June 7, 2020 The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
2020년 6월 7일 삼위일체 대축일
오늘의 복음 : http://info.catholic.or.kr/missa/default.asp
제1독서
탈출기. 34,4ㄱㄷ-6.8-9
무렵 4 모세는 주님께서 그에게 명령하신 대로 아침 일찍 일어나
돌판 두 개를 손에 들고 시나이 산으로 올라갔다.
5 그때 주님께서 구름에 싸여 내려오셔서 모세와 함께 그곳에 서시어,
‘야훼’라는 이름을 선포하셨다.
6 주님께서는 모세 앞을 지나가며 선포하셨다.
“주님은, 주님은 자비하고 너그러운 하느님이다.
분노에 더디고 자애와 진실이 충만하다.”
8 모세는 얼른 땅에 무릎을 꿇어 경배하며 9 아뢰었다.
“주님, 제가 정녕 당신 눈에 든다면,
주님께서 저희와 함께 가 주시기를 바랍니다.
이 백성이 목이 뻣뻣하기는 하지만,
저희 죄악과 저희 잘못을 용서하시고,
저희를 당신 소유로 삼아 주시기를 바랍니다.”
제2독서
코린토 2서. 13,11-13
11 형제 여러분, 기뻐하십시오.
자신을 바로잡으십시오. 서로 격려하십시오.
서로 뜻을 같이하고 평화롭게 사십시오.
그러면 사랑과 평화의 하느님께서 여러분과 함께 계실 것입니다.
12 거룩한 입맞춤으로 서로 인사하십시오.
모든 성도가 여러분에게 안부를 전합니다.
13 주 예수 그리스도의 은총과 하느님의 사랑과 성령의 친교가
여러분 모두와 함께하기를 빕니다.
복음
요한. 3,16-18
16 하느님께서는 세상을 너무나 사랑하신 나머지 외아들을 내주시어,
그를 믿는 사람은 누구나 멸망하지 않고 영원한 생명을 얻게 하셨다.
17 하느님께서 아들을 세상에 보내신 것은,
세상을 심판하시려는 것이 아니라
세상이 아들을 통하여 구원을 받게 하시려는 것이다.
18 아들을 믿는 사람은 심판을 받지 않는다.
그러나 믿지 않는 자는 이미 심판을 받았다.
하느님의 외아들의 이름을 믿지 않았기 때문이다.
June 7, 2020
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
Daily Mass : http://www.catholictv.com/shows/daily-mass
Reading 1
Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9
Early in the morning Moses went up Mount Sinai
as the LORD had commanded him,
taking along the two stone tablets.
Having come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with Moses there
and proclaimed his name, "LORD."
Thus the LORD passed before him and cried out,
"The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God,
slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity."
Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship.
Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord,
do come along in our company.
This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins,
and receive us as your own."
Responsorial Psalm
R. (52b) Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;
And blessed is your holy and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory,
praiseworthy and glorious above all forever.
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you who look into the depths
from your throne upon the cherubim,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Reading II
Brothers and sisters, rejoice.
Mend your ways, encourage one another,
agree with one another, live in peace,
and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the holy ones greet you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
Gospel
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
http://evangeli.net/gospel/tomorrow
«God so loved the world that He gave his only Son»
Mons. Joan Enric VIVES i Sicília Bishop of Urgell
(Lleida, Spain)
Today, it does us good to hear John's Gospel reminding us again that «God so loved the world...» (Jn 3:16) because in the festivity of the Blessed Trinity, God is worshipped, loved and served, because God is Love. In God we find an association with Love, and whatever He actively does He does it for Love. God loves. He loves us. This great truth is a truth that transforms us, that makes us better. Because it penetrates our discernment and becomes absolutely evident. And it deeply affects our actions honing them into total loving actions which, the purer, the greater and the more perfect.
St. John of the Cross has written: «Where there is no love, put love, and there you will draw out love». And this is true, because this is what God does all the time. He «did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world; instead, through him the world is to be saved» (Jn 3:17) thanks to Jesus' Christ's life and to his love, all the way to his death on the Cross. Today, we contemplate him as the only one that reveals us the authentic love.
We speak so much about love, that perhaps it has lost its freshness. Love is what God feels for us. Love and you will be happy! Because to love is to offer our life for those we love. Love is gratuitous and simple. Love is to deny oneself, awaiting everything from God. Love is to diligently serve those who need us. Love is to lose to recover up to a hundred fold your losses. Love is to live without accounting for what one is doing. Love is what makes us resemble God. Love —and only love— is eternity already amidst us!
