Trinity Sunday Year A 2020

Trinity Sunday (A)  

(Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18)

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The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is the ultimate and defining mystery of the Christian faith, but has sometimes been liturgically constructed and expressed in such a way as to be appreciated as something not only beyond our understanding but also far from plucking our heart strings, with repeated variations of one in three and three in one, unity in trinity and trinity in unity, and even ‘una Unitas’, one Unity (!), with the overall result sounding something like a mathematical extravaganza or a collection of cold, abstract, concepts.

And yet, as our readings today illustrate, the Holy Trinity, though most certainly the supreme mystery of Christian faith, is not far from our human make-up and personal heart.   

God created all things by His Word John tells us in his Gospel (1:1-3):

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.   He was in the beginning with God.   All things c\me to be through Him, and without Him nothing came to be. 

“In the beginning was the Word”; what is a word?   Commonly, it is understood to be an expression of intelligence or meaning using breath: when we communicate with a word, we express our thought by using the breath of our mouth; and in Psalm 33: 6 we are told:

By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

This led St. Irenaeus, when writing his famous work "Against Heresies" around the year A.D. 180, to say: "God has created the world with His two hands -- the Son and the Spirit – by His Word, that is, and by the Breath of His mouth. 

And when it came to the creation of human kind there is a vibrancy in Scripture which is far, far removed from dry mathematics and abstract conceptions; for there, the Son -- the Word of God -- gives form and structure to God's creation, while the Spirit -- the Breath of God -- gives life and vitality:

God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness."  And the LORD God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.  (Genesis 1:26; 2:7)

And that scriptural, background, impression of Personal and loving involvement on the part of the mysterious God of Israel creating by His two hands, so to speak, is now maintained and indeed intensified in His loving commitment to saving fallen Israel according to an ancient tradition concerning the Prophet Moses as recounted in our first reading (Exodus 34:5-6):

The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him (Moses) there as he called upon the name of the Lord.   Then the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in goodness and truth.  

In the New Testament St. John never tires of telling us that God is a God of love Who demonstrates His love for us most sublimely through the gift of His Son, as we have just heard in the Gospel reading:

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

And St. Paul -- Jesus’ choice to be Doctor for, and teacher of, us Gentiles -- proclaims that same truth to our Western world when comforting his converts at Corinth, as you heard in the second reading, by reminding them of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit:  

Brethren, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Dear Brother and Sisters in Christ, the Holy Trinity is not some abstract concept but a Personal Reality mirrored at the very centre of our being, a Reality that is capable of fulfilling us and, indeed, transfiguring us by drawing us -- as members of Jesus’ Body -- into sharing the glory of Its own plenitude of Personal Love and mutual Commitment.

Let us now, therefore, give our minds and hearts to a short, appreciative, overview, so to speak, of this sublime mystery of God which can only be adequately expressed in terms of love, manifested throughout our human history, and experienced now through faith in Jesus Christ by hearts warmed by the Holy Spirit of Truth and Love. 

The devil had deceived Eve, and Adam subsequently followed Eve into sin, with the result that the world,  originally created for the glory of God and the joyful well-being of mankind and creation as a whole, became degraded, with humankind -- intended as creation’s crown and glory -- being subjected to suffering and death, ignorance and selfishness. 

God the Father, out of love for mankind thus degraded, sent His only-begotten Son to become a sinless man in a world where sin, suffering, and death, now held sway, that He might save mankind so dear to Him: and, taking human flesh from the pure and sinless Virgin Mary, the eternal Son of God became Jesus, the Son- of-God-made-man.  He thereupon spent His sinless life proclaiming saving Truth and witnessing to divine Love: setting at naught the devil's snares, thwarting his power, exposing his deceits and lies, until the contest reached its ultimate and inevitable climax in the suffering and death of the Pure and Holy One on Calvary, in the fulfilment of which divine love definitively triumphed over Satan’s power and the world’s sin, when Jesus the Son of man rose from death into heavenly glory leaving man free NOT to sin, able to respond anew to God’s great goodness.

