Oh Most Holy Trinity Undivided Unity: Homily for the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity

 

Rom 8:14-17

Mt 28:16-20

 

The gospel and real life came together this weekend.  Yesterday morning at St. Ignatius I baptized the eight-month old daughter of friends using the ancient formula outlined in today’s gospel.  Not one sound of protest came from the baby as I poured the water over her head while pronouncing the formula in today’s gospel: “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.“  This formula is the sine qua non of baptism.  Baptism using any different formula e.g. “The Church baptizes you . . . “ “We baptize you ,“ or degendered and woke formulae is neither sacramental nor is it valid. The ritual must be repeated using proper sacramental form.

 

As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity we are compelled to contemplate the essential dogma of our faith, the dogma we recall every time we pray. What we call the Trinitarian formula is NOT the gender-free version in vogue in certain circles that pray and baptize in the name of  creator, redeemer, and sanctifier.  Besides being linguistically awkward it is theologically and philosophically wrong.  A function does not define a person and no person is fully defined by a function. The dogma of the Holy Trinity is One God in Three Divine Persons.  It does not describe a small ‘g’ god  defined by and limited to three functions.  The perversion of the formula to creator, redeemer, and sanctifier reduces God to functions not persons.  Might as well use quarterback, fullback, and water boy.  It would be an equally function-based formula.  And equally absurd.

 

The Trinitarian formula, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is critical to the Church's seven sacraments, from baptism to the anointing of the sick and dying.  The sign of the cross begins and ends everything the Church does, as it should and as it must. 

 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, (#234) notes:  “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in Himself.  It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them.  It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the hierarchy of the truths of faith.”

 

Every time we make the sign of the cross we recall a mystery that is ultimately incomprehensible.  Many volumes attempt to explain the it but explaining the Trinity  is an impossible undertaking if there ever was one.  Each book may contain a kernel of insight into the nature of the Trinity depending on the biases of the writer.  However, the sum of all the books written does not capture the essence of the Trinity.  The trinitarian dogma depends on faith. This raises the question: What is faith?

 

A dictionary definition is:  “Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.”  The Letter to the Hebrews defines faith as “the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. . . . By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the Word of God, so that what is visible came into being through the invisible." 

 

Thus, we must become comfortable with faith at its most mysterious and impenetrable because despite the absence of logical proof, despite the impossibility and futility  of philosophy, science, or theology of ever "explaining" the Trinity, no one can declare him or herself a Christian if he or she denies the Trinity.

 

The word Trinity does not appear in scripture.  The understanding of the Trinity grew in the earliest years of the Church following Pentecost as she began to consider and meditate upon what Jesus said and did during His time on earth.  Jesus always speaks of His Father as distinct from Himself but He also notes that “I and the Father are One.”  The same is true of the Holy Spirit.  When Jesus refers to His oneness with the Father he is referring to substance and NOT the functions of creator, redeemer, or sanctifier. 

 

The ancient Creeds in Greek use homoousion which was translated into consubstantialem  in Latin. It is obvious that the English consubstantial, meaning one essence or one substance, is rooted in the Latin.  We are accustomed to persons being distinct rather than the same and have a hard time wrapping our minds around the concept of  “consubstantial."

 

Over the past weeks many of the gospel readings have been taken from the farewell discourse in John’s Gospel.  Jesus refers to both the Father and the Holy Spirit in reference to Himself several times in this discourse.  The Trinity is a mystery.  However, it is also the mystery  that allowed Paul to write in his Letter to the Romans:

 

“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
if only we suffer with him
so that we may also be glorified with him.”

 

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Photos were taken while wandering around downtown Boston one night.  Thoroughly enjoy shooting at night. 

 

Wine glasses in a shop on Charles Street not far from MGH. 

A painting for sale in a gallery on Charles, a cery charming street

A 2.5 second shot of the traffic on Storrow Drive around 9 PM

Boston at night from the Cambridge side of the  Charles River

Ornaments hanging in a shop.  I took these in November several years ago.  

