Most Holy Trinity

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/061514.cfm

          In preparing for this homily, I took some time to consider the reflection that we find on the front cover of our bulletin this weekend.  The reflection is by an author and theologian named Mary Katharine Deeley.  In short, she talks about how we have many different ways in which we try to explain how God can be three persons in one God.  We can try to use images of three-leaf clovers or a loving family as ways to explain it, but words can only explain things so far before they reach their limits.  “God simply is”, she tells us, and we can only truly begin to understand that when we finally enter into relationship with God.

          Think of this relationship with God like coming to know a friend better.  Or perhaps moving to a new neighborhood or a new town and meeting the new neighbors.  There is also the old phrase, “know thy enemies”.   There is a story about St. Pope John Paul II that when he was at the conclave in Rome that would eventually elect him as Pope, he brought along the writings of Karl Marx to read during breaks in the conclave.  He later told a friend, “if you want to understand the enemy, you have to know what he has written.”   He knew that whether he would be elected Pope or whether he would continue to be the Archbishop of Krakow in Poland, he would be fighting the communists.  If it's important to know our enemies and their thoughts and writings, how much more would it be to know the one who created us, redeemed us, and sanctified us? 

          The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity is really a celebration of relationships:  It is about the relationship between the three people of the Trinity, but also about our relationship with Him.  So we want to know more about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and why is it that we can say that each of those persons is entirely God and yet why we never say that the Father is the Son or the Son is the Spirit or the Spirit is the Father.  But, as I have been saying, we need to work on our own relationship with Him, before we can hope to understand all of that.  It means allowing God to come into our lives.  This isn't so that God can know us better, He already knows all there is to know, it's about allowing God in without trying to fight it; it's about allowing God to guide us in our lives and we actually listening and trying our best to respond.

          Each of the readings today speak about our relationship with God.  In the first reading from Exodus, Moses is on Mt. Sinai with God to receive a second copy of the tablets with the Ten Commandments on them.  This is after Moses had receive the tablets before, but broke them at the base of the mountain (picture Charlton Heston in the robes and big gray beard).  Now he has to get them again.  God comes down in a cloud and speaks His name to Moses.  Please note: God doesn't do these things all that often; this coming to someone on a mountain and telling people His name.  This is a significant event.  God says, “The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.”  Notice that these words are relational.  He is merciful and gracious to us.  The Old Testament can sometimes appear to make God seem like an angry and vengeful God, but when you study it closer we can see that He give everyone multiple chances and is really kind rather than angry.

          In St. Paul Second Letter to the Corinthians, we hear the very familiar greeting, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you”. Again this is all about relationships.

         Finally, the Gospel of John has a very famous line that we see at many sporting events, “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” John 3:16. This is not about sports, but about our relationship with God. He does this not to condemn (as we might suppose at times) but to save us and bring us to Heaven. 

         So do not be afraid, brothers and sisters of whether we know all there is to know about God or not. That is all a part of the mystery, not a mystery that we can never know, but one that we will slowly but surely come to know better. We will know it by being with Him. Let us continue in that relationship.

Pentecost Sunday

Here is my Homily for Pentecost.  The link below leads to the readings for both  the Vigil Mass and the Sunday Mass.  As you'll see, I reference the first reading for both.  I hope your Easter Season was a blessed one and that your Ordinary time will be holy as well.

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/060814.cfm

          A person doesn’t have to have a degree in linguistics to know that understanding a language is important for communicating.  If you have ever traveled overseas, you quickly learn the importance of knowing the language of the people.  Even if you travel to someplace that speaks English, it can be a unique experience learning the local dialect.  Canadians might talk to you about having a good “batt’ry” in you car for winter driving and will remind you to wear a hat that is often called a “toque” (pronounced TOOK) when going outside.  In Great Brittan, if you’re brave enough to rent a car over there, you put your luggage in the “boot” in the rear of the car and to check your oil you would need to look under the “bonnet” in the front.  After being completely frustrated about how they drive over there you might want to go back to your hotel, or you might be renting a “flat” or a “bungalow”,  and just sit back a watch the “telly” for a bit while munching on some fish and “chips”.  As you can probably tell, I enjoy learning about different regional terms for the same object. 