Then there began a re-creation of mankind in the Son by the Spirit of Holiness, the two hands of God the Father, moulding us anew as in the beginning, though this time not without our consent and co-operation: His Love would heal and renew each and every one of us if we would embrace His Good News of salvation.  God the Father would thus make -- in the Son and by the Spirit -- a new creation: a saved humanity, which, in its turn, would itself learn to triumph over the devil who once had brought it low.

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

The new humanity would, as I said, be formed in Jesus -- sent by the Father -- from those who would believe in the name of God's only Son and who, committing themselves to Him through faith and baptism, would, in loving obedience, follow the lead of His Holy Spirit bestowed at Pentecost to guide His Body, the Church, to follow where He, her Head, had already ascended to the Father.

People of God, let us here recognize the true nature of love; for God’s love does not just do things for us, it leads Him primarily to make something of us.  It is true that He does for us what we could not do for ourselves: He saves us from sin.  Subsequently, however, He goes on to make something of us and do something with us: in true love He dignifies and even glorifies us with a share in His own glory!   For, once baptized into Jesus and washed clean of sin, we are then -- as temples of His Most Holy Spirit -- to be guided, glorified, and sublimely dignified as adoptive children of God able to call upon God as ‘Our Father’.  Moreover, even while still here on earth, all these our blessings are to be crowned by our being enabled to become instruments of the Holy Spirit and co-workers with Jesus our Saviour for the glory of the Father, as Jesus Himself said (John 14:12):

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.

That work, to which we and all Christian peoples are privileged to contribute under the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is spoken of by the Psalmist who reveals that:

The LORD said to my Lord: "Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool". (Psalm 110:1)

The ultimate fulfilment -- when Jesus returns in glory as Judge, when our work will be finally seen to be fruitful, and when God’s plan is ultimately revealed in all its wisdom and beauty, goodness and glory -- will come, St. Paul tells us,:

When everything is subjected to Him, then the Son Himself (the whole Christ, Head and Body), will also be subject to Him Who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.  (1 Corinthians 15:28)

People of God, the mystery of the Holy Trinity is a mystery because it is infinitely beyond the full comprehension of our minds; but it is not a mystery in the sense that it is something foreign to us: for Divine Love, which is the essence of the Trinity, is able to penetrate and transform our lives, and indeed become the motivation and fulfilment of our very being, and in that way the most Holy Trinity becomes present to us, living in us, forming us, even working through us (John 14:23, 26):

Jesus said, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.  

On this day, People of God, let us therefore take to ourselves, with pride and gratitude, the words first addressed by the prophet Moses (Deuteronomy 4:7) to Israel of old; words which only now, thanks to Jesus and the Holy Spirit, begin to reveal something of their full beauty and significance:

What great nation is there that has gods so close to it, as the LORD, our God, is to us, whenever we call upon Him? 

Pentecost Year A 2020

 Pentecost (A)
(Acts 2:1-11; First Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23)

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the reading from the Gospel of John should have seemed a little strange to you because Jesus first of all gave the Holy Spirit to the Apostles gathered in the upper room:

Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you."   And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

Jesus was preparing His Apostles, whom He was soon to send out in His Name to forgive sins and transmit a new and potentially eternal life, by giving them the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit in their personal lives and public ministry.  You might ask, then, what was strange about that?

This is what was strange: after thus receiving the Holy Spirit from Jesus, the disciples did not, in fact, start preaching everywhere; actually, they went back to Galilee and to their fishing, where Jesus appeared to them once more.  Now that is strange; but it is also very instructive.

In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles we were told of another, subsequent, bestowal of the Spirit, and this time a public bestowal, where the Spirit descended upon the Church as a whole:

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.  Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Let me bring out clearly for you the difference between these two occasions:

Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, "Peace be with you."

On that first occasion, mentioned by St. John in his Gospel, there was only a small group gathered -- gathered in fear -- a group where not even all the future apostles were present, because we are expressly told:

Thomas, called the Twin, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.

Now let us reconsider the second occasion actually heard in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles:

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.  