Let us live the Eucharist, which is the sacrament of Love, as it gives us God's love made flesh. It makes us share the fire burning in Jesus' heart, forgives us and recasts us anew to let us love with the same kind of Love as Jesus bears us.
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
The Many Sides of Love
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. (John 3: 16)
Moses climbed Mount Sinai to pray. There in a cloud stood the Lord. The Lord assured Moses: I am mercy, kindness, and faithfulness. These were not the names that Moses expected. The scrappy Jewish community had scorned God at many turns. Moses was braced for wrath, threats, and punishment. Instead of a tempest, gentle rain fell on the prostrate man. Moses implored God to stay close as they stumbled through the desert in search of home.
Many proclaim that God is one. But often this oneness transcends the busy scenes of life, our actual hopes and fears. From this cloud no words are spoken. This God dwells beyond earthly dimensions in the unnamable void where our concrete concerns mean nothing.
This blank oneness is not the unity of the Trinity. We do not sing “glory and praise forever” to the abyss. The oneness of God stirs with the motion of love. Love gives birth. He who is begotten is cherished. The spirit dwells in the love of God for God. God swells with the fullness of life, and the world bursts forth. This world is not wretched. It does not deserve constant complaints. God so loves this world that he gave his only Son. Jesus shared this earthly life with us. The world is worthy of praise.
Who condemns the world? Some focus on the afterlife as our only home. Others prize indifference and strive not to care. Some confine the world to material entities moving in space and time. Nothing in this universe is good or bad. Values are projected onto the things that give us pleasure or pain. The apple is good because its sweetness pleases me. No beauty exists until humans create it. We condemn the world when we deny the goodness already there in the chains of DNA, tectonic plates, dark matter, sand hill cranes in flight, babies learning to speak.
The spirit bestows gifts. Jesus shows us the way. From the one exalted above all forever comes power. The sign of the cross names us. Like every creature, we belong to God. Born of love, we are here to give ourselves away.
http://www.presentationministries.com/obob/obob.asp
THE THREE R’S
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all!” —2 Corinthians 13:13
When God revealed to Moses that His name was “Lord” and that He was “a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity” (Ex 34:6), “Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship” (Ex 34:8). Moses immediately knew that when God gives greater revelation of Who He is, this is an event of great significance.
There are 3 R’s in life: revelation, relationship, and responsibility. When the Holy Spirit of Pentecost further reveals to us the depths of God (see 1 Cor 2:11), that God is Trinity, all relationships are dramatically changed. Before the Trinity was revealed, we were God’s people. After the Trinity was further revealed through Jesus’ Paschal mystery, we can become God’s family, even His adopted sons and daughters. Moreover, before the Trinity was revealed, marriage included polygamy, concubines, and divorce. When we began to realize that God is Trinity, Family, and unconditional Love (1 Jn 4:8, 16), monogamy was obviously the essence of marriage, divorce was superseded, and marriage and family became a sacrament of Trinitarian love. Finally, these transformed, Trinitarian relationships are so beautiful and life-giving that we have the responsibility to tell everyone that the revelation of the Trinity can raise every relationship to a new level of love.
We have been baptized into the Trinity, that is, we are immersed in Trinitarian love. Let us live accordingly.
Prayer: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You are our Life, Love, and Family. We are all Yours.
Promise: “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him may not die but may have eternal life.” —Jn 3:16
Praise: “Persevere in God’s love, and welcome the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ which leads to eternal life” (Jude 21).
http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/
incredible gift of love for the world
What does Scripture tell us about God and how he relates to us? When God met with Moses on Mount Sinai and made a covenant with the people of Israel, he revealed the nature of his character and his personal love for them:
"The LORD passed before him, and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy and faithfulness'" (Exodus 34:6).
God is all-loving, faithful, merciful, and forgiving by nature. God's love is supreme because it directs, orders, and shapes everything he does.
Love and judgment
Scripture tells us that God is all just and all loving. How does his love and justice go together? God opposes sin and evil with his just wrath (his righteous anger) and right judgment - and he approaches sinful people and evil doers with mercy ("slow to anger" and "ready to forgive") and discipline ("fatherly correction" and "training in righteousness"). John the Evangelist tells us that the Father sent his Son into the world - not to condemn but to redeem - not to destroy but to heal and restore. Paul the Apostle tells us that "the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23). God does not desire the death of anyone (Ezekiel 18:23,32, Ezekiel 33:11, Wisdom of Solomon 1:13). Instead he gives us the freedom to choose between life and death - good and evil.
