Trinity Sunday Year B, 2024

 

(Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40; Romans 8:14-17; Matthew 28:16-20)

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

In those words from today’s second reading St. Paul refers to the transcendent blessing won for us by Jesus Our Lord and Saviour: for, by embracing the cruellest punishment the Roman State could inflict – death on a cross -- He destroyed death’s power over us, and, by rising from the dead He restored our Life.

Jesus died for love of His Father ; He suffered on the  Cross for love of us.

That is, by His transformation of the human horror of dying on the Cross into an act of supreme love for His Father and for us, He shattered the tyrannical hold of death over our human experience of life, and now, by His rising from the grave in the power of the Spirit (Rom. 8:11) He is glorified in His human flesh, and is able to pour out His Spirit upon His Church to free those who believe in Him from their sins and give them the hope of sharing in the divine life of eternal beatitude which is His, with the Spirit, in the presence of His heavenly Father.

All that is most beautiful and true … for us who believe … but what does it mean for those many who do not believe; who think that there is no such thing as sin for which we are responsible before some imaginary God?

It means that the HIV blood scandal affecting, ruining and destroying  thousands of peoples’ lives; it means that the Post office scandal bringing about even the criminal condemnation of the innocent; it means that both those scandals -- done knowingly by people like you and me -- are parts of ordinary life, they are bound to happen because there is no one, greater than man, who can change human nature.  It means that the gangs smuggling people from one part of the world to another, illegally, and for great profit; that the  drug dealers, mobsters, and wild-ones are just endless variants of our rich human endowment!   And none of this can be changed … for apparently good people did some of these terrible things … none of this can be changed because there is no God, nor is there is any such thing as sin!

Of course there are some who foolishly think that they can distract themselves from the evil they have done and learn to forget it; that they can come, in that way, to have no qualms of conscience at all about the harm they continue to do; and of them the psalmist says:

Sin lurks deep in the hearts of the wicked, forever urging them on to evil deeds. They have no fear of God to hold them back.  Instead, in their conceit, they think they can hide their evil deeds and not get caught.  Everything they say is crooked and deceitful; they are no longer wise and good.  They lie awake at night to hatch their evil plots instead of planning how to keep away from wrong. (TLB Ps. 36:1-4)

However, though they may -- to some extent -- hide their sins from themselves; and though their eyes may refuse to recognize, and their minds to admit, the truth about themselves, nevertheless, God is the One Who sees all and knows all, and He hates wickedness; above all, He hates the wickedness of those who claim to be innocent of wrong-doing:

With You Lord is the fountain of life; in Your light do we see light.  Oh, continue Your steadfast love to those who know You, and Your righteousness to the upright in heart.     The evil doers lie fallen; they are thrust down, unable to rise.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.    (Ps 36:9-10,12;  (1 John 1:8-10)

For all who live in Jesus, by the Spirit, for the Father, the gift of forgiveness of sins and freedom from their former enslavement – their former yielding to fear and temptation -- brings a truly sublime experience of peace and hope.

The next blessing Jesus offers us is inconceivable because He promises that His faithful disciples will share in His own heavenly glory:

Now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence, with the glory that I had with You before the world existed.  Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory that You have given Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:5, 24)

That is why St. Paul is able to speak of the “glory of the children of God”.  For the present time, indeed, the fullness of that consuming glory is something we cannot conceive, for it is heavenly and transcends all earthly categories or human imagining.  However, we can experience the beginning of that heavenly glory here on earth, because it is given us – even here and now -- to enter into communion with the Father, in the Son, by the Holy Spirit, as you heard in today’s second reading:

All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons (members of the Body of Christ), by Whom we cry, "Abba, Father."  The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

That means that we are able to have a share in the Son’s loving relationship with His Father by the Holy Spirit: in Jesus, we too can commune with the Father, speak personally with Him as His children and experience His Fatherly love and care for us, as the Spirit of Jesus -- gently working in our spirit and guiding us along His ways – forms us ever more and more in Jesus’ likeness.  In that way, in Jesus and with Him, we can come to know that we are not left to ourselves and that, whatever our weakness, whatever our need, we will never be left alone:

Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has now come, when you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone.  Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with Me. (John 16:32)

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. (John 14:23)

(Father) I made known to them Your name, and will continue to make it known, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:26)