That was indeed a gathering of the whole Church, as is made clear by the emphatic words: all with one accord in one place; and it was after this public bestowal of the Spirit upon the whole Church gathered together as one that the disciples spontaneously began to praise God:

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance … speaking the wonderful works of God.

And it was only after this giving of the Spirit to the whole Church that the Apostles -- in the person of Peter -- began to carry out their individual commission(s) to proclaim and to offer salvation, through faith in the Gospel, to all their hearers:

Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words.  For these are not drunk -- as you suppose -- since it is only the third hour of the day; but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh.’ Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." (Acts 2:14-18, 36).  

The Spirit, therefore, is primarily bestowed upon the Church as the Body of Christ -- the whole Body -- not just to one part of the Body, even though that part be the college of Apostles.  Once the Spirit had been poured out upon the whole Church, the special grace and blessing the Apostles had already received became active within them, but not before.  This is what the Apostle Paul taught us in our reading from his letter to the Corinthians:

The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.

As the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ: by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--whether Jews or Greeks whether slaves or free -- and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.   For in fact the body is not one member but many. (1 Corinthians 12: 7, 12-14)

A false emphasis on unity has sought, in the past, to impose a strait jacket on Catholics: we are one Body, under one head, the Pope on earth, walking in conformity along the publicly approved road.  But that is not the whole of Paul’s teaching, because he tells us that “the Body is not one member, but many”; for diversity, as in natural so also in supernatural life, is best able to bear adequate witness to the inscrutable depths of the wisdom and beauty, goodness and power of God.

Today, however, whereas our political set-up seems to ape the old-church conformity through its promotion of political correctness, in the Church, on the other hand, the necessary unity under one head -- with the Pope as visible and temporal head of the Body whose supreme, invisible, and eternal Head is Jesus the Risen Lord -- is much enfeebled by individuals claiming the right to pick and choose what to believe and how to behave whilst still, paradoxically, asserting themselves to be true members of the one, universal, Body.

On this day of Pentecost, dear People of God, in our rejoicing, let us rejoice in the Truth: Variety and Unity are both essential in the Church.  She is not what the Corinthians wanted to imagine, that is, a gathering where each and every one could strive to display and develop themselves and their personal egos:

You are still carnal: for where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?   (1 Corinthians 3:3)

On the other hand, neither is Mother Church like some marble obelisk that abides untouched by the passage of time; it is essential for her to grow and develop because the Spirit has been given to provoke change by gradually leading her into the fullness of truth.

If there were only liberal-lefties in the Church, she would be like that herd of Gadarene swine that went off in a wild and unrestrained rush and drowned in the waters of Galilee.  Were there none but died-in-the-wool traditionalists -- more conservative than Rome and more papal than the Pope -- she would be like a lifeless bulk held fast and immovable by its own inertia, impervious to the gentle breathing of the Spirit of Life ever seeking to prepare her gradually for what will be her heavenly fulfilment.

And so, People of God, today we – both as a body and individually – are being offered God’s best Gift: the Spirit of Love, Truth, and Life.   To fruitfully receive what is being offered we must want, we must strive, to use God's Gift for God's purposes, and in God's way; therefore, we should always bear in mind the supreme purpose of God’s Gift offered to us this day: it is for the Glory of God, the good of Mother Church as a whole, and for the saving of souls.

The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.

We must also realize that we cannot hide away in some corner of the set-up and let somebody else do what has to be done, because (1 Corinthians 12:18-19):

God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.   And if they were all one member, where would the body be?  But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.  And the eye cannot say "I am not needed"; nor again the feet, "There is no need of us”. (1 Corinthians 12:18-21)

Dear People of God, the high and mighty – even though set on high by the p rovidential purpose of God – are, maybe individually, but above all as a group, always prepared and easily persuaded to think too highly of themselves e.g. using servile language to show their obedience and devotion with regard to the Pope, a practice inviting the old charges of ‘Popery’, and so alien to the ‘feet’ and humbler members of the one Body which we all are in Christ.

On that first Pentecost, as you heard,

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance, speaking of the wonderful works of God.