When we choose to sin and to go our own way apart from God, we bring condemnation upon ourselves. Sin draws us away from God and leads to a spiritual death - a death that is worse than physical loss of life because it results in a hopeless life of misery and separation from God's peace and joy. Jesus was sent on a rescue mission to free us from slavery to sin and death and to bring us the abundant life which will never end. His death brought us true freedom and abundant new life in his Spirit - as well as pardon, reconciliation and adoption as sons and daughters of God.
Jesus took upon himself all of our sins and nailed them to the cross (Colossians 2:14). His death was an atoning sacrifice for our sins and a perfect offering to the Father on our behalf. We can find no greater proof of God's love for fallen sinful humanity than the cross of Jesus Christ. "To ransom a slave God gave away his Son" (from an early Christian hymn for the Easter vigil liturgy). Jesus' mission was motivated by love and obedience. That is why he willingly laid down his life for us. Jesus told his disciples that there is no greater love than for a person to willingly lay down his or her life for a friend (John 15:13). Jesus loved us first - even while we were captives to sin and Satan - in order to set us free and make us friends and beloved children of God.
Believing in the Son of God
Do you believe that Jesus personally died for you - for you alone - simply because he loved you? Scripture tells us that God knew each one of us even before we were knit in our mother's womb(Psalm 139:13, Jeremiah 1:5). We were created for a purpose - to be united with God and to share in his love and glory now and forever. Augustine of Hippo wrote: "God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love." God's love is complete and perfect because it is wholly directed towards our greatest good - to make us whole and to unite us in a perfect bond of love and peace. That is why God was willing to go to any length necessary to save us from slavery to sin and death.
How does God's love bring healing, pardon, and wholeness to our lives? God's love has power to set each one of us free from every form of bondage to sin - whether it be bondage to fear and guilt, pride and greed, envy and hatred. We can only know the love of God and experience his healing power to the degree that we put our faith in him and surrender our lives to his will. Faith is the key that opens the door to Christ and to his healing power in our lives. But for faith to be effective we must act and do our part. That is why faith requires repentance and obedience - turning away from unbelief and disobedience - and turning to the Lord with a believing heart and listening ear. That is why Jesus said, "whoever believes in me is not condemned" (John 3:18).
To believe that Jesus is the only Son of God who died for our sins is the key that opens the door to his presence and work in our lives. Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20). The Lord Jesus knocks at the door of your heart - will you listen today and open at once?
Triune nature of God
The Lord Jesus has revealed to his disciples the great mystery of our faith - the triune nature of God and the inseparable union of the eternal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus' mission is to reveal the glory of God to us - a Trinity of persons - God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - and to unite us with God in a community of love. The ultimate end, the purpose for which God created us, is the entry of God's creatures into the perfect unity of the blessed Trinity.
The Jews understood God as Creator and Father of all that he made (Deuteronomy 32:6) and they understood the nation of Israel as God's firstborn son (Exodus 4:22). Jesus reveals the Father in an unheard of sense. He is eternally Father by his relationship to his only Son, who, reciprocally, is Son only in relation to his Father (see Matthew 11:27). The Spirit, likewise, is inseparably one with the Father and the Son.
The mission of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit are the same. That is why Jesus tells his disciples that the Spirit will reveal the glory of the Father and the Son and will speak what is true. Before his Passover, Jesus revealed the Holy Spirit as the "Paraclete" and Helper who will be with Jesus' disciples to teach and guide them "into all the truth" (John 14:17,26; 16:13). In baptism we are called to share in the life of the Holy Trinity here on earth in faith and after death in eternal light.
Clement of Alexandria, a third century church father, wrote: "What an astonishing mystery! There is one Father of the universe, one Logos (Word) of the universe, and also one Holy Spirit, everywhere one and the same; there is also one virgin become mother, and I should like to call her 'Church'."
We can know God personally
How can we grow in our understanding and experience of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? It is the Holy Spirit who reveals the Father and the Son to us and who gives us the gift of faith to know and understand the truth of God’s word. Through baptism we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Lord renews the gift of the Spirit in each one of us as we open our hearts with expectant faith and yield to his work in our lives. Jesus promised his disciples that he would send them the Spirit of truth who would be their Teacher and Guide. Ask the Lord Jesus to renew in you the gift of the Holy Spirit who strengthens us in the seven-fold gifts of wisdom and understanding, right judgment and courage, knowledge and reverence, and holy fear in God's presence (Isaiah 11:2-3).
