The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity … Sunday, May 26

Luca Rossetti da Orta, The Holy Trinity’, fresco, 1738-9, St. Gaudenzio Church at Ivrea (Torino).

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.”John 16:12-15.

Three Persons, One God. It’s hard to understand. Difficulty does not disprove, it simply calls for faith.

In explaining the Trinity I’ve often wondered what might have happened had St. Patrick picked a four-leaf clover? 🙂 But that’s out of my hands. Probably it was out of Pat’s too.

Augustine and child

I’ve always liked the story of St. Augustine and the Child on the beach, the little boy who was moving the ocean one handful of water at a time. The picture is very childlike, isn’t it? The simplicity of a child gives way to the complexity of being an adult and thinking like an adult when Augustine told the boy that what he was trying to do was impossible. And of course the simple truth is that we can’t do certain things either. Like understand fully the Trinity and its implications. So why worry about it? I can’t run a three-minute mile either, or a one hour mile for that matter, but I don’t worry about it. Some things are better off left to the childlike simplicity of acceptance.

Without trying to really understand it the Trinity has, for me anyway, always been representative of family. Everything that proceeds from the Trinity makes me think of family.

The first thing God created was the angels. A spiritual family all His own. And then came a world meant to be populated by the human family. Everything seems to point towards family, a loving, binding relationship that in turn points back to the Triune Nature of God. Family.

Bl. John Paul II: “Man’s need for truth and love opens him both to God and to creatures: it opens him to other people, to life “in communion”, and in particular to marriage and to the family. In the words of the Council, the “communion” of persons is drawn in a certain sense from the mystery of the Trinitarian “We”, and therefore “conjugal communion” also refers to this mystery. The family, which originates in the love of man and woman, ultimately derives from the mystery of God. This conforms to the innermost being of man and woman, to their innate and authentic dignity as persons.”

One more reason, no doubt, to believe that we are created in God’s image.

How do we celebrate something like the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity? Well, one way might be to take part in it. A good way to do that might be to spend time, loving time, with family. I think that by doing this we will give honor to God Who gave us the gift of our family, extended and otherwise, along with the gift of participating in His.

Pentecost … Sunday, May 19

The Chapel of the Holy Spirit, the Roman Catholic National Shrine of Our Lady, Walsingham, Norfolk, England. The Chapel was built in 1938. On the wall is a mosaic by A. Wyner depicting the event of Pentecost.

John 14:15-16, 23b-26

Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always.“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Those who do not love me do not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.“I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”

     Pretty simple way to know whether or not God dwells with us or in us, isn’t it? Do we keep His word? ALL of it? ALL of it being the Bible AND Sacred Tradition AND the Pope’s authority AND the Magisterium’s authority. Another way of saying the same thing: Are we obedient to the will of God? If so then we belong to Him. If not then we belong to ourselves. It’s the difference between His will and self-will.

     Pentecost. A turning point, God calling out to us through His earthly mouth piece the Church, asking us to choose this day who we will serve. God? Or the “gods” of this world. What or who are the gods of this world? Anything and everything or anyone that we follow after first, putting the One True God second if we allow Him a place at all.

     Now, after Pentecost, we have a “bonus”. Its one thing to be called, it’s another to be taught and then reminded. “The Holy Spirit … will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” God covers all the bases, doesn’t He? His covering all the bases should give us confidence. It should also bring to our realization that because He does this we are without excuse. He’s taken care of His part, God treats His creation responsibly. How we respond is a matter of our free will and our choices.

     Knowing that God loves us enough to set everything in place that is necessary for our well-being, spiritually and physically and emotionally, makes today a celebration. Pentecost is a time for joy, time for a joyful knowing that God loves us and cares for us. Totally. There is no fine print, this contract does not expire, the warranty doesn’t run out. Pentecost is a time for joy, time for a joyful acceptance of God’s love and His will for us, understanding that there is nothing better. Having found this Pentecostal truth we have all there is. We have Him.