Now, that, People of God, is the supreme reason for our whole-hearted celebration of the Most Holy Trinity today: for, thanks to Jesus, we know by faith, and can appreciate, experience  spiritually, something of the Father’s love, the love which completely embraces and surrounds us, the love which always guides and protects us by the power of Jesus’ Spirit working in us and with us

For all these incomparable blessings we are undyingly grateful to Jesus, Our Lord and Saviour, because it is He alone Who both reveals the Father to us and bequeaths to us His Most Holy Spirit:

Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, except through Me.” (John 14:6)

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 that I said to you. (John 14:26)

And Jesus does all this for us through His faithful Spouse, Mother Church, which continues to do as He originally commanded her:

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. 

Pentecost Day Year B, 2024

 

(Acts 2:1-11; Galatians 5:16-25; John 15:26-27; 16:12-15)

Jesus promised His Apostles:

When the Helper comes, Whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth Who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me.

How was the Spirit to bear witness about Jesus with regard to the Apostles?

He, the Spirit of truth, will guide you into all the truth; He will declare to you the things that are to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you.

Notice, People of God, how careful Jesus was to confirm the oneness of divine witness: the Spirit of Truth would not speak of Himself but, taking from what the Father has, He would glorify Jesus:

He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak He will glorify Me, because He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you.  All that the Father has is Mine.

The Spirit leading Mother Church would therefore inspire the Apostles to recall and proclaim all and only what Jesus had taught them in word and deed, and whatever the Father would reveal.  In the Church of Christ, since the Holy Spirit of Truth Himself does not speak on His own authority, most certainly, private individuals cannot do so.  The authentic teaching of Mother Church on faith and morals is divine, both in its authority, and ultimately in its origin, being the sublime truth about God’s intimate nature, and His divine will for the fulfilment of human life on earth, and for mankind’s eternal destiny.  That means, it is a teaching and source of grace to be received most gratefully as an incomparable pearl of great price, to be treasured more than life itself.

How does the Spirit move the faithful in the Church?

Since He guides the Apostles into ALL TRUTH, correspondingly, He guides those who are faithful in Mother Church to appreciate God’s truth, and trustfully guide their steps along ways prescribed by its wisdom, and through delight in its beauty by the lovingly spiritual aspirations of their hearts and minds.  This He does by informing our obedient lives in such a way that we gradually develop an affinity with God’s revelation, and an ability to rejoice ever more and more in its beauty and draw ever greater strength from its truth.   It was of such guidance of the Church by the Spirit that St. Paul spoke in the second reading:

I say: Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.   If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Here, these words of Jesus Himself come to mind (Matthew 11:29-12:1):

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light;  

St. Paul, was personally chosen and sent by the Risen Lord  Jesus to suffer and serve as Doctor of the Nations and Apostle of the Gentiles, yet he is commonly regarded as being harsh, unfeeling, and indeed, even exclusive, as exemplified by what they consider to be his teaching in our second reading today: no one can belong to Christ Jesus unless he crucifies all self-indulgent passions and desires … a teaching which many say leads them to reject Christianity.

However, in most cases, that pseudo-reason is more truly to be regarded as an excuse attempting to justify their rejection, not of what is impossible, but of whatever they fear they would find too restrictive and less pleasurable.  For St. Paul does not use those exclusive words ‘you cannot belong to Christ Jesus’, and no modern bible attributes such words to Him; in fact, he actually says:

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

And he follows that immediately with the words:

            If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

We should, therefore, understand Paul in this way:

Those who belong to Christ Jesus, (those) who live by the Spirit and walk in step with the Spirit, have crucified the flesh.

There, all of us are afforded hope, since it is by our living and walking in the Spirit, Paul says, that the Spirit will crucify for us ‘the flesh with its passions and desires’.  Of course, we have to co-operate with the Spirit by following His lead, but that is a far different prospect from having to set about -- off one’s own bat so to speak -- crucifying our human flesh.  For the fact is that, of ourselves, we cannot crucify our flesh in any saving way, as St. Paul himself tells us:

Things done according to the precepts and teachings of men have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion, and asceticism, and severity to the body, but (such practices) are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. (Colossians 2:22-23)

The great fault of lapsing, faint-hearted, Catholics and Christians today, the great mistake of the voluble critics of Mother Church’s moral teaching today, is the fact that they ignore, indeed they know nothing about, the presence -- the active presence and power -- of the Holy Spirit of Truth and Love in the lives of Jesus’ true disciples and faithful children of Mother Church today.  We, of ourselves, can do nothing that leads to salvation.  Jesus, the Risen and Ascended Lord, sends the Spirit from the Father precisely to enable us to do what He commands in order that we might be gradually raised up, in Him, and ultimately  take our place, in Him and with Him, before the Father. 