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD 

Come Holy Ghost Creator Blest: Homily for the Solemnity of Pentecost

 

Acts 2:1-11

Ps 104

1 Cor 12:3-7,12-13

Jn 20:19-23

 

The word Pentecost which derives from Greek meaning fiftieth day is not unique to the Church.  Pentecost, is linked to the Jewish feast of Shavuot that commemorates Moses receiving the Torah on Mt. Sinai fifty days after the Exodus.  Shavuot, which is also known as Pentecost, falls fifty days after the first seder of Passover, always between May 15^th and June 14^th.  Due to irregularities in the Jewish calendar this year Passover and Shavuot

are unusually late this year.  Catholics celebrate Pentecost on the fiftieth day after the Resurrection of the Lord. It always falls between May 10^th and June 13^th.

 

Just as Moses received the wisdom and teaching of the Torah fifty days after the Exodus, the Church received the wisdom and teaching of the Holy Spirit on the fiftieth day after Jesus’ exodus from death.

 

The first reading is dramatic. Wind.  Fire.  Speaking in tongues.  It is an ideal scene for Cecil B. DeMille.  The people were shocked when they heard the unsophisticated Galileans speaking multiple languages as they shared the Good News of Jesus. 

 

The speaking in tongues is sometimes known as “the reversal of Babel,” At Pentecost, that which had been split apart by human pride at Babel was rejoined through Jesus’ obedience to the Father.  That which had been shattered by hubris was reassembled by Jesus, who sent the Holy Spirit as He had promised. 

 

As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.”  He listed those gifts in the Letter to the Romans.

Today we celebrate the giving of those gifts.  Each of us receives unique ones and combinations. The gifts are not identical to those given to another. Our task is to discover and develop our unique gifts throughout life. 

 

In some parts of U.S. society it is fashionable, as a bizarre form of virtue signaling and wokeness, to deny even the possibility, to say nothing of the reality,  

of differences and distinctions, of different abilities and accompanying inabilities.

This sort of thinking professes that there is no difference between truth and untruth.  This bizarre thinking has now affected medicine.  There are only two sexes and they are not changeable or interchangeable no matter the extent of surgery or amount of hormones pumped into a body.

 

The price is high for those who profess the truth. The risk of not believing, teaching, or preaching the narratives du jour may result in job loss, demands for public mea culpas, or cancellation, which is the American version of Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag. 

 

A current example is the hysteria, screaming, and accusations surrounding the commencement speech given by Harrison Butker kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs. He called sin a sin in regard to abortion, euthanasia, and a number of sexual irregularities. There are demands that he be fired from his job with the team immediately.

 

Meanwhile Butker’s teammate Travis Kelce, Taylor Swifts boy-toy du jour, is praised for chugging a can of beer at a podium and encouraging the students to follow suit  during his commencement speech.  Denying differences fuels an unreal sense of specialness causing each individual or faction to insist that his, her, or the group's specialness must be recognized as the most special of all forms of specialness, even to having a day, week, or month dedicated to trumpeting that specialness, no matter how perverse or disordered.

 

One of the most dangerous lies ever told is: "You can be anything you want to be." No one can become anything he or she wants to be simply by wanting to be that thing, or, in current terminology, by identifying as it.  We all have limits determined by genetic makeup, anatomy, physiology, neural development, inherent talents, and inherent lack of talents. Strengths are balanced by weaknesses.  Native abilities are balanced by disabilities,  Potential in some areas is balanced by a complete lack of same in others. The only equality among humans is that we are sinners.

 

Comparing the accounts of Pentecost in Acts and John's Gospel may be confusing. The descent of the Holy Spirit in Acts was clearly fifty days after Jesus' resurrection and ten days after the Ascension.  John seems to indicate the Holy Spirit descended soon after the Resurrection while Jesus was present among the apostles. “And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,  "Receive the Holy Spirit." 

 

How does one reconcile the two accounts?  There is no need to do so. Yesterday's gospel ended with the final verse of John's Gospel which instructs, 

"There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written."

 

We cannot and must not isolate discrete moments, episodes, or descriptions

from what is one single event, the event of Jesus' revelation of the Father. There is no discontinuity from the Nativity to Pentecost no matter how it is narrated in the gospels. The gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit have been given us. That is all we need to know. The logistics and theology are not important.  Our task is to cooperate with those gifts and graces in the manner to which each of us is called.

Our mandate is to share the news of Jesus with those whom we meet in whatever language necessary.

