Today is the second solemnity following
Pentecost.Last week was the Solemnity
of the Holy Trinity.Today is the
Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, also known as the Feast of
Corpus Christi. On Friday we will celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart
of Jesus.The Church gives us these
feasts to understand the mystery that is the nature of God.Think on the last four solemnities: the Holy
Spirit comes in dwell at Pentecost, the Trinity comprises the one God; the Body
and Blood of Jesus brings us into communion; and the sacred heart that reveals
His infinite compassion.
For Year A, the lectionary takes us to the
heart of the Bread of Life Discourse.Allow
me to quote St. Thomas Aquinas who is the Doctor most associated with the
understanding of the Eucharist.
One eats Christ’s flesh and drinks his blood in a spiritual way if he
is united to him through faith and love, so that one is transformed into him
and becomes his member: for this food is not changed into the one who eats it but
it turns the one who takes it into itself.And so this is a food capable of making a human being divine.[Quoted from Magnificat, June 2026, p.91]
Today’s Gospel:
Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:
"I am the living bread that
came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live
forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the
world."
The Jews quarreled among themselves,
saying,
"How can this man give us his
flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my
blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last
day.
For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my
blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the
Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down
from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and
still died,
whoever eats this bread will live
forever."
~Jn::51-58
Who better to preach on the Body and Blood of Christ than a Dominican
friar, Fr. Greg Heille from the Chapel of Aquinas Institute of Theology in St.
Louis, MO.
Fr. Greg:
The feast goes back
to the year 1264.Pope Urban IV lived in
Orvieto, not far outside of Rome.And he
called upon the Dominican friar, Thomas Aquinas, to write the hymns and the
prayers for this feast day, for the mass and for the liturgy of the hours.We still treasure some of these hymns, for
example, Panje Lingua, which includes Tantum Ergo, which is sung at
Benediction.We love to hear Panis
Angelicus. And so many celebrations of the church.The Dominican Order was only founded less
than 50 years before.And Thomas Aquinas
wrote these beautiful prayers.The
opening prayer, the collect for mass today, is written by Thomas Aquinas, and
it is a prayer that we pray as Dominicans at the beginning of our divine office
for morning prayer, and for evening prayer, the prior or the leader of the
community prays this prayer, which we will pray at mass this weekend."God, who has left us in a wonderful
sacrament a memorial of your passion.Grant,
we ask that we may venerate the sacred mystery of your body and blood.So that we may always feel in ourselves the
fruit of your redemption.Who lives and
reigns with God the Father, in unity with the Holy Spirit, God, world without
end, amen.
In some of our
parishes we will hear a long sequence before the gospel.This long sequence was also written by
Aquinas. And here is the end of that sequence as he wrote it.“Jesus Good shepherd. True bread. Jesus. Have
mercy on us. You feed us. You watch over
us. You make us see good things in the land of the living.You who know all things and prevail, who
nourish us mortals here, make us, there, your table companions, joint heirs,
and members of the community of saints.Amen.”
The Eucharist is
joyfully celebrated this weekend because we return to it again and again week
by week and day by day to be nourished with the bread of life.This is a central sacrament of our Christian
life, to return to the altar of the Lord, to receive the bread of life, and to
be united in our faith, in this true presence of the body, and the blood of
Christ.
I think Fr. Greg’s point that we celebrate the Body of Christ joyfully
is insightful.Can anything possibly give
us more joy than to be united with Jesus Christ?
For the pastoral homily I return to Archbishop of Detroit Edward J.
Weisenburger.
Archbishop Weisenburger:
I must acknowledge
I'm indebted to my good friend and trusted biblical scholar, Bishop Daniel
Mueggenborg of Reno, Nevada. I was moved by some of his reflections. In one
commentary on this passage. He notes how strongly the passage stresses the
realism of Jesus' presence in the Eucharist. In many other passages, the
biblical term "soma" is used in Greek to refer to "body," and
that's an accurate translation. But in John's gospel, John records Jesus not as
using the word or the identity "soma," but rather the evangelist uses
the term "sarx." "Sarx" in Greek has only one very specific
meaning, which is "flesh." It hearkens back to the opening words of
John's gospel when we read "In the beginning was the word, and the word
was with God, and eventually the word became flesh (sarx)." Now, please
note that a term like soma, for "body," could have a symbolic meaning,
not sarx. That term "flesh" has no meaning other than the corporeal
human reality of a very physical being. Jesus wants to be crystal clear, and
he's adamant. He Himself is really and truly present; flesh, blood, soul,
divinity in the food and drink he gives us in the Eucharist.