Today the same Holy Spirit wills to come to us for a purpose: not frequently “to speak with other tongues” in our modern times, but certainly to lead us to “speak of the wonderful works of God” in creation, in Jesus, in Mother Church, and in our own lives.  Each and every one of us should be prepared to give humble glory to God by speaking, in his or her own way according to gifts received, of the effect which the truth and the grace of Jesus has had on our lives: the beauty our minds have been enabled to recognise and appreciate, and the joy and hope which have come to abide and hold peaceful sway in our hearts. We would fail God if we were afraid to be our humble, individual, selves in thus joyfully giving sincere and truthful witness to Him and to the Faith; for our first duty, as the angels proclaimed is to give:

            Glory to God in the highest.

However, because we are all members of the one Body of Christ, besides individual sincerity and truth there must be humility and charity in our mutual relations, because, our lives, with all their gifts and talents, are meant to serve the common dignity and common good of the whole Body, as the angels went on to declare:

            Glory to God in the highest, and peace to His People on earth.

The song once sung by the Angels at the birth of Christ has now to become a sublime and eternal chorus in which heaven and earth unite, because Jesus, having finished His mission on earth and being risen from the dead, has now ascended to heaven where He is seated at the Right Hand of Power.  And, as the Psalmist (110:1) prophesied, God the Father has embraced His victorious and glorious Son with the words:

Sit at My right hand till I make Your enemies Your footstool.

People of God, today, Mother Church is urging and encouraging us to join ever more wholeheartedly in that paean of praise; for the Spirit is being offered us in and through her that we might work to make the enemies of Jesus a footstool for His feet as the Father wills: that is my vocation, it is also yours, indeed it is the vocation of us all together in Mother Church.  What a privilege we have: let us get on with it, with grateful praise on our lips and trustful confidence in our hearts!

                                      

7th Sunday of Easter Year A 2020

Sermon 30: 7^th. Sunday of Eastertide (A)

(Acts 1:12-14; 1st. Peter 4:13-16; John 17:1-11)

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Jesus, at Supper with His beloved Apostles, was speaking His last free words.  Soon His suffering would be too great, and those surrounding Him too hostile, for Him to be able to speak freely, let alone open His heart in public prayer.  So, here we have Him, surveying the whole course of His life, what had gone before and that which still lay ahead:

Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, I have glorified You on the earth, I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.

From those words we can gather that the whole purpose of Jesus’ life on earth was, primarily, to give glory to His Father by completing the task His Father opened up before Him.  God the Father loved the world so much that He willed His only-begotten Son to take on human flesh.  It is true, of course, that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, loved the world as One God indeed, but since the Son Who came into our world is begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit  proceeds from the Father and the Son, it is quite truly and understandably said that “the Father loved the world, mankind, so much”.  When therefore the Son came into this world as man it was with the over-riding purpose of responding as divinely perfect man to His Father’s great goodness by glorifying His Father: He lived and died for us in order to glorify the Father.

Here at the Last Supper Jesus asks for the help He would need to carry out His purpose to its ultimate fulfilment:

Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.

That is, “Father, I have already given You glory in my life, by my preaching, teaching, miracles, and by leading these disciples to believe in You; now give Me that final help whereby I might glorify You supremely by dying on the Cross for love of You and Your purposes for mankind, and by rising again to You in glory.”

Now, you are well aware, I trust, that Holy Mass is likewise celebrated in the first place for the glory of God.  Do you, however, understand just what that means?  It means this: Jesus, the Son of God made man, considered it His supreme calling to die for the glory of His Father’s name and for the fulfilment of His Father’s good will.  It means that when I, as a priest of Jesus in Mother Church, hold up His Precious Body and Blood saying  “Through Him, with Him, in Him; in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is Yours, Almighty Father, for ever and ever”, then, I am saying on behalf of the whole Church and in the name of Jesus Himself:  “Father, You are so wonderful that we, here in Mother Church, are offering You the very sacrifice which Jesus made of Himself for love of You.  Jesus, your beloved and only-begotten Son, the glory of mankind, considered it His supreme calling and desire to die for Your Glory and for the fulfilment of Your will; and as Head of the Body which is His Church, He wills to associate His pilgrim Church on earth with Himself in that offering made once on Calvary and which He now constantly presents before You in heaven where, Scripture tells us:

He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)

It is  by obeying His call to offer herself in spirit and in truth with Him, that Mother Church is thereby enabled to become more and more truly the Body of Christ – and in her, you and I are called to become other Christs (Catechism 2782) -- just as the offering of bread and wine becomes the sacramental Body and Blood of Christ.