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Gave a five-day retreat to a group of 12 priests in Cohassett during the week.  Got home yesterday afternoon and crashed.  Just got around to writing the homily for tomorrow.  The retreat was a good one with mostly good though cool weather.  Did not have quite as much time as I would have liked to spend with the camera.  

 

Don't know who owns the house but I would love an invite to shoot from there.  Puts me in mind of The Great Gatsby

Boater heading out toward the Atlantic

The same boater a few minutes later.

The John Quincy Adams estate across the bay in Scituate.  The pronunciation is Sit choo ut.  I badly mispronounced it the first time I tried.  Cannot repeat the response of  those who heard it.

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

To Live in the House of the Lord: 7th Sunday of Easter

 

Ps 27:1,4, 7-8

Jn 17:1-11

 

Thursday was the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord marking forty days since Jesus’ resurrection.  One week from today we will celebrate the Feast of Pentecost.  With that the Easter Season comes to an end. 

 

The day after Pentecost the Church will celebrate the recently promulgated Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church after which ordinary time will be visibly symbolized by green vestments rather than white.  Ordinary time will continue until the new liturgical year begins on December 1, the first Sunday of Advent. Because this is a leap year, Christmas 2024 will be on a Wednesday.  

 

During the fifty days after Easter many of the readings come from Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel of John.  Acts was written by the same Luke who wrote the Gospel.  The book gives us a window into the early life of the Church.  We see the interpersonal and social dynamics that brought together--and sometimes split apart—a community that recognized Jesus as the Messiah, the Promised One, the Christ. 

 

The formation and growth of the early Church wasn’t always smooth. The sinful side of human nature raised its head more than once in those early years.  It continues to do so today. But despite the challenges the community grew rapidly as it spread the Gospel throughout the world.  There was something unique about this group of believers,  something that had never been seen before.  As we heard in the reading from Acts two weeks ago “It was at Antioch that they were first called Christians.”  The giving of that name was crucial.

 

Once an individual has a name, he can establish a way of being

and a way of proceeding. He can establish an identity.  Similarly, once a group has a name it can begin to assume an identity.  Once they are named groups and individuals become rooted in history.  The name Christian took root very early and has continued for two millennia despite historical and current attempts to erase it.  

 

While Acts gives us history John's Gospel gives us Christology, an understanding of Jesus. That Christology is different from what we find in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, gospels that are more heavily biographical. 

 

The Gospel just proclaimed was comprised of verses 1 to 11 of the John’s 17^th chapter.   Chapter seventeen of John’s gospel is unique. It has no parables, stories, or discourse.  There is no instruction to or dialogue with the apostles.  The entire chapter is a long prayer from Jesus to the Father. It is worth reading slowly at home. 

 

"Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ."

 

"Now this is eternal life . . . "

 

Eternal life is not some distant far-away place.  Eternal life has nothing to do with Dante's Divine Comedy, a work that can be described as exquisite poetry but terrible theology.  When Jesus described eternal life in this prayer, a prayer that he made shorty before His passion, he repeated  what he had said earlier.

 

"Who believes in the Son has eternal life." (3:36)

"Who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has eternal life." (5:24)

 

In his commentary on the Fourth Gospel Jesuit Father Stanley Marrow wrote:  "To believe in and to know the one whom God has sent does not lead to or result in eternal life. It is eternal life." That is a powerful statement. To believe in the one whom the Father sent . . . is eternal life.

 

Eternal life does not begin after death.  Death continues the eternal life that began when we came to believe in and to know the one sent by God, Jesus, Son of the Father, Son of Mary, Jesus the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Redeemer.

 

The psalmist understood this when he wrote:

 

"One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek:
to dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
That I may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord

 and contemplate his temple."

 

"To dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life"

 

Not after my life has ended but all the days of my life as it is in this moment and in every moment more that I am given to live. 

 

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Photos are from last weekend in Vermont.  Stopped at two of the lakes .  Spring was very delayed at 2600 feet elevation in VT.  Just two weeks earlier they had had 36 inches of snow.  Tends to slow things down.  

 

Lake Madeline which is part of a hydroelectric plant.

Processing allowed for the dark background on a brilliantly sunny day.

Lake Bardo.  The dock was red but it is practically stripped down to raw wood.

