as well.

The first and most fundamental relational aspect of human nature is of course in our own relationship to God. Augustine’s famous cry, “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You,” captures this fact of our nature: we are incomplete without him. We cannot exist as radically independent beings, we can only really be by having a relationship with our Creator.

This relational aspect also extends beyond the individual relationship to God. In Aristotle’s famous classification, “man is a political animal.” Aristotle meant not that man enjoys parliaments and voting, but that he naturally organizes himself into structured societies with others. The first of all these societies is the family; of all relationships, this one is inescapable. Everyone is born of a mother and father. It should not be a surprise then that nowhere else do we find the Trinity more closely imaged in human nature than in the natural institution of the family.  As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. In the procreation and education of children it reflects the Father’s work of creation” (CCC 2205).

The traditional commentary – we cannot go so far as to say explanation – on the Trinity focuses on God the Father’s self-knowledge being itself a Person, the Son, and on the love between them producing another Person, the Spirit. The language is vague and mysterious, as the nature is finally beyond us. Yet we see the same theme echoed in Adam’s first sight of Eve, recognizing in her “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”, capturing a certain loving intimacy and familiarity in the spousal relationship. From this intimacy, of course, comes new life. In the Creed we recite every Sunday, we profess our belief that the Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son” and just so does new life proceed from the union of spouses in a family. Around this fundamental and central social relationship of the family, all of the other structures of a society are formed. The nature of God himself is echoed in our human relationships.

Trinity Sunday, the Church’s yearly liturgical recognition of this unique doctrine, falls on May 26^th this year. As we celebrate this day, let us remember that our belief in the Trinity is more than a dry and esoteric doctrine. As Genesis reminds us, echoes of the Trinity are part of our own nature as images of God.

[Salvation]

Is the Trinity Relevant?

by Marcellino D'Ambrosio, Ph.D. on May 24, 2013 ·

Many are ready to give a polite nod of some sort to Jesus of Nazareth.  Most honor him as a great moral teacher.  Many even confess him as Savior.  But the Incarnation of the Eternal God?  Second person of the Holy Trinity?  God can’t be one and three at the same time.  Such a notion is at worst illogical, at best meaningless.  “This was all invented by the Roman Emperor Constantine in 313 AD,” scoff a motley crew ranging from the Jehovah’s Witnesses to the DaVinci Code.

Of course this charge has no historical leg to stand on.  St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote seven brief letters around 110AD in which he called Jesus “God” 16 times.

True, the word “Trinity” is not in the bible.  But everywhere the New Testament refers to three distinct persons who seem to be equally divine, yet one (see 2 Cor 13:13).  So over 100 years before Constantine, a Christian writer named Tertullian coined the term “Trinity” as a handy way to refer to this reality of three distinct, equal persons in one God.  It stuck.

But if the doctrine of the Trinity is authentically biblical, is it relevant?  Does it really matter?

If Christianity were simply a religion of keeping the law, the inner life of the lawgiver would not matter.  But if Christianity is about personal relationship with God, then who God really is matters totally.  Common sense tells us that some supreme being made the universe and that we owe Him homage.  But that this creator is a trinity of persons who invites us to intimate friendship with Himself, we never could have guessed.  We only know it because God has revealed it.

God is love, says 1 John 4:8 (see too John 3:16).  If God were solitary, how could he have been love before he created the world?  Who would there have been to love?  Jesus reveals a God who is eternally a community of three persons pouring themselves out in love for one another.  The Father does not create the Son and then, with the Son, create the Spirit.  No, the Father eternally generates the Son.  And with and through the Son, this Father eternally “breathes” the Spirit as a sort of personalized sigh of love.  “As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be.”  That’s what the conclusion of the Glory Be really means, that the self-giving of the three divine persons did not begin at a moment in time, but was, is, and is to come.

If we are truly to “know” our God, we must know this.

But if we are ever to understand ourselves, we must also know this.  For we were made in the image and likeness of God, and God is a community of self-donating love.  That means that we can never be happy isolated from others, protecting ourselves from others, holding ourselves back selfishly from others.  Unless we give ourselves in love, we can never be fully human.  And unless we participate in the life of God’s people, we can never be truly Christian either.  Because Christianity is about building up the community of divine love which is called the Church.  If God is Trinity, then there really is no place for free-lance, lone-ranger Christians.

[Salvation]

Imitating the Trinity

by Fr. Jerome Magat on May 24, 2013 ·

Catholics take for granted the notion of speaking of God as a Trinity. From our earliest days of training in the Faith, we are taught to make the Sign of the Cross — the most basic prayer any Catholic learns at home. The Apostles’ Creed places the concept of the Trinity as the most fundamental mystery of our faith. We are programmed to think of God as three persons in one God, all sharing the same substance and the same nature.

If you were to present this idea to a Jew, it would be roundly rejected. For the Jews, our forefathers in faith, this basic understanding of God as Trinity that we take for granted, was outside their lexicon of thought. Given this context, one can easily comprehend why Jesus’ claim to be God’s Son was considered blasphemy and to address God as “Abba” or “Father” suggested an intimacy with a God that was often understood by the Jews to be quite distant and so foreign to human existence. The revelation of God as Father and Jesus as the Son and the Holy Spirit as the third person in the Trinity was a complete departure from the Jewish understanding of God’s nature.

As foreign as this idea may be to the Jews, it is precisely what draws us into the mystery of the Trinity. The Trinity reveals to us the master plan of how we are to live and love one another: each person pouring themselves out for the other as gift. As we are created in the image and likeness of God, the Trinitarian model invites us to examine how we relate to one another — if we are in fact living in imitation of the Trinity’s inner life — a community of persons.

This is particularly important to recall in an age where society glorifies individualism and a preference for human activity that is insular and avoids person-to-person contact. Imagine that in many parts of the United States, one could accomplish most Saturday-morning errands without ever speaking to another human person. A visit to the bank ATM; the self-checkout line at the grocery store and the pay-at-the-pump gas station alienates us from human contact. The proliferation of iPods and gaming devices allows us to escape from authentic human interaction. We often observe many teens listening to music on earphones while riding in a car with their parents, rather than develop conversational skills and foster family communication. Children watch DVD’s in cars rather than learn to interact with their parents, and teens text each other from across a room rather than speak to each other in normal conversation. In business, we often find ourselves preferring to write e-mails or leave voicemails rather than speak directly with another person. While none of these technological advances are inherently evil, of course, they do tend to dehumanize us by providing us with reasons not to interact with one another. And yet, we are called to reflect how God interacts within Himself. In other words, we were made for one another and we need each other. When modern man becomes alienated from his fellow man, basic forms of etiquette, politeness and manners are devalued. Simple etiquette and manners are a form of charity toward one’s neighbor. Charity is the essence of the Trinity. Thus, the Trinitarian model of existence invites us to consider another way of relating to one another.

As we meditate upon this fundamental mystery of our faith, we do well to ask our gracious God to help us live in a manner that best reflects our vocation to live in communion with one another, never forgetting that in doing so we also strive to live in the image and likeness of our Trinitarian God.

 

[Salvation]

One Bread, One Body

One Bread, One Body

 

<< Sunday, May 26, 2013 >>

Trinity Sunday

Proverbs 8:22-31
Romans 5:1-5
View Readings

Psalm 8:4-9
John 16:12-15

ONE IN THREE, YOU IN THREE

 

"The Lord begot me, the first-born of His ways." —Proverbs 8:22

 

In love, God the Father has begotten, is begetting, and will be begetting Jesus always, beyond time, eternally. Jesus is the uniquely begotten, beloved Son of God. This eternal love of the Father and the Son is so real that it is the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Blessed Trinity.