"May the Lord Jesus put his hands on our eyes also, for then we too shall begin to look not at what is seen but at what is not seen. May he open the eyes that are concerned not with the present but with what is yet to come, may he unseal the heart's vision, that we may gaze on God in the Spirit, through the same Lord, Jesus Christ, whose glory and power will endure throughout the unending succession of ages." (prayer of Origin, 185-254 AD)
Psalm 8:4-9
4 What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him little less than the angels, and have crowed him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea.
9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Daily Quote from the early church fathers: The pledge of the Holy Spirit, by Ambrose of Milan, 339-397 A.D.
"Recall then that you have received the spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence, the spirit of holy fear in God's presence. Guard what you have received. God the Father has marked you with His sign; Christ the Lord has confirmed you and has placed His pledge, the Spirit, in your hearts" (excerpt from De Mysteriis 7, 42).
Homily from Father James Gilhooley
Most Holy Trinity
Pentecost - A Cycle - John 20:19-23
A violin made by the 17th century Antonio Stradivari came on the market in London. It was valued at $7 million dollars. Two points made it valuable: firstly it's a Stradivari and secondly in 200 years it had been hardly played. The Holy Spirit is our Stradivari. He has restyled us with His graces at Baptism and Confirmation. But we don't make use of them.
Everyone Mother Teresa told us is a pencil in God's hand. But He gets little writing from most of us. We Westerners should blush at today's Pentecost. Two thousand years ago our ancestors worshipped trees. They attempted to stay warm without fire in damp caves. They hadn't yet invented the wheel. But this was not the case with the sophisticated people of India, the Middle East, and North Africa. They were lining up by the thousands waiting patiently to be baptized with the Holy Spirit by the Apostles & Co.
The Pentecost story comes out of Acts of the Apostles. Its nimble prose is almost a daily history of the early Church. The Acts are a historian's delight. The word Pentecost is borrowed by us from the Jews. So too are other elements in our Liturgy. We owe much to the Jews and their genius. We even borrowed Jesus from them. If Christians are anti-Semites, they are guilty of short memories.
Originally Pentecost was a great Jewish feast. The Jews never took any gift from God for granted. They spent quality time thanking God for the first crops. The holy day was celebrated fifty days after Passover. We celebrate Pentecost fifty days after the Resurrection of Christ. We salute not the appearance of tomatoes in our gardens but rather the arrival of the Holy Spirit on the founding members of Christianity. Today our Christian ancestors were confirmed in the Spirit. The terrible beauty that is the international Church was born. Is there any wonder we shoot off liturgical fireworks at Pentecost?
At the point we discuss, the Jesus followers were leaderless. They were scared. They were short on bodies but not brains. They numbered one hundred forty timid souls - the apostles, Mary, and unnamed individuals. This was hardly a group equipped to take over the world. They clung to each other like fly paper. They were in the large room which had been the scene of the Last Supper.
It was to these frightened souls the Holy Spirit came with His wagon load of gifts. They discovered that Christianity was not designed to be a do it yourself affair. (Daniel Durkin) In charismatic language, they were slain in the Spirit. They began to feel like super strong people. They found themselves ready to take on the cosmos. They heard each other speaking in foreign tongues. These languages would be their passports to evangelize the world.
What happened to them that first Pentecost? Take a glass of clear water. Drop in a few drops of red dye. Ah, red water. A new creation. A few drops of the Holy Spirit into our souls and they became a new creation. A little bit of the Holy Spirit will take us a long way. The Holy Spirit was already the electricity causing the light to burn but remaining invisible. (Regis Armstrong) The bedlam occurring in the Upper Room was heard. Someone dialed 911 and a mob assembled. It was an international crowd. They watched the freshly confirmed apostles rush from the Upper Room. They spoke in various tongues about Jesus. The Church was jumping into the fast lane. The world would never be the same.
Many say, "If the Holy Spirit gave us the same gifts, what a job we'd pull off for Christ! We'd turn our town upside down." The good news is that we received the same cornucopia of gifts at Baptism and Confirmation. These were our personal Pentecosts. The bad news is that we have never thrown the on switch to use these gifts. Most of them sleep. Think of the Holy Spirit as the generous uncle everyone wants. He loads us down with wonderful gifts at our Baptisms and then doubles the ante at Confirmation.