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

What a Friend We Have . . . Homily for the 6th Sunday of Easter

 

Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48

Ps 98

1 Jn 4:7-10

Jn 15:9-17

 

The Acts of the Apostles and John's Gospel come to the fore during the Easter Season.  Acts give us a refresher course in the reality of early Church history, including the conflicts and squabbles.  John's Gospel recalls for us Jesus' teaching on love, most particularly during the farewell discourse.  There is much here on which to meditate.

 

One of the things that has mystified and amused me over the years is apostle bashing.  Apostle bashing is a popular indoor sport for theological and scripture types. It reaches its apogee during Lent when we are reminded of the apostles misstatements and miscues and, of course, Peter's triple denial.  Alas, the bashers never admit, indeed they are most often blissfully unaware, that their underlying assumptions are: I never would have acted that way.  I never would have misunderstood, rejected, or tried to manipulate Jesus were I there. 

 

The reality is that none of us would have responded any better than the apostles at best and, most likely, would have reacted to Jesus' teaching more like the Pharisees.

 

The bashers have much less to say about the apostles' behavior and motivations, especially Peter's, after Jesus' glorification.  You don't have to be too psychiatrically sophisticated to figure out the dynamic underlying that.  Over the past weeks we have seen a different Peter, a Peter who is confident, eloquent and humble as opposed to the brash, shoot-from-the-hip-and-the-lip target of the bashers.  The man who swung a sword in Gethsemane is now abashed by Cornelius' homage.  "Get up.  I myself am also a human being."  

 

This particular reading from Acts was, for whatever reason, fragmented by those who put together the lectionary.  We miss much of what the newly eloquent Peter said to Cornelius and those assembled at his home.  We miss the background that makes Peter's assertion radical. 

 

That God is impartial, that whoever fears him and acts "uprightly is acceptable to him" was not, and is not, a new or uniquely Christian teaching.  Jesuit Xavier Leon-Dufour traces the evolution of understanding God's impartiality to the Old Testament beginning in the psalms and moving to Jonah.  He writes, "And gradually we see the emergence of the idea that apart from the Jew Yahweh's love even embraces the pagans as well. . ."  Thus it is no surprise that Peter ordered the Gentiles be allowed to be baptized. 

 

The second reading from the First Letter of John and the reading from John's Gospel are perfectly intertwined.

 

The passage "In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins" recalls Paul's Letter to the Romans,

"(God) shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."  

John and Paul both defined the human condition; that we are sinners. And they limned God's response to that condition: His love. 

 

We are sinners loved by God.  That is why we rejoice during this Easter Season.  We are sinners loved by God and redeemed by God.  Jesus' valedictory words, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends" are among the most well-known and poignant in John's Gospel.  Jesus’ words beg the question, what is friendship with Hiim? 

 

We have to work at all friendships.  It takes time.  It takes effort. I suspect all of us have had the experience of being so dazzled by a new acquaintance that within an unseemly short period of time we've decided that he or she is my new best friend forever.  Too often, though, we become disillusioned. Or we disillusion the other.  We may suddenly reject or be rejected.  Infatuation is a dangerous

and  potentially painful state. 

 

Friendship with Jesus is like those long-time friendships that are a blessing as one ages, the ones that go back thirty or forty years or more.  Friendship with Jesus doesn't need big mystical experiences, tear-inducing consolation at prayer or apparitions.  It is the kind of friendship where both friends can sit together in a room in silence for hours on end without the need for constant stimulation, novelty, or activity.  True friendship tolerates silence.  Infatuation doesn't. 

 

Friendship with Jesus involves living with Him day by day, walking with Him, listening to Him and being nourished by His word, His body and His blood.  True friendship nourishes our lives and our souls.

 

In commenting on this Gospel, the late Jesuit Father Stanley Marrow  writes that that loving with utmost generosity and utter selflessness, even to laying down one's life, is not uniquely Christian.  What distinguishes, or must distinguish, Christians is that  when they love, they love as Christ loved them and because he loved them.

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Had some free time this AM.  Went to monastery overlook on Mt. Equinox to shoot with a 70-300 lens.  Took the shots of the monastery and turned to see a paraglider emerging from behind Mt. Equinox.  No way.  No how.  No never.  

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD