Ever to be adored

Today is the first Sunday after Pentecost, which ends the Great Fifty Days of Easter. We are back to what is called Ordinary Time of the Church calendar. However, there really is no “ordinary time” in the life of the Church, because a single Holy Mass offered any-time is of infinite value. Every Holy Mass offered anytime gives us the opportunity to come in intimate contact with the Blessed Trinity; to become united to the Son, and through the Son, to be united to the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

Our Final Goal is in fact, the Holy Trinity and to be One with the Holy Trinity, Who is the God who is Love. And this is the reason why the truth of the Holy Trinity is the key pillar of the Christian faith and so why we celebrate liturgically this great Solemnity right after Pentecost. However, every single Holy Mass on Sunday or Weekday is a celebration of the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity.

It took a few centuries for Church to try to discuss the Trinity in ways that are true to the mystery; and as a result, we say that the Trinity consists of three persons with one nature in perfect unity. Personally, we can have a great deal of trouble trying to contemplate this Mystery of all mysteries and so it is very easy to fall into error. And many have fallen into errors in their understanding of the Blessed Trinity especially in our day.

For example, many in our own day think that Jesus was a great guy and a great teacher-prophet; and that he had a unique relationship with the Father, but nonetheless He was still merely just human like the rest of us, a person to admire but not a God to be adored. In the end, they deny that He is equal to the Father; that He is God and always was fully God and always will be God, the living God to be adored. Many such as the Muslims, Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons outright deny the Trinity even though God Himself, Jesus revealed the Trinity; and as God He could neither deceived nor be deceived. Like all the Mysteries of our Faith we believe ultimately because Jesus said so; He revealed them with authority because He alone came from the Father.

In speaking of the Holy Trinity, simply stated, the mystery of the Holy Trinity states that there is one God in three Divine Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, yet there is only one God, not three Gods, - one divine nature in three distinct divine Persons. The Divine nature is not divided between the persons of the Blessed Trinity; each person shares in the fullness of the Divine nature, yet the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Holy Spirit, etc.

It doesn't work to think mathematically (i.e. one plus one plus one equals one). No we must think in terms of love to begin to understand the Trinity. Perhaps one of the easiest ways to think about the Trinity is their essential unity, a unity which comes from Perfect Love. The Three Persons of the Trinity are One in Perfect Love. Let's use the example of Human love to helps us understand.

We understand that when we love someone we want to be close to them; in fact if we really love them we want to be one with them- the expression of "one mind and one heart comes to mind." We say this because we love someone. Our love gives us the intention to live our lives with our loved one in a way that not only proves our undying love and fidelity, but moves towards a more perfect unity, a unity of love. We understand this intention and yet we understand how hard it is to accomplish. Yet, we do try; hopefully. For example, a man and a woman who love each other desire to give their whole selves to each other in marital love--to be one in mind, heart and spirit; when we see someone who loves like this we even say they are of one heart and mind.

For the Holy Trinity, however, love is not just intentional; it is completely real. In other words, They don’t just intend to love each other perfectly as we do, They are able and do love each other perfectly. Each member of the Trinity gives of Himself totally, perfectly to each other, nothing held back; and this total sacrificial gift of themselves unites them in perfect oneness, the oneness of perfect love.

The Fathers of the Church liked to say that the Holy Spirit is the substantial love between the Father and the Son. Their quality is essentially one- unity is the most important. God is Love, the Father is Love, the Son is Love, the Holy Spirit is Love; three persons united so perfectly in Love that they are a unity of one God; love unites--perfect Love unites perfectly.

The Holy Trinity is a mystery; however not to be solved, but to be professed and lived. The Mystery of the Holy Trinity reveals to us that we are called to greatness for we are called to the oneness of Love itself. We are actually called to share in the inner life and so the inner love of the members of the Blessed Trinity; to become one with the Trinity. The Trinity is our destiny. How important our understanding and belief is in the Trinitarian God. If we don't know what or for Whom we are made, how can we ever find our way back to Him, to live as one with Him. We are Made by Love and For Love; we are made to be One with Love--The Blessed Trinity.

And so we must in this life come to know the Blessed Trinity intimately. Before we can live in eternal Love itself--the Trinity, we must learned to love with perfection in this life, to be united in love with God and others for love of God. This is by the way, why unity is so important; unity in our families, unity in our Church on the Universal level, the local diocesan level, and the parish and unity among all Christians and among all men. There is no true love without unity; true love unites. This is why also, by the way, we must take an active part in family life; especially parish family life; giving of our time, talent and treasure...it's a matter of love.

To obtain this unity of love we must of course have contact, intimate with Perfect Unity Itself, Perfect Love Itself, the Blessed Trinity. The Blessed Trinity is the source of all unity and all love; He is the source of true and authentic family life because He is Family, not a family but The Family.

How do we have intimate contact with the Trinity? Well yes through prayer, but especially prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. The Blessed Sacrament is the way to the Blessed Trinity of Divine Persons, for it is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Jesus become Man. Through our adoration of the humanity of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist we can in faith touch the divinity of Jesus and so touch the Holy Trinity through the perfect Love and unity of the Son.

And then when we receive Jesus with faith in Holy Communion, He comes to us, in us; and through Him, the Father and Holy Spirit comes to us and in us as well and They make Their abode with us. As a result, when we receive Holy Communion worthily (and worthily is the key word here) we receive all Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. In the Holy Eucharist God gives Himself totally to us in love. And if in Faith, Adoration, Hope and love we offer ourselves to Him in return, we then begin to share already on earth, in the inner life and love of the members of Blessed Trinity. And the Trinitarian love is from whom we came and the greatness to which we are called to return.

Next we celebrate the Holy Eucharist in the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Jesus. It is more than just of feast of the Son present in the Holy Eucharist because it is, as I have just said, the means by which we adore and commune with the whole Blessed Trinity. It is a chance for us to not only profess publicly our faith in the Holy Eucharist but our faith in the Whole Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Let us all celebrate that great feast day by coming to Mass and then joining in the Eucharist procession after the Tridentine Mass. The procession will begin at about 1:30pm. Join us as we take Jesus through our streets and by doing so profess our faith that He is really in the Holy Eucharist and that He is the Way to the Father, and the Truth by which we live.

In a little while when we profess the Creed of our Beautiful Catholic faith, we will profess our belief in the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, let us turn to the Blessed Mother to help us. By her powerful intercession she can obtain for us the grace to elevate our poor human understanding to contemplate the unfathomable mystery of the Blessed Trinity. to Holy Mary, Our Heavenly Mother, you who are the Daughter of the Father, the Mother of the Son and the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, intercede for us, pray for us poor sinners so that we may be united to Living God in Love and to one another in that same love. Amen.