But the gifts become like the Stradivari violin in London. Though increasing in value, they are hardly used. Today is a good day to blow the dust off our spirits and play sweet music. The Spirit will assist us. He is the master of surprises making the impossible possible. He reminds us it does not require great people to do great things - just unselfish ones. (Patricia Opatz) This Pentecost become God's well worn pencil. Leave your signature on the world. Jesus does not need lawyers. He needs witnesses. (Paul VI)
Homily from Father Joseph Pellegrino
Frjoeshomilies.net
Most Holy Trinity
Solemnity of the Holy Trinity: Claimed in the Name of the Trinity
There are two cities relatively close to us here on the West Coast of Florida that have a tremendous historical significance, St. Augustine, Florida and Savannah, Georgia. Each was the place where explorers landed and claimed the land for their King.
On September 8th, 1565, Don Pedro Menendez de Avila landed on the northeast coast of Florida and established the first colony in the new world, St. Augustine. With banners flying and in full regalia, Menendez planted the Spanish flag and claimed the land in the name of Philip II, the King of Spain.
Just a two and a half hour drive north of St. Augustine another colony was established for another king. On February 12, 1733, 168 years after Menendez, General James Oglethorpe landed in Savannah and claimed the land in the name of his king, George II of England. The colony was also named after the king and called Georgia.
Once a land was claimed for a king it was considered part of the Kingdom. Any assault on that colony would be treated as an assault on the Kingdom, not on a remote land.
When we were baptized we were claimed in the name of the Holy Trinity. The priest or deacon poured the water and said, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit." From that point, the Kingdom of God was extended to wherever we might be. We are under the protection of the Kingdom against any assault, particularly the assault of evil.
But why were we baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Why not simply in the name of Jesus Christ? Why were we not baptized simply in the name of God? We were baptized in the name of the Trinity because we were claimed by all that God is, the fullness of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Today's celebration, the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, reminds us that we belong to the fullness of God. The readings each give a glance at one of the Persons of the Trinity. In the first reading from Exodus God came down for a cloud and proclaimed His Name, "Lord." Or perhaps it was the angelic hosts that cried out, "The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity." These are the attributes given to the first person of the Trinity, the Father. The Gospel proclaims that God's love is so great, that He gave his Son to us to save us from the assault of evil. The second reading from Second Corinthians presents Father, Son and Spirit as St. Paul prays that we continue to enjoy the union with the Holy Spirit, the Power of God working through us and uniting us into the Church.
The heart of the mystery is simply that God dwells within us. Sadly, some people continue the concept held by many during revolutionary times that God is removed from us. That is not what God told us. In John 14 Jesus said, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." He is not out there somewhere. He is in here, in the spiritual life that makes a human a child of God. Jesus promised us that He would never leave us alone, and we are not alone. He is with us always, not just outside of us, but within us. The ability to call upon the power of God and the ability to be vehicles of this power forever is the gift of Pentecost, the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Our dignity as sons and daughters of God is far more than a title. We have been claimed by God. We belong to Him. He belongs to us. We have to keep this in mind when others present as normal that where God is not found. We need to ask ourselves, "Is God in the room, in the house, at the party?" If people are enjoying His gifts while still honoring His Presence, then we know He is there. If people are flaunting the basic dictates of morality, then we know He is not there. And we know that it is beneath our dignity as children of God to be there ourselves.
In the sacrament of penance, good people come to a recognition that they have not behaved as well as they should. Sometimes people will have a huge laundry list of serious sins they wish to confess. They will go on and on talking about sexual sin, sins of hatred, sins of disrespecting themselves and others, etc. When they finish, if they have sat across from me, they will often look at me sheepishly expecting a scolding or something. I do not scold people. I simply mention to them, "You are better than that, and you know that. That is why you are here. And I know also that I am better than the many times I have strayed from God." By better I mean that we are sons and daughters of God. We are children of God. We are better than the forces of the world that are trying to destroy us.
St. Augustine was not just a remote colony. It was part of the Spanish Empire. It could claim the King of Spain as its protector. Savannah was not just a remote colony. It was part of the British Empire. It could claim the King of England as its protector. And we are not just members of a religion. We are part of the Kingdom of God. We claim our God as our protector, our protector from the evil that is trying to destroy us.
Today we are reminded both of who God is, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and who we are, God's children carrying His Presence into the world.
