It's About "We" Not "Me"

HOMILY FOR MOST HOLY TRINITY SUNDAY, June 7, 2020. The Gospel of John 3:16-18.  It’s About "We" Not "Me"

Today is Holy Trinity Sunday and to be honest with you, it’s a liturgy that most minsters fumble and stumble to preach about. I mean, how in the world do you talk about such an unfathomable mystery as God being One and Three? If we focus on the intellectual doctrine of the Trinity, we often we end up with either a boring lesson in theology or just saying a lot of things that sound noble but don’t really speak to our lives in a meaningful way. But I think that if we stop to really ponder what it means to say that our God is a Trinity and yet is still but One God, it can deliver a powerful message to us.

As we all know, by Blessed Trinity we mean that God has revealed himself to be three distinct Persons equally sharing in the One Divine Nature.  Furthermore, they exist and act in a perfect interpersonal relationship with one another as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That’s the basic plain and simple theology of it all.  But I think we need to go beyond the theology and enter into the mystery of the Trinity.  In doing so, we can leave the vocabulary of theology behind us and say, as I recently heard a radio priest put it, that the Trinity shows us that God is a “we” and not a “me”.  This means that God is harmony, unity, relationship and love. What a powerful message that is for us today! I think it helps us, at least I know it helps me, to begin to wrap our limited human minds around this awesome unlimited divine mystery

But there’s another unique Christian teaching that today’s liturgy brings to mind, another mystery that flows out of the Trinity and touches our lives in a significant way.  And this is the Incarnation. Theology tells us that this means that the Second Person of the Trinity became flesh as Jesus of Nazareth.  But once again we can leave the theological vocabulary behind and delve into what this mystery means for us.  And once we do this, we see that Incarnation means that Jesus became one of us in order to make it possible for us to share in God’s harmony, unity, relationship and love.

The very first verse of today’s gospel, John 3:16, speaks to us about this and of how each one of us can enter into this divine relationship.  It says, "God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, so that whoever believes in him might not perish, but have eternal life." It proclaims that the Father loves us and so he sends the Son to us. The Son loves the Father and us, so he eagerly agrees to be sent, even though it means his ultimate suffering and death.  And the Spirit is the divine power of God making this all happen and bringing each one of us into their relationship of harmony, unity and love through our faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior.

That’s all pretty awesome stuff, but here’s the thing: it’s not enough to know these teachings intellectually. It’s not enough to know in the head that God is love.  And it’s not enough to know in the mind that Jesus came into our world as its Savior.  Like all aspects of our Faith it has to go from the head to the heart, and from the heart to our tangible choices and behaviors. Otherwise, Trinity and Incarnation remain just lessons in the catechism and subjects to study in theology class. And no one was ever healed of sin and filled with grace by lessons in theology or the catechism!

 If God’s Word in John 3:16 doesn’t effect a change in us, then it’s nothing more than a consoling Bible verse that we memorize for difficult times; nothing more than ink on a page.  We have to live it, embrace it, allow it to enter into us and transform us.  It must move us to not only share in the Trinity’s relationship of unity, harmony and love but to make these things a reality in our everyday lives. What this means is that as children of God the Father, as brothers and sisters of God the Son, and as living temples of God the Holy Spirit we are to be a reflection of their harmony, unity, relationship and love.  We are called to make the love of God a motivation and reality in our relationships and social behavior.  We are to bring this love into our daily interactions with those among whom we live, work and socialize.

In other words, I think this means we need to remember that because God is a “we” and not a “me”, our lives are not meant to be jealously kept to ourselves as our own.  They are meant to be shared, to be given, and to be put into service for others. This is what it means to live as Christ, to live as a Christian.  And this is precisely what our troubled, divided, confused and violence torn world needs from us right now. And it’s up to us who have been baptized into the Trinity’s unity, harmony, relationship and love to be instruments and ambassadors of these things in a tangible way to a world that is desperately in need of them.

What this looks like in reality can be confusing to some people because many are confused about what love really means.  Too often, we think that love means a warm and fuzzy feeling or a way of acting and speaking that tolerates intolerable behavior. I think this makes us Christians afraid at times to speak the truth and extend God’s invitation to others.   But we need to keep in mind that love is not an emotion, although it may touch our emotions. Love is a choice, a decision.  It’s choosing to treat someone the way we want to be treated.  It’s choosing to speak what someone needs to hear even if this means enduring some difficulty. Love is being willing to let others know that God so loved that world that he sent his only Son and that turning our wills and our lives over to this only Son opens up to us a whole new way of thinking, a whole new way of loving, and a whole new way of being.

We hear endless speeches these days about peace and justice, about equality and coexistence. Committees are formed to discuss these things. Laws are passed to enforce them. Mandatory classes are initiated in schools and workplaces to promote them. But none of these things can actually change the situation!  They can only force external behavior to comply, but they cannot touch and transform the human heart which is necessary for real and lasting personal and social change.