     Nearly 2,000 years ago the first Pentecost was a time of great activity, and also confusion for some. Now its settled in. That doesn’t make it weaker or stale. What the settling in process does do is to add the strength and confidence of 2,000 years worth of experience and proof. The activity is still there and so is the confusion for some. But the experience and the confidence of those 2,000 years lends itself to something else now. Because of these things we can rest in Pentecost.

     Psalm 97:11-12 …

“11 Light is risen to the just, and joy to the right of heart.12 Rejoice, ye just, in the Lord: and give praise to the remembrance of his holiness.” …
Now … Lets Celebrate Pentecost, and especially the One Who brings it.

The Ascension of the Lord & Mother’s Day … Sunday, May 12

You can give something much better and more meaningful, more lasting, than a card. Read on to learn what, and how …

This isn’t the Gospel reading for today, but in honor of Mother’s Day, Mary, and in hoping for what Jesus prayed for concerning us prior to His Passion and Ascension, lets consider …

John 17:20-26 Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying,“Holy Father, I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.”

We might consider these words, the prayer Jesus offered prior to His Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension , a sort of last will and testament. Its advice, instructions, and direction for us. Today is Mother’s Day. Mary is the “realist” mother we have. For anyone who has kept up with my meager meanderings via this blog you know that, and this is only my feelings on the subject, adoption supersedes natural birth. This means that Mary is more my mother than any natural birth mother ever could be, just as God is my Father in more ways than any earthly father could ever fulfill. By saying this I in no way mean to detract from our “natural” mothers and fathers but rather to call attention to the importance of being adopted into the Family of God via our having been baptized and born again. It’s a big deal and we need to realize this and set priorities accordingly. And with these priorities in mind lets consider the prayer of Jesus, what His desires are for us as we await His return, a prayer He offered some time prior to His Ascension, knowing that He would leave and that we would need the realities He asks for us in this prayer, and how these priorities, these needed realities, pertain to us as Mary’s children. It is, after all, not only the day we celebrate the Ascension but Mother’s Day too.

Do you think that Mary, our very real and eternal Mother, would like to see us following a good example? Sure she would, any mother would. Do you think that we have a better example than Her Son Jesus? If we follow His example wouldn’t that be a wonderful Mother’s Day gift to Mary? God’s example is, in the last analysis, the example She follows, isn’t it? So let’s do the same and start today to make every day Mother’s Day for Mary by listening to and acting upon these words of Jesus. Read the above scripture passage slowly and digest it mentally a little at a time, like this …

Jesus lifted His eyes up to Heaven and He prayed. This gives us our direction, Heaven, and our primary focus of prayer. This is His example to us.

He prayed to His Father and so should we. We should pray for our fellow Catholics and also for those to come. Lots of times we pray for each other and for those gone on before us, the Souls in Purgatory, but here we have an example set before us of praying for “those who WILL (future tense) believe” in Jesus. They’re as much as part of this Family as we are.

One of the things we are to pray for is Christian Unity. Why? Well, for one thing it provides an evidence to the world that we are of Jesus and that God sent Him. ” … that the world may know that you sent Me, and that you loved them even as you loved Me.” Unity is evidence of the validity of Christ’s mission and God’s love. I mean, think about it. How does it look to an unchristian world to see “brothers” and “sisters” fighting amongst ourselves while saying “Love one another”? That’s a bad witness and we’re to pray and work and live against that sort of bad example. It turns people away from Jesus, and we’ll be held accountable for that.

We need to always remember that we are God’s gift to Jesus, and like any other gift He wants to KEEP us and to keep us WITH Him. When He ascended He went to Heaven. He wants us there too. Its something for us to live for, and to live right for.

Love, love, love. It needs to be the standard for all we do, think, say and believe. Remember that God is love and if we’re to be perfect like our Heavenly Father is then we need to be love also. Its one of the ways that the world around us directly experiences God.

All of this is a tall order. That’s OK, we’ve got lots of help. But right now, rather than think about how hard it is, let’s think about how joyous it is. Not only for us but for our Mother as well.

!HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!