SOLEMNITY OF THE HOLY TRINITY

 

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. This celebration compels us to contemplate the essential dogma of our faith.  We recall this dogma every time we begin and end Mass. We invoke the Trinity every time we pray.  We recall the Trinity whenever we say the words  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

 

The Trinitarian formula is NOT the absurd gender-free version in vogue in certain pathetic circles that choose to invoke and pray in the name of a creator, a redeemer, and a sanctifier.  Anyone baptized with that absurd formula, as has been done, is not validly baptized.  The sacrament must be repeatedusing the proper formula.  The same is true of all other sacraments received following the invalid baptism.

 

While linguistically awkward the woke formula is also theologically and philosophically wrong.  A function is not 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. Using butcher, baker, and candlestick maker, or quarterback, fullback, and water boy would be a similarly function-based formula,  equally bizarre, and invalid. 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.

 

We read in The Catechism of the Catholic Church, (#234):  “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 remains incomprehensible  despite the many volumes attempting to explain it.  Each book may contain a kernel of insight into the nature of the Trinity.  However the sum of all the books written does not come close to capturing the full essence of the Trinity.  The dogma of the Trinity depends on faith and can only be understood through the eyes of faith. This raises the question: What is faith?

 

A dictionary definition of faith is:  “Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.”  The Letter to the Hebrews gives a better definition: "Faith is 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."  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 to explain 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 as she began to consider 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 creation,

redemption, or enlightenment. 

 

The ancient Creeds in Greek used homoousion or substance which was translated as consubstantialem in Latin. It is obvious that the English word consubstantial that we will repeat in the Creed shortly, emerges directly from the Latin.   

 

We are accustomed to persons being distinct rather than the same.  We have a hard time wrapping our minds around three in one. We have a very hard time wrapping our minds around “consubstantial."

 

The Trinity is a mystery that, in the end, compels us to sing with the psalmist:

 

"Blessed are you, O Lord,

the God of our Fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted

above all forever;
And blessed is your holy

and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted

above all for all ages."

 

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A few shots from Central Taiwan and Sun Moon Lake.  

 

 Fr. Jack, SJ, MD

Pentecost

 

Acts 2:1-11

Ps 104

1 Cor 12:3-7,12-13

Jn 20:19-23

 

The celebration of Pentecost, a name derived  from Greek meaning fiftieth day. is not unique to the Church.  Pentecost is another name for the Jewish feast of Shavuot, the festival that commemorates Moses receiving the Torah fifty days after the Exodus. Shavuot always falls between May 15 and June 14 on the Gregorian calendar. This year it was just a few days ago beginning on the evening of June 1 and ending at nightfall on June 3.  For Catholics, Pentecost always falls between May 10^th and June 13^th fifty days after the Resurrection. Moses received the wisdom and teaching of the Torah fifty days after the Exodus from Egypt. The Church receives the wisdom and teaching of the Holy Spirit on the fiftieth day following Jesus’ exodus from the tomb.

 

Place yourself in the first reading.  Imagine the drama of strong wind, the appearance of fiery tongues, and the shock of hearing a group of Galilean tradesmen speaking multiple languages as they preached the Good News of Jesus to all present from around the world. 

 

Speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, is sometimes described as reversing the tower of Babel. That which had been linguistically separated through human pride was rejoined through Jesus’ obedience to the Father.  That which had been shattered by hubris was reassembled after Jesus sent the Holy Spirit as He promised. 

 

Paul wrote to the Corinthians that “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 in unique combinations. No person’s gifts are identical to those given to another.Our task throughout life is to discover and develop our unique gifts and to use them for the greater good.  For some it is fashionable, to deny any kind of differences and distinctions, abilities and inabilities.  This mode of thinking professes that there is no difference between truth and untruth. 

 

The price is high for those who profess the truth. The risk of not hewing to or not 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 few years ago Harrison Butker kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs gave a commencement speech at Benedictine College in Kansas. He called sin for what it is in regard to abortion, euthanasia, and a number of sexual irregularities. There were demands that he be fired, if not executed, immediately.

 

Denying differences and eliminating the consideration of strengths and weaknesses, is the sort of thinking that underlies DEI nonsense and fuels an artificial 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.  We are currently suffering through one of those “special” months.

 

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are not equally distributed.  One of the most insidious lies we are told is that "You can be anything you want to be." No one can be 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 genetics, anatomy, physiology, neural development, inherent talents, and intelligence. All strengths are balanced by weaknesses.  Abilities are balanced by inabilities and disabilities. Potential in some areas is countered by a complete lack of potential 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, well, at least in some diocese.  John described the descent of the Holy Spirit 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." 

 

There is no real need to balance the two accounts.  As we heard yesterday, "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 Incarnation to Pentecost no matter the gospel narratives meant for vastly different peoples. That the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit have been given to us is all we need to know. The logistics and metaphysics 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.

 

Life now quiet on the BC campus.  Graduation is over.  There isn't much of a summer session here.  Dorms closed.  The Jesuit community is quite depopulated as some men from outside the U.S. have completed their degrees and have returned home, some are doing research, one or two are beginning sabbaticals, including one friend whom I am going to miss during the coming semester.  

 

The photos are from Sevenhill, South Australia, the location of a retreat house and the place at which we made the long retreat during tertianship.  Extraordinary location.  The church was oriented such that the altar face directly east.  At sunset in the west, the light was beautiful.    Light is very different in Australia.  I noticed soon after arriving that colors were more brilliant.  

 

The stained glass was in crayola primary colors and non-figurative.  I made a point of stopping in whenever possible after dinner to check out the light.  

 

 

The windows into the church as etched glass with a version of the Jesuit insignia on it. 

 

 

The baptismal font at the front of the church. 

 

 

 The crucifix illuminated by the sun coming through the stained glass directly from the west.  

 

Fr. Jack, SJ, MD