This is exemplified for us by the Apostles who had received a commission and a command from the risen Jesus to proclaim His Good News to the whole world, for they first went back to their fishing, awaiting Jesus’ promised Gift of Power from on High.  They only set out on their mission of evangelisation after they had received that Gift of God, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of holiness and power, on His very first outpouring upon the Church, as we heard in the first reading.  The Apostles themselves could do nothing – of themselves -- until He, the Gift of God, came into their lives, enabling them to live in the power and holiness of the Risen Lord Jesus for the glorification of His name: He will glorify Me through you.

People of God, we should -- on this wonderful day of celebration and hope -- beg the Holy Spirit to come down upon us; we should whole-heartedly beseech Jesus to send His most Holy Spirit from heaven into our lives ever more and more, for He alone is our sure strength and our true joy in this shallow world of worldly promises become lies and disillusionment, of earthly beauty become emptiness and dismay.

First of all, we need to learn from the Spirit how to love Jesus aright; for, only by trying to follow Him and not yielding to our own ‘wantings’ and fears, will we be enabled -- by the Spirit -- both to obey His commands with a measure of joy, and walk in His ways with due perseverance.   In that way, we will gradually find Jesus more and more truly lovable, because of our growing conformity, likeness, to Him; and thus, appreciating Him more, we will be able to hear more clearly His Spirit speaking intimately in our hearts and guiding us along ways that are increasingly personal to our relationship with Jesus.  We will, of course never be led to desert the common way of His commandments-intended-for-all, but we will have the great delight of finding ourselves growing in personal intimacy with the Lord and heart-felt responsiveness to His Spirit.  Indeed, we will gradually become aware of the presence of the Father Himself in our lives, for Jesus did indeed promise that supreme delight and joy as St. John (14:23) tells us:

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.

People of God, this day is the birthday of the Church, it is the day which commemorates and renews the birth of heavenly hope in our hearts and of ‘practical’ power in our lives: for the Spirit offers us all a goal and an eternal destiny of glory and joy as children of God in the Body of Christ, our very own Lord and Saviour, for the ultimate glory of Him Who is the Father, Lord of heaven and earth (Luke 10:21).                                        

7th Sunday of Easter Year B, 2024

 

(Acts 1:15-17, 20-26; 1 John: 4:11-16; St. John 17: 11-19)

I have given them Your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I ask that You keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.  For their sake I consecrate Myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus, spoke those words to His heavenly Father Whose work for Him on earth was about to be triumphantly completed … prayed them for His beloved Galilean disciples, soon to be Apostles with world-wide authority and charism, but now, at this moment, facing the greatest trial of their lives … and twice, most emphatically, He said to His Father:

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Dear friends, do you think that the Church is proud of, treasures, those words today?   Do you think that Catholics high and authoritative,  are effectively teaching, and seeking to exemplify, for  their flocks … words, which are Jesus’ own characterisation of His chosen and beloved disciples, and as such. should be treasured above all ‘they are … just as I’?

Of course those words need to be understood aright as Jesus intended them that is, but the question is not that deep, rather it is a surface question of whether the Church generally even averts to those words in her dealings with our world today?  What do you think?   I think not.

            They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world

Those are not antagonistic words, they are words of supreme Christian love!

Jesus was shortly to undergo the horrific Roman crucifixion to save the world; to save the world by changing the world through the gift of His most Holy Spirit of truth and love whom He would bestow on the world through those very disciples, those most true disciples, of whom He said:

            They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

So much has been and is still being done in our times to accommodate the Church to the world, that an occasional word of witness can in no-way make up for the, by now ingrained, attitudes of cosying-up, wanting to be popular, wanting to make Jesus popular!!

Dear People of God, we will soon celebrate the great feast of Pentecost, please, pray God, that He may grant us grace to facilitate the Spirit’s coming by wanting what Jesus is sending Him for, to form us in the like of Himself meaning wholeheartedly those words:

            They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.