          It gets all the more interesting of course when you get into countries that use a very different language altogether.  Last spring I went on a pilgrimage to Bosnia and Herzegovina.  I was with an English speaking guide, and many of the locals spoke at least some English, but that didn’t mean it was always smooth sailing.  I found that I often needed to be patient until I could figure out what to do next.  There were also a lot of Italians there spending some vacation time.  They would buy various religious articles (rosaries, holy cards, medals, etc.) and would look for a priest to bless them.  I would often be walking around in my black clerical garb and a group of Italians would approach me, talking to me in their native language.  I would of course be left looking at them with a bewildered look on my face.  Eventually, they would show me their religious items and would say something like “benedicio” which reminded me of “benediction” or blessing.  I would then bless their objects.  It always amazes me how we can still learn to communicate, even with a language barrier. 

          Today's Feast of Pentecost draws our focus on understanding what God is saying to us.  In this case, it isn't about knowing the right language, because God speaks all languages.  This is about realizing that God is speaking to us, and allowing the grace of God to help us hear what is being spoken.  That grace is what we receive through the Holy Spirit. 

          There are many readings throughout Sacred Scripture that talk about the Spirit and the gifts that we receive from Him, but I've found that there are just two readings that really help illustrate our relationship with God.  One is from the Old Testament; the other is from the New Testament. 

          The Old Testament reading I'm referring to is the story of the Tower of Babel as found in the Book of Genesis.  On the surface, this looks to be a neat little story that is meant to help explain why there are so many different languages in the world today.  When we start examining the story a little deeper, however, we can see that it is symbolic of humanity's relationship with God.  The people of the story decide to build a great tower towards the sky to make a name for themselves.  In other words, they wish to make themselves equal to God.    Their plan is rooted in their own self-pride: they think of themselves as so powerful and strong that they will be able to build this monstrosity all on their own.  God responds by “confusing their language” as is said in the scripture passage.  He does this, not because He is a God who likes to spoil all the fun of mere mortals on Earth, but because He wishes to teach them humility. 

          When we look at the relationship between God and humans we see many similarities with this scripture.  When sin entered into Adam and Eve, they no longer were satisfied with being God's most beloved creation, but decided to focus on doing their own thing.  Even today, when any of us sin, we are essentially making ourselves into gods, trying to do our own thing and making a name for ourselves.  God has very little choice but to teach us humility, so that we can learn that we can't do it all on our own, but that we need God's help.

          The New Testament reading that pairs up with Babel is the story of Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles.  This story is steeped in symbolism as well.  Notice that the faithful are gathered together in one room, they are humbled, praying and asking for God's help rather than being boastful like the people of Babel.  Suddenly there is a noise like a driving the wind that fills the house.  Whenever we hear the words “wind” or “breath” in Scripture, we should think of the Holy Spirit, because wind, breath, and spirit are all the same word in Hebrew and are symbolic of each other in the Bible.  Tongues of flame appear above them and they are filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking in many different languages.  In case we are tempted to think that they are only babbling or talking in gibberish, we are told that many people from all over the Roman Empire were there and are amazed that they can understand what is being spoken.  Make no mistake, we are meant to read this and realize that this is a reversal of the punishment of Babel.  Earlier, many people are scattered by many languages.  Now many languages come together as many people come to realize the mighty power of God.

          This is symbolic of us as well.  We have received the Holy Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation.  It is only through the Holy Spirit that we can finally understand what God has been trying to tell all of humanity from the beginning of time:  trust in me; I will guide to paradise. 

          We might not always understand what God is doing or saying to us.  Sin does that to us.  But the Holy Spirit helps us get past that and understand what He wants us to do.  We will finally get that message, and it is a message of love.

Feast of the Ascension of the Lord

 http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/060114-ascension.cfm

I have a love for various authors, but one of my favorites is J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was a devout Catholic and took his faith seriously. While some would argue that Tolkien did not include much of his theology into his written works, certain images make it seem quite obvious that his writing was certainly influenced by his faith. Near the beginning of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien gives a beautiful description of a vision that one of the main characters has as he begins a perilous journey. This same description is given at the end of the book as that same character sails off into to another land. In the movie adaptation from a few years ago, the director took this description and inserted it in another place all together in the movie. Now, I usually hate it when a movie director changes a story like that, but here I think he actually helps show what Tolkien was originally trying to show.