A second Greek word
to take note of is "trogein," which very specifically means the
physical act of "munching," as in munching on a piece of food. Some
might even find such a word mildly offensive in relation to consuming the
Eucharist. A different Greek word, "phragein," would be much more
respectable, but it could have a more figuratively meaning, such as digesting
something intellectually. But here again Jesus in John's Gospel is going out of
His way to make very firm His point. He's giving us a real gift of His body and
blood. And to receive this gift, we must physically consume it.
A third point to note
is that throughout the sixth chapter of John's Gospel, the Evangelist is
drawing a beautiful parallel between "the people of Israel receiving manna
in the desert" and "Jesus' gift of Himself in the bread of
life." Just as manna gave the people nourishment to continue their journey
to the way to the Promised Land, so too the gift of the Eucharist is meant to
nourish you and me in our journey towards salvation. The Israelites would encounter
many hardships and had to be sustained for such a journey. The same is true for
us. The Eucharist truly is our manna in
the desert. It is food for eternal life, and it is a sharing in the very body,
blood, soul, divinity of Jesus.What our
Lord is stressing in this teaching is that a disciple is not merely someone who
follows Jesus and obeys his teachings. No, a true disciple is one who is
transformed by the very Christ they receive.A true disciple is one who grows into the likeness of the God they
encounter in the form of bread and wine.
Upon hearing the
Teacher, we read that many "grumbled" at Jesus. That phrase,
"grumble," is the same word in Greek used to describe the Hebrews in
their response to Moses' leadership in the desert. A grumbling, a murmuring. It
implies a hostility, a discontent, ultimately a rejection. And sadly, we read
that many of Jesus' own disciples, upon hearing this teaching, found it to be
too hard, too much. And the gospel says many of them left Him because of it.
But note that in response to this rejection, Jesus does not change His teaching
in any way. Instead, He challenges those who hear Him to remain, and to believe
and to accept what He reveals. He will not bend the truth to their desires or
their sensitivities. But He does conclude, "Blessed are those disciples
who are able to accept His teaching." And their faith is voiced
beautifully by St. Peter, who will say, "Master, where else can we
go?You alone have the words of eternal
life."
I think most of us in the Catholic faith accept eating of Christ’s body
and blood without grumbling. But that’s a pretty low bar.Combine the two homilies today to accept Christ
with joy.
Sunday Meditation: “For
my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”
“I Received the Living God” is such a beautiful hymn, and so Catholic!
I am starting a new
series of posts on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, hereby the
acronym, LotR.As you may know,
the LotR is divided into three volumes, each a novel length work in
itself.It is a modern day epic, and
some call it the greatest novel of the 20th century.I would not go that far, but it is a great
work.The three volumes go under the
titles, The Fellowship of the Ring (Vol I), The Two Towers (Vol
II), and The Retrurn of the King (Vol III).
The LotR became a
recurring read at my Goodreads Catholic Thought Book Club.A recurring read is a book that is too long
for one group read, and so broken down into segments.We read one segment, pause to read other
books in a cycle of genres, and when the cycle returns to the recurring read we
pick up where we left off for another segment.The natural divisions of the LotR made it natural to read a
volume for each segment.Last year we
read The Fellowship of the Ring.The posts that come out for this volume came out of that discussion.We are currently reading The Two Towers,
and eventually I will be posting those discussions.I expect the discussions for The Return of
the King may be ready for posting next year.The series of posts will be linked to each
volume of the trilogy.
The song doesn’t really
have much to do with LotR, but the
allusion to Mordor is fascinating.I
remember hearing the song as a teen before I had heard of LotR, and the allusion certainly went over my head.Allusions to LotR are in a number of Zeppelin songs: “Ramble On,” “Stairway to
Heaven,” “Misty Mountain Hop,” “The Battle of Evermore,” and “Bron-Y-Aur.”
When one of the greatest
and most popular rock bands, who’s morals and themes are hardly in line with
that of J.R.R. Tolkien, has a love of LotR,
it is evident that the cultural influence of LotR is deep and wide.
