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    https://d2y1pz2y630308.cloudfront.net/15745/slideshows/homeMedium/Screen%20Shot%202016-12-14%20at%209.36.30%20AM.png Augustine and the Seashell

  •      Homily for Pentecost Sunday (06/07/2020)


    Homily for The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (06/07/2020)

    Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,

              Today the Catholic world celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. Many people do not understand the doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity. The Most Holy Trinity is “Mysterium est”. In other words, “It is a mystery”. Though we bless ourselves in the name of the one God in three persons, the Trinity remains very much a mystery. We sign ourselves,  “in the name of the Father, of the Son and the Holy Spirit” at the beginning of Mass. We do likewise when we pray alone or with a group or community. The priest ends a prayer during Mass and gives the final blessing in the name of the Trinity. Many biblical scholars and writers have tried to define and explain the One God in Three Persons. It remains a mystery beyond our human ability to comprehend. Believe in God, as Father, Son, and Spirit is the most essential doctrine of the Catholic faith. It is the principle and foundation of the Catholic Church: “We are one”.
              The greatest love story of all time is the story of our salvation. God, despite all our sins, has such great love for us that he is unwilling to leave us in our sinfulness. And as today’s Gospel reminds us, he was willing to sacrifice his only Son so that we might be raised from the death of sin and come to share in his life of communal love. Today’s Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity celebrates that life of communal love. For God is one God, in three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – whose relationship is one of complete self-gift and outpouring of love. That is, God is not a being who loves, God is love itself. “Qui Deum amat, quod non est ens, Deus est ipsa caritas”. It’s a mystery of love, “est amor mysterio”.
              God is greater than we can ever know and yet is also one who revealed himself to us in his Son is truly something to celebrate. For the God who is transcendent – above all things – is also immanent: Present to all things. He invites us to relationship with him: to seek more and to know more and to open our hearts and minds to how he reveals himself to us.
              So today’s solemnity is a double celebration: we celebrate what God has revealed and we accept the invitation to know him more and to find joy and fulfillment in that knowing. As the fundamental mystery of faith, it permeates our identity and prayer. We invoke the Trinity in several ways: from the initial sign of the cross, to the Gloria to the opening prayer. And then in our Creed and in the central act of the Mass that is the Eucharistic prayer [the preface, the sanctus, epiclesis, consecration, the Anamnesis, the mystery of faith, intercession doxology and great Amen], we ask the Father to send the Spirit so that our bread and wine might become for us the body of Christ, his Son. Our faith is Trinitarian! Within the Trinity there is such a perfect relationship that they are fully united in every way – no boundaries or separations except that they are not the same person. Everything that belongs to one belongs to the other, and yet each is not the same as the other.
              By celebrating the Trinity, we recall God’s invitation to us to be in relationship with him. We are reminded that God loves us and this love is real that Christ died for us. The Holy Spirit teaches us and reminds us of that Trinitarian love, strengthening and consoling us in time of challenge and trial, and empowering us to be disciples and followers in a troubled and sick world.
              Let us be honest, we will never fully know and understand in this world – the mystery of God’s love and the mystery of the Holy Trinity. May the Triune God’s great love and the mystery of the Holy Trinity. May the Triune God’s great love for us to help us to change our lives, encourage one another to simply love God and each other. May the fruits of the Eucharist remain forever in God’s embrace, and having been sanctified by the Holy Spirit, may we be prepared to follow Jesus our Lord and God by making him known. May his grace and peace be multiplied in us. Amen.

     

  • works of charity

    Wash your hands often.
    Keep social distance.