Trinity Sunday 2013
By Deacon Lawrence N. Kaas
May 26, 2013
May 26, 2013
Keep in mind that God is family. As we begin in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
How often we have done this probably not giving it much thought, it's sort of like saying good morning to someone, it's quite automatic.
But that's the reason that today we celebrate the Holy Trinity Sunday. Today is a day set aside by the Church to remind us why we say these particular words.
The bottom line reasoning, is that, because that's who we are as a family of Faith. We need to be reminded of this reality because we easily forget that in all of human history, we are the unique Religious Community.
What makes our Faith so exceptional, so unique is the belief that our God is a family! Our God is a community of persons, a fellowship of Love that has burst forth in ecstasy to the point that St. Paul can say in the reading we heard today. "The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us."
But this tells us about the God we believe in, that He is One, who is constantly communicating infinite love between the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit. Our God is a sharing God. A God who wants to invite us into becoming a similar community of love among ourselves. Our God, then, is a model for how we are to be, in relationship with one another.
The whole history of God loving us, wanting to save us from the worst of our own selves and bringing us into his Trinitarian family of love, is best highlighted by one word that is, communication.
In order to communicate, you and I speak. We use words. And more than ever, we come to realize that words mean something. God says in the Hebrew Scriptures, "I will be your God, and you will be my people." Then God comes to us in a new way in the New Testament, He speaks to us in a most definitive way possible: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Finally, then, he spoke to us through the Holy Spirit. After the resurrection, Jesus promised to send a Paraclete, Who will "lead you into the complete truth," as the gospel we heard today told us.
He will do that through the Church, through the Sacraments, through the Scriptures, through the love we show one another in our common pursuit of justice and compassion, through the Eucharist we are celebrating today as a family at this very Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
God is calling us as a church community, a family of faith, to be like him -- to be like the family that is the Trinity.
That's why we began every Mass and most of our prayer time, "In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Spirit."
This weekend too: we call to mind all those who have gone before us with the hope that peace may be ours. Of course we know that the work of Christ is to bring peace for he laid down his life to reconcile us to one another and to the Father. He is the bridge, as C.S. Lewis's words remind us that Christ crosses the chasm between who we are and who God wants us to be. "Winston Churchill was honoring members of the Royal Air Force, guarded England during the Second World War. He recounted their brave service and he declared, "Never in the History of mankind have so many owed so much to so few."
A similar sentiment appears on a memorial plaque in Bastogne, Belgium. That is the location of the famous Battle of the Bulge, one of the bloodiest conflicts of World War II. The inscription, in honor of the US 101st Airborne Division, reads: "Seldom has so much American blood been shed in the course of a single action." "Oh, Lord, help us to remember!"
We need to remember the sacrifices of the soldiers, especially on this Memorial Day weekend, but even more important that we remember the Sacrifice that Christ made to earn permanent peace with ourselves with our neighbors and with our God. Paul writes, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by Faith into His Grace in which we now stand."
In closing: a brief story about a man named Kurtis. He worked as a stock boy in the grocery store and fell in love with the young woman named Brenda he was 22 she was 26. He finally asked her for a date, she refused, so he asked her again. Coming to her home, once again, she says we cannot go out because I do not have a babysitter, but she lets him in and finds her with her little daughter and a son in a wheelchair, a paraplegic and with down Syndrome. He said, 'Well can't the four of us go out?'
He learned how to help care for the little boy, even how to take him to the bathroom. Time will not permit to tell the whole story but Kurt is better known as Kurt Warner who became the star quarter-back for many years for the St. Louis Rams. Kurt was declared most valuable player awarded by the NFL, as well as the MVP awarded by Super Bowl XXXIV. He is now retired but he is not retired from being a follower of Jesus Christ. If you ask Kurt Warner where he learned to love his family like this, he would unabashedly tell you that it is the Holy Spirit working in his life! Can we too, respond with, AMEN.
So you too, be Good, be Holy, preached the Gospel always and if necessary use words.
'Thank you' to Deacon Kaas, for letting me post his reflection here.
More reflections:
Related posts:
- "Being Catholic on Memorial Day Weekend"
(May 27, 2012) - "How Could God Floss His Teeth?"
(July 2, 2011) - "I Don't Understand the Trinity: No Surprise There"
(May 6, 2011) - "Rambling About What 'Spirit' Means"
(February 22, 2011) - "Rambling on About Memorial Day, the Flag, and Snake Oil"
(May 28, 2010)
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