As an introduction, I’m
not going to highlight the story.What
I’m going to provide can certainly be found on the internet, but I am mostly
going by a biography I read last year on Tolkien, Tolkien, Man and Myth: A Literary life by Joseph Pearce.It’s a good bio and I recommend it.
The background Tolkien
provides in the Prologue—that is, that the story is a sequel to Tolkien’s
previous work, The Hobbit, and that
the story is part of a prehistory where the earth is in a stage in time called
“Middle-Earth,” where humanoids called hobbits, elves, dwarves, and several
other categorizations, including men, lived upon the earth.As I write that, some doubt on that sentence
enters my mind.I’m not exactly sure Tolkien
considers all those categories humanoids.I will go with that until proven otherwise, but the story is certainly
fantastic.
The novel is considered a
fantasy novel, but it is also considered an epic.It fits the form of ancient epics, and it’s
scope is most certainly vast and epic!The novel starts as a quest, utilizes the narrative form of a journey,
and before the end is achieved a war between forces of good and evil rages
around the questing hero.There are
struggles against outer forces and there are internal struggles within many of
the characters, especially Frodo, the questing hero.The continuity with the predecessor book is
explained early.Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit
from the shire, on an adventure of his own some sixty years prior finds a magic
ring that allows the wearer of the ring to become invisible.Suffice it to say Bilbo returns prosperous
from his adventures and lives a comfortable life in the shire.But in his old age and with coming death he
gives the ring to his nephew Frodo.In
time Frodo learns of the danger associated with the ring and is asked to
dispose of it.We’ll get into these
details as the novel unfolds.
###
Kerstin Comment:
We'll encounter a lot of geography reading this book.
Both hardcopies and electronic versions of the book contain at least the Middle
Earth map, and maybe even the Shire segment, though they may be hard to read.
On my ancient kindle maps are worthless. Last time I read the book l printed
out various segments, though I don't remember the exact websites. There is
plenty online. An interesting one is an
interactive map where you can map out the journeys of the various
characters.
My Reply to Kerstin:
Thanks Kerstin. That's quite amazing. It will probably
take me weeks to figure out how to interact with the map.
###
J.R.R. Tolkien
The author’s biography is
pertinent to this work.Here are some
raw facts.John Ronald Reuel (J.R.R.)
Tolkien was born in 1892 in what I think now is South Africa.His father was a bank manager there and married
Mabel, who had come out be with him, in the Anglican Church.JRR’s younger brother Hilary was also born in
that same region of South Africa, but because of JRR’s health, Mabel took the
children back to England, outside the city of Birmingham, in 1896.That same year, the father dies in South Africa,
leaving Mabel impoverished trying to sustain two small boys.She received help from several of her and her
husband’s family members.
Mabel and her sister
became interested in Catholicism, and both converted in 1900, taking along her
two boys.There was a huge push back
from their families, and Mabel’s sister was forced to abandon her new faith by
her husband.Mabel refused to leave
Catholicism, and most of the financial help she was getting from her family was
stopped.She really struggled and fought
for her faith, and this left a strong impression on JRR.Because she did not have the money to send
her boys to school and because she was herself apparently well educated (she
could speak four languages including Latin) she became the primary educator of
her boys.JRR’s love of languages must
have had its source from his mother.
Mabel moved to Birmingham
to be closer to a Catholic Church, and it was there the family became friends
with Fr. Francis Xavier Morgan.The
contrast between the country life outside of Birmingham and the city life inside
of the city also made a strong impression on Tolkien.He hated the city with its trams, busy street
life, smoking factories, and railroads.All of Tolkien’s life he would despise automobiles.
In 1903 Mabel died from
what appears to be complications of diabetes.So at the age of eleven, JRR and his brother, a couple of years younger,
were left orphans.They were taken in by
Fr. Francis, who Mabel had made sure would prevent her and her husband’s
families from taking away their Catholicism.Fr. Francis turned out to be a very good foster father to the boys,
encouraging their learning, their faith, and their development.The boys helped in the church, and so learned
their faith very well.