The Trinity is so important to us because we are in the Trinity and the Trinity is in us (see Jn 17:23; 1 Cor 6:19). We are not gods, but we are in God and He is in us (see 1 Jn 4:16). We are sharers in the divine nature (2 Pt 1:4). In the Trinity, "we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). The Trinity is more practically important to us than air.

How can we live the Trinitarian life? How can we become the very holiness of the Holy Trinity (2 Cor 5:21) and be one as the Trinity is one? (see Jn 17:21) The Holy Spirit will guide us into Trinitarian life (see Jn 16:13), for "no one knows what lies at the depths of God but the Spirit of God" (1 Cor 2:11). "The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us" (Rm 5:5). In this Year of Faith, we pray: "Come, Holy Spirit," so that we can give glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit!

 

Prayer: Father, may I live in Your love (Jn 15:10); Jesus, may I receive Your grace; Holy Spirit, may I be in Your fellowship (see 2 Cor 13:13).

Promise: "I was His delight day by day, playing before Him all the while, playing on the surface of His earth." —Prv 8:30-31

Praise: "Praise the Holy Trinity, undivided Unity, holy God, mighty God, God immortal, be adored!"

[Salvation]

Pray for an end to abortion and the conversion of America to a culture of life.

[Salvation]

I finally got a copy of my ping list back to my old computer.

Alleluia Ping!

 

If you aren’t on this ping list NOW and would like to be, 

please Freepmail me.

[Salvation]

http://resources.sainteds.com/showmedia.asp?media=../sermons/homily/2013-05-26-Homily%20Fr%20Gary.mp3&ExtraInfo=0&BaseDir=../sermons/homily

[Salvation]

Trials on the Road of Life

Pastor’s Column

The Most Holy Trinity

May 26, 2013

 

          Last week I had the good fortune to be on a priests’ retreat out in the Mojave Desert, but in order to get there I had to fly into Los Angeles International Airport.  And there before me was the “busiest freeway in America,” a freeway with eight lanes of traffic in each direction, and going nowhere fast.  Even though it was 9 o’clock at night (and the retreat started the next day), traffic was stopped in both directions for as far as the eye could see.

          Where were all these people going so late on a Sunday night?  And where are we going? We’re all on the highway of life, surrounded by cars on their own journey, yet we share the road together – believers and unbelievers – good drivers and bad drivers – the selfless and the selfish, all in this together.  And we all have one common destination in the end – death.  We all have someplace to go, but we don’t know at what point the freeway will be closed and we will be forced to take the off ramp.

          Sometimes we get stopped in traffic, so to speak, stopped by illnesses or difficulties; or perhaps we are lost and don’t know where to go.  These kinds of trials and tribulations can bring much meaning to our lives.  When we’re forced to slow down by sickness, this gives us an opportunity to reflect on where our life is going.  At other times we are able to travel the road of life going at a very high speed, but perhaps going in the wrong direction!

          St. Paul was someone who knew about a road trip, because he took so many of them in the New Testament.  He points out that not only are our afflictions not always something “bad for us”; but, in fact, he rejoices in his afflictions!  He even boasts of his afflictions! Why? Because our suffering can produce endurance and endurance shapes our character, and a proven character gives us hope, and hope leads us to eternal life (Romans 5:1-5).

          This is certainly true when we think of any committed relationship such as marriage. Love is not proved by the good times we have with someone, so much as by the tough times.  It’s when we have been there for somebody when it isn’t easy that we know we love them.  This is what builds our character and solidifies our relationships with each other.  In the same way, what we’ve gone through in our lives is something that we also share with the Lord who suffered very much in his short life.  The whole point of our trials is that we will grow.  A great saint once begged God to take a cross away from someone that they were praying for and the Lord said to her, “I cannot take their suffering away from them until they learn what they need to learn from it.  Only then will I remove that cross.”  What is God expecting us to learn from our sufferings?  Perhaps endurance – character building – hope – eternal life.

 

                                                   Father Gary