Racial harmony, social justice, peaceful cooperation, respect for the rights and lives of others can only come about by interior personal conversion. This means a radical change of heart in a person reborn spiritually by being healed of sin and filled with grace. A person who believes in Jesus as the only Son who came into this world to teach us Godlike living that is rooted in harmony, unity, relationship and love.  And this brings us full circle back to where we started this reflection – to the mystery of the Trinity -  to the praise and worship of our God, who alone can change the human heart and make it a reflection of who he is as “we” and not “me”.

The Lord and Giver of Life!

HOMILY FOR PENTECOST SUNDAY, May 31, 2020. Readings: Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11, 1 Corinthians 12:3-13, Gospel of St. John 20:19-23.  The Lord and Giver of Life!

The Solemnity of Pentecost has always been a very special day to me. There is just so much joy and hope in this feast on which we celebrate the Great Arrival of the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, as we call him every Sunday in the Creed. It reminds me that we Christians have two forms of the gift of life within us: natural life and supernatural life. And while they share some similar needs for proper growth and functioning, they are also so very different.

Through birth from our mothers we enter into our natural life, our physical life. And while the details of this life on earth differ greatly among us, depending upon our various cultures and social circumstances, there are things that we have in common, that we all must to do sustain and nurture life. We must breath and receive nourishment. We have to receive formation in knowledge and virtue so that we can grow to be healthy and happy. And of course, this needs to be done within the protective and loving community of the family.

But I wonder how many of us realize that our supernatural life, that is, the life of God’s grace in our souls, can be spoken about in much the same way? Just as with physical life, we are born, or as Jesus called it we are born again, in the spiritual life through a mother, our mother the Church. This spiritual birth happens through the Sacrament of Baptism.  Then, we need the Eucharist to nourish us and Confirmation to enable us to grow strong and mature in the Spirit.  And just as physical life has its wounds and scars, so too in the spiritual life we can be scarred and wounded by sin, but we find healing in the Sacraments of Confession and Anointing. This life of God within us, just like our natural physical life, needs the care and loving support of a family, and it is the responsibility of the Christian community of the parish to be this loving and supportive family for God’s children.

But no matter what form of life we are talking about, whether it be the physical or the spiritual, the most basic thing that both need along with family, for health, survival and growth is air…oxygen…breathing.  If this vital need becomes endangered or compromised, as the present COVID pandemic we are experiencing shows us, we are in deep trouble.  And that’s where today’s Pentecost celebration of the Holy Spirit comes into play regarding our spiritual life.  You see in both of the original languages of the Bible, Hebrew and Greek, the one same word that means “breath” or “air” or “wind” also means Spirit. And we see this wordplay in today’s readings. In the Book of Acts the Spirit comes in a mighty wind, and in the Gospel, Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit upon his disciples. These Scriptures teach us that the Holy Spirit if the very life-breath of God, the power and presence of God in and among his children.

So how does the Holy Spirit bring and increase this very life-breath of God within us? Through the Christian community of the parish which exists as a spiritual life-support for the natural family by preaching of the Word of God and the celebrating of the Sacraments. This is why active participation in parish life is so very important ad truly indispensable for us! This is why we are feeling so terribly at a loss in today’s situation where our access to the parish is so restricted!  Our life, our supernatural life, literally depends upon it!

Where do we first receive the Spirit in Baptism and have his presence strengthened within us in Confirmation? Through the parish! Where are we fed with the Bread of Life in Holy Communion and receive healing for our bodies or souls by Confession and Anointing of the Sick? Through the parish!  Where do we usually hear the Word of God proclaimed and explained to us for our growth in faith? In the parish!

But this supernatural life is not just about receiving. It is also about giving. St. Paul reminds us that the Holy Spirit is also a Life-giver in the community through the parishioners who put the gifts of the Spirit they have received at the service of their spiritual family. Each one of us, through Baptism and Confirmation, have received a spiritual gift or ability that has been intentionally given for the purpose of life-giving. It might be singing or playing an instrument to enhance worship; it might be compassion and understanding to minister to the sick and the poor; perhaps its teaching and the desire to share the Gospel with others. The list is really endless. Whatever it might be, each one of us has received a gift to build up our parish and contribute to its life, the life of God.

But this mutual relationship and responsibility we have for receiving and giving life is not put on hold because of social isolation or other aspects of our present pandemic. Very soon Holy Mass will resume in some fashion and we will be able to come together again to offer praise and worship to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit!   In the meantime, our parish church is open seven days a week so you are all invited to come and spend time in Eucharistic Adoration asking Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament to uphold and strengthen us. And if you cannot make it to church then pray and read Scripture from home, but never ever lose contact in some form with the parish community, because it is how God has willed to give, increase and sustain his life of the Spirit within us.