The movie scene takes place in the third installment called, The Return of the King. Just before a major climax of the movie, it looks as if a city is about to be overtaken by the “bad guys” if you will. Only a few soldiers are left to defend the last stronghold of the city. Among them are the wise old wizard, Gandalf and another character named Pippin. As they hear the enemy attempting to beat down the wooden gate that separates them from a most certain death, Pippin looks up at Gandalf and says, “I didn’t think it would end this way”. Gandalf looks at him with surprise. “End? No the journey doesn’t end here”, he says. “Death is just another path; one that we all must take. The grey rain curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass. And then you see it: white shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.” Pippin, who had look terrified before appears to have hope rush over him. “Well,” he says, “That isn’t so bad”. “No, no it isn’t” Gandalf replies. Just then, the loud pounding of the door reminds them of the danger that awaits them. With a new found hope and courage, Pippin tightly grasps his sword and he and Gandalf prepare for whatever awaits them.

In both the versions in the book and in the movie, this description is not meant to be of a mythical land like the mythical lands described in the rest of Tolkien’s books. I am certain that Tolkien meant his readers to think of Heaven. He wanted us to think of the hope of going there and the eternal joy that comes with being there. When you think about it, this is a rather counter cultural idea. I’m not sure what the culture was like in the 1950’s when Tolkien was writing, but today we live in a society that says “You only live once”. Even on the Internet, the acronym of “YOLO” is used to talk about living life to the fullest. While it is true that we do only live once, (Christians don’t believe in reincarnation) the phrase seems to skip the fact that we still have an eternal life to live after we die. The implication is that this life on earth is it, that there is no life after death and that our one life is our one chance for happiness. We as Christians believe, however, that death is not the end. As Gandalf says, “The journey doesn't end here”.

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, the day that Jesus Christ entered into Heaven, body and soul. One way to look at this feast day is to say that it is the end of Christ's time on earth. One might even say that this marks the start of a time of Christ's absence from the earth or even an absence from our lives. We may fear that because we don't live in the time when Christ was on the earth that we are not as connected with God as the people of Christ's time were. The Feast of the Ascension, however, doesn't mark the absence of Christ or the end of Christ taking care of us, any more than death marks the end of the eternal life of our souls. Rather, the Ascension marks the beginning of a new and much closer relationship between God and all of humanity.

So why is the Ascension so significant for our relationship with God? Well, the Ascension is Christ's entry into Heaven as I said. When any one of us enters into Heaven, as we all know, our own frail bodies are left behind and it is our souls that are taken up by God. When Christ enters into Heaven, however, He enters in body and soul. Let's consider this for a moment. Everyone else is present in Heaven in spirit alone, but Christ is the first to enter into Heaven with His body and spirit. Even more significant is the fact that His is the first human body in Heaven. Our bodies are less than perfect due to the effects of sin and so cannot enter into Heaven as they are, but Christ's body is perfect and so can enter. He is the first human to bring the human body into the deepest and most intimate relationship that any human can have with God. What all this means is that we, as brothers and sisters of Christ, get to share in this intimate relationship as well.

The readings for this feast day help illustrate this deeper relationship with the Triune God. In the Acts of the Apostles we hear an account of the Ascension. Christ's last instruction before He ascends is for the disciples to prepare for the coming of the Holy Spirit. He adds that power will be given to them and they will be witnesses to the very ends of the world. Jesus is pointing out, this is not the end or a sorrowful time, but the beginning of something new and wonderful. Even those angelic beings point out that this is not the last we will see of Jesus, but that He will return in the same way: a reference to His Second Coming.

The Gospel of Matthew finishes off our readings by telling us what we are to do in our relationship with God. We are not to sit around, wishing for some sign from God of what to do next. Rather we are to go, baptizing “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. Why? Because that is our call: bringing others closer to God. That is what is meant by the command to go and baptize: to bring others closer to God. Christ has brought us into this awesome relationship with the Father. We have hope for eternal life like we never had before. Let us continue celebrating, bringing others closer to Him. Our life in God has truly just begun.