Homily from Father Phil Bloom
Stmaryvalleybloom.org
* Available in Spanish - see Spanish Homilies
Most Holy Trinity
Homily from Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, Pa
Saint Vincent Archabbey
Most Holy Trinity
Homily from Father Alex McAllister SDS
Alexmcallister.co.uk
Most Holy Trinity
With the Feast of Pentecost we have come to the end of the Easter Season but now before we return to Ordinary Time we briefly reflect on the Mystery of God himself in this Feast of the Holy Trinity.
I was reading something recently about the belief of present day Jews. It said that, "Although Jews are able to understand Jesus, the Jew of Nazareth, they have never been able to understand or accept the idea of the Trinity."
I was immediately struck by the thought that by this statement the author demonstrates that the Jews don't understand Jesus at all. If Jesus is not the second member of the Trinity he is not the Son of God and therefore unable to bring about our salvation as we Christians believe he has.
Certainly, the Jews understand Jesus of Nazareth; they appreciate quite well the background and customs and mentality of a Jewish man born in that village even though it was two thousand years ago. But that is not only who Jesus was. The author of those remarks understood the humanity of Jesus but fails to comprehend his divinity.
We believe that Jesus was the Messiah as foretold in the Jewish scriptures and the one who brought about our salvation from sin and death and indeed that he is the Son of God. This is one of the most basic tenets of Christianity. However, we must recognise that not all are able to accept these doctrines as formulated and believed by the Church. They are indeed breathtaking in their scope and in their implications for believers and it is not surprising that many, many people find them unintelligible and even impossible to cope with.
For example a few years ago I read in the papers about the then Church of Ireland Dean of Clonmacnoise who was brought to an ecclesiastical court for denying these very things: the divinity of Christ and the existence of the supernatural. He resigned from the ministry just before the hearing was due to take place and so it had to be abandoned. It transpired that he had lost his faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God over thirty years before.
He did the right thing, even if it took him a long time to do so, since the job of a priest or minister is to confirm the faith of the people and he himself must believe in order to do this effectively or with any kind of integrity. This does not mean to say that none of us clergy have any doubts; of course we do, just like any other Christian. Doubt is one thing, active disbelief is another.
Religious doubt is something most people experience, it can frequently cause great anxiety over many years. Many people worry and feel deeply inadequate because they have doubts about this or that doctrine of the Church or indeed of the very basis of belief in God. And yet doubt is the necessary precondition of faith. One cannot actually believe in God unless one is in some way uncertain about his existence. The act of faith is as much an act of hope and love as anything else.
At the very heart of Christianity there is what you can only call a reverent agnosticism—we are confronted with the very mystery of existence for which we have no definitive explanation. We instinctively feel that there is a power greater than our selves who must be involved in the creation and sustaining of all that is around us and indeed of our own selves. And yet we do not, indeed cannot, know this for certain. We grope towards this greater power and as we go through life we constantly try to pick up clues to this infinite being whom we can only address as God.
The Christian realises that God reveals himself in various ways. He reveals himself in history, which we find recorded in the Old Testament scriptures, and he eventually reveals himself definitively in Jesus Christ his only Son. And he also chooses to reveal himself directly to us; however, this is done in a way that is uniquely sensitive to our own autonomy as creatures. He does not impose himself upon us. He is a God who waits patiently till the right moment, a God who waits for us to turn to him.
God reveals himself through history, in a definite time and place. We all know how he took a particular people, the People of Israel, and made them his own. He gradually led them to a deeper knowledge of his nature. He rescued them from slavery, he brought them to the Promised Land, he occasionally punished them when they went astray, he moved them on to a higher morality by means of his commandments, and he taught them through the prophets. In the pages of the Old Testament we see how he is always slowly unveiling more of himself, moving his chosen people onwards as they are more and more able to comprehend his mysteries.
The text immediately prior to the one chosen for our first reading today records the incident where Moses having come down from the mountain with the Commandments finds that the people are worshiping a gilded calf. In his anger he breaks the tablets of stone. Now in the text we are given we read how he goes back up the mountain to get a second set of commandments and tries to explain the behaviour of the people to God begging him to adopt them as his heritage. God listens and shows them his mercy. This is a good example of what I have been talking about, God being patient with us when we go astray or misunderstand him or his purposes, or when we doubt his very existence.
God understands our doubts and our inability to comprehend him. But he loves us greatly and in a marvellous message of hope as written in today's Gospel He loves us so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but have eternal life.
More Homilies
June 11, 2017 The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