And as we await the reopening of churches and the resuming of Mass and sacraments, let’s be grateful for the life we still have. Let’s reject the fear which is so prevalent around us and is paralyzing so many.  The kind of fear that stifles us, that imprisons us and compromises the gift of life – both natural and supernatural – is not from God but from the Evil One, whose delight is that we cower with this fear.  We can reject and conquer this fear by never forgetting the Great Arrival of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost and his Great Arrival within each one of us through the Sacraments.  He dwells within us and reminds us of what Jesus said at the Last Supper:  the One who is in you, that is the Holy Spirit, is greater than anything that is in the world. He has made each one of us his living temples, filled us with the fire of his love, enlivens us by the wind of his grace, and protects us by the power of his in-dwelling presence.

The Hope To Which We Have Been Called

Homily for the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord – Readings – Acts 1:1-11; Ephesians 1:17-23; Matthew 28:16-20. Theme: The Hope To Which We Have Been Called

Today we celebrate the Ascension of the Risen Lord Jesus into Heaven, to the place from which he first came to us. Many people often wonder why we put such a big emphasis on the Ascension, even making it a holyday of obligation in those places where it is not celebrated on a Sunday. And that’s a good question. Why does the Ascension rank right up there with Christmas and Easter as holydays of obligation?  Well, the reason it receives such an important place in both our liturgy and our profession of faith is because the Ascension completes what Christmas began and fulfills what Easter accomplished.  Let’s look at that a bit closer.

What did Christmas begin? It began the Incarnation, that is, the unbelievable reality of the almighty eternal glorious God becoming a vulnerable limited human being named Jesus. God the Son became human so that he could save, that is heal, our sin-wounded human nature from the inside out, by actually becoming one of us. By uniting his divinity with our humanity Jesus elevated being human from the status of living as creatures of God to the honor of our actually becoming children of God by adoption. So, the important thing to remember when pondering the Ascension in the light of Christmas is that it completes the process of transforming and healing human nature that began in Bethlehem. Human nature, once ravaged by sin, is now sanctified by Christ and made worthy to stand before the Presence of God in Heaven!

So then, how can we say that the Ascension fulfills what Easter accomplished? Because the Resurrection was the marvelous sign and proof that God the Father had accepted the sacrifice of the God-Man Jesus of Nazareth on behalf of the human race. His rescue and restore mission was accomplished! Human nature was healed of our spiritual wounds. The power of sin to drive a wedge between us and God was conquered.  Death, the ultimate penalty of sin, was destroyed and no longer had the last word over human beings. It was transformed from a deep dark dungeon of despair into a hopeful doorway to eternal life. And so, the Ascension takes up from where the Resurrection left off.  It leads us human beings into the glory Heaven. It shows us that the whole person, the entirety of our human nature – body as well as soul - will experience glory once we ourselves have passed through death and trampled it under our feet in Christ. This is why we can call the Ascension the fulfilment of Easter.

You see, I think that many Christians have a misunderstanding when it comes to the Ascension. They think that once Jesus rose up from the dead and returned to Heaven he left his humanity behind and is now worshipped and adored solely as God. But this isn’t the case at all! Such a way of thinking actually strips the Ascension of its purpose and meaning for us. The Risen and Glorified Lord Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, living and reigning with him, as a Man as well as being God.  And that’s what is so awesome and marvelous about the Ascension.  It elevates us humans far above what we were originally created to be by allowing one of us, Jesus of Nazareth, to actually enter into the direct Presence of God and reign there, side by side with the Lord in Heaven. When the Resurrection of the Dead takes place at the end of time, we will be lifted up, body and soul, to live and reign with Christ forever in Heaven. This is the hope to which we have been called that St. Paul mentions in the second reading today.

So, all this is why we can say that the Ascension ranks right up there with both Christmas and Easter as one of our major celebrations and holy days.  But this event in the life of Christ is not just something we remember and look forward to experiencing. In the mean-time we have work to do! Like the disciples, who at the Ascension received from Christ the Great Commission to go out to all the world and proclaim the Good News, we too are sent out to invite others to come to know and trust in Christ as Lord and Savior. We want everyone to know the great hope to which we have all been called!  This means that we each are willing to share with others what a difference a personal relationship with Jesus makes in our lives. That we are willing to let them see by our changed attitude and Christ-like behavior that the Lord is continually healing and transforming us from the inside out. And to let them know that he is willing and eager to do the same for them!

Of course, we cannot accomplish this by simply relying upon our own abilities and energy.  But stay tuned…because the way that Christ equips us to carry out this mission will be the focus of our liturgy next Sunday, when we celebrate the Great Arrival of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.  In the meantime, let’s thank Christ for the Ascension and for what it means for us as part of his rescue mission to restore us to intimacy with God and elevate our humanity. And let’s ask Him to grant us the grace to open our hearts during the coming week to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, so that we can be his witnesses among those with whom we live, work and socialize, and invite them, by our words and example to live for God in Christ and experience a new way of thinking, a new way of acting, and a new way of loving.

P.S. Be sure to join with us in our parish-wide Pentecost Novena to the Holy Spirit that is happening right now (May 22-May 30) via Flocknote!  Pentecost is Sunday May 31. Pray with us for a new outpouring of the Promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, upon each one of us and our parish community! If you are not yet on our Flocknote roster send your name and email address to: dcndave@outlook.com.