Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40
Psalm 33:4-6, 9, 18-20, 22
Romans 8:14-17
Matthew 28:16-20
Last weekend we concluded the Easter Season with the Solemn Feast
of Pentecost, marking the event when the Holy Spirit descended upon the
Apostles. With this last gift from Christ to His followers, the true mission is
begun and thus the birth of the Church takes place. From the Jewish faith,
something new has begun. It is fitting, then, that on this first weekend after
the birthday of the Church we celebrate with another Solemn Feast the mystery
that is the center of our Christian faith – the Most Holy Trinity.
This mystery is most central, and thus most important, because it
is the Trinity from whom, in whom, and for whom all things exist. To put it
simply: without God, nothing. In addition to being the most important mystery
of our Catholic faith, it is also the most difficult for us to grasp. Who of us
can ever truly understand how the One God, who is absolute unity, is somehow
also a Trinity of Persons? And yet this doesn’t dismiss us from the obligation
to try to understand. We must study the Scriptures,
Catechism and Creed to understand what ‘consubstantial’ means, why ‘begotten,
not made’ is so important, and how the Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son because my knowing more about God, we can love Him more deeply.
But we cannot stop at simply knowing about God. We must know Him; we are called
to foster a relationship with this great mystery.
God, being love itself, was compelled to create the universe out
of love and to draw it to Himself. So incredible is our God that being the
creator of all things did not keep Him from coming to us as a human race and as
individuals to reveal Himself to us. He reveals Himself to us in the beauty of
the creation He has made, in the love shown to us by others, in the complexity
of the universe, and in the answered prayers that bring peace to our hearts.
Even more miraculously, He revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, walking
among us for 33 years and teaching us the way to eternal life. This same Jesus
Christ revealed to the disciples – and to us today through the words of the
Gospel - that God is not simply One God, but that the One God is also Three
distinct Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and eternal communion of
persons pouring out love and receiving love.
In addition to these and many other ways that God reveals Himself
to us in the midst of our days, I posit that one of the best places to come
face to face with the Triune God is here in the celebration of the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass. It is here that we as individuals and the mystical body
of Christ, are joined to the Father, Son, and Spirit, as we are at no other
time until we are joined to them in Heaven.
Each time we gather to celebrate these sacred mysteries, we begin
in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We turn to the Father in
prayer time and time again; notice that most of the prayers of the Mass are addressed to the Father. At the consecration, Christ Himself acts through the priest in order to
offer Himself to the Father on our behalf. And all of this happens by the power
of the Holy Spirit. By this glorious exchange of the Son offering Himself to
the Father through the Spirit and the Father receiving that offering, we
receive Holy Communion and are drawn into that exchange. For a moment in time
we are actually united in our flesh to the incomprehensible mystery of God Who
is Love.
I’ve said it before and I say it again – if we truly understood
what was taking place each time we came to Mass and each time we received Holy
Communion, we would be shocked beyond words. And so we give thanks to the God
who veils Himself out of mercy and pray that He would help us to grasp more and
more this privilege that we have and the mystery that He is.
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