Now, consider that since Jesus is the Son, equal in His Divine Nature with the Father, it is not the Father’s power or majesty or anything of that Divine Nature which so delight’s His co-equal Son, since He already has and shares in all that the Father has, together with the Holy Spirit.  No, it is the very Person of the Father Who is so uniquely wonderful in the eyes of Jesus His Son made flesh on earth.  And so, Holy Mass, the Eucharist, our supreme thanksgiving, is above all the confession and acknowledgement of the Person of the Father, given by the Son and His Church in power of the Holy Spirit. By His sacrificial glorifying of the Father in His human flesh on the Cross, Jesus saved us, won us freedom from the devil's power, and here, at Holy Mass we can join with Him in His unceasing offering of that sacrifice on our behalf before the Father; and that is why Mother Church both encourages and leads us to proclaim at Mass:

            Glory to God in the Highest and peace to His People on earth.

That glorifying of God with Jesus is indeed the supreme way mankind can learn both peace on earth and become -- in Him -- true, adoptive, and most loving, children of God, as St. Paul tells us:

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes (1 Corinthians 11:26);

and as Mother Church teaches us in the catechism (1405): ‘Every time this mystery (of the Eucharist) is celebrated the work of our redemption is carried on.’

Father, how wonderful You are, for it is our supreme privilege and joy to be able to offer You this Eucharist Sacrifice wherein we give you divine Praise and fitting Thanksgiving and also cooperate with and share in the work of our world's salvation, through Jesus Christ, you beloved Son, our dearest Lord and Saviour!

In the second reading we heard St. Peter tell us:

If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.  

There, Peter calls the Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of Glory.  It was because He was totally led by the Spirit of Glory that Jesus was enabled to give glory to the Father and it is in power of the same Spirit, bequeathed to us by the Risen Lord, that we too are enabled and inspired to give glory to God.  However, we should be clear what that means and what it entails, for quite often Christians think that it is by they themselves doing something notable, remarkable, that they give glory to God. by attributing it to Him, perhaps by saying “I could not have done it of myself”, or “It was really God not me who did it.”  That however is ‘Thanksgiving’ to God, something that can, indeed, be quite beautiful, but it is not ‘Glory’ to God,  for true glory to God is only given by way of witness to the wonder of God’s own beauty, truth, goodness, power and majesty: it is not an achievement, a ‘glory’ which is first of all ours, coming from something wonderful we have done, and which we then attribute to God.                                                         

In order to be able to give true glory to God we must needs come to recognize, and be filled with awe and admiration at the wonder of His Being and the splendour of His creation, at the beauty of our world, and the worth and dignity of our brethren.  For that we must be open to, and filled with, the Spirit of glory and joy.

            Rejoice Mary the Lord is with you!

At this time, therefore, we should do as did the Apostles, of whom we were told in the first reading:

They went up into the upper room where they were staying (in Jerusalem): Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James.   These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

They all joined in prayer for the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Helper, the Comforter, the Spirit of Glory, promised by Jesus. We too, dear People of God, ought to most sincerely and wholeheartedly join in the prayer of Mother Church at this Eucharist for the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Mother Church and into our individual hearts this coming Pentecost.  We should want what He wants to result from His coming, begging that He might reveal to us the beauty of the Father and the glory of the Risen Lord Jesus, and that He might also make Himself known to us by the peace and joy His presence gives to our hearts and the light and understanding with which He graces our minds .  In that way, we can hope that we may ultimately come to regard it as life's supreme blessing to be able to offer ourselves in sacrifice with Jesus to the Father.

Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You.