In 1909 JRR met a young
lady, Edith, who was three years older, and fell in love.Tolkien was only eighteen at the time, and
this was a big issue for Fr. Francis who refused to allow JRR to pursue this
relationship.As far as I can tell, it
was strictly because Fr. Francis felt JRR was not old enough to be in a
romantic relationship.He forbid JRR to
pursue it and forced him to break it off until JRR was legally independent at
the age of twenty-one.JRR honorably did
as he was ordered, but upon immediately turning twenty-one, re-located Edith (in
1913) and asked to resume the relationship.She happened to now be involved with another man, but she broke that off
and returned to JRR.Despite anger from
her family, she converted to Catholicism in 1914.
JRR was also now in
college at Oxford, and they put marriage off until he could be stably employed,
but then the Great War (WWI) had started.Upon completing his degree in 1915, Tolkien enlisted in the Army and married
Edith in 1916.He saw action at the
front throughout this time.Many of his
friends were killed in the war.Late in
1916 he contracted Trench Fever, a disease transmitted by lice and was sent
home as an invalid.Trench Fever is a
recurring bacterial infection, and apparently it led to Tolkien being
emaciated.He remained invalid for the
remainder of the war.
His marriage was by all
accounts a good marriage.They had four
children: John (b. 1917), Michael (1920), Christopher (1924), and Priscilla
(1929).He became a professor of philology
and literature, a translator, a scholar of ancient works, a writer of stories,
novels, and poetry.He was a college
professor at several universities, most notably Oxford.At Oxford he became friends with C. S. Lewis,
and was instrumental in Lewis’s conversion from atheism to Christianity.The two with other literary professors at
Oxford formed a group called the Inklings where they met twice weekly and
shared their ideas and writings.I’m
reminded of a story of Tolkien reading from his drafts of LotR, and one of the Inklings, Hugo Dyson, an important Shakespeare
scholar, who in the middle of Tolkien reading blurted out, “Oh no, not another
[expletive] elf!”
Tolkien published The Hobbit in 1937.He said he wrote it as a children’s book for
his children.He, and many others,
distinguish the narrative between The
Hobbit and LotR by stipulating
that the former is a children’s book while LotR
is an adult book.Frankly I can’t
tell the difference.As far as I’m
concerned, The Hobbit can be read as
adult story, and the LotR can be and
is enjoyed by many children.I don’t
know what makes one a children’s book and one an adult.The
Hobbit is a finely crafted book with subtle themes, superbly structured,
and great character insights.I’ve said
in the past that I thought The Hobbit
was the greater novel, but I’m looking forward to being persuaded otherwise in
this read.
###
Patrick Comment:
WWI affected Tolkien tremendously. Reading about his
wartime experience helped me understand LOTR better. Courage is a major theme.
Ellie Comment:
Thank you for the introduction, Manny, it was super
interesting! Earlier this year I read a spiritual biography called Tolkien's
Faith by Holly Ordway and I definitely recommend that to everybody here, it was
amazing to learn how Tolkien's faith had evolved and how it shaped his stories,
too.
My Reply to Ellie:
Oh I know of Holly Ordway. I read her biographical,
conversion story Not
God's Type: An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms. I thought I wrote a
review for Goodreads, but apparently I forgot. In fact I don't even have it
marked as read. I will have to update that. It was a good read and I recommend
it.
###
What can we say about LotR as a work?It was written over an extended time period,
from 1936 to 1949.World War II
certainly had a hand in inspiration of the work, as well as Tolkien’s
experience in the First World War.Tolkien
insisted that the work was not “allegorical nor topical.”Tolkien states in the introduction his
intention.
The prime motive was the desire of a tale-teller to
try his hand at a really long story that would hold the attention of readers,
amuse them, delight them, and at times maybe excite them or deeply move them.
It should be noted that
Tolkien despised allegory, and he did not like most of the fiction of his
friend C. S. Lewis, who’s Narnia
Chronicles rely on allegory.That
statement of intention is a statement of the pure aesthetics of fiction.Tolkien first and foremost wants to tell a
story of epic proportions.In this epic narrative,
the author creates several languages, a prehistory to humanity, a geography of
an earth prior to the current continental positions, and a world populated with
different humanoids and fantastical creatures.It really is epic in proportion.
Though Tolkien states
there is no allegory, it’s very hard not to spot some.“Middle-Earth” is suggestive of Middle
English, a time period before the modern.A war takes place in LotR
which seems to be analogous to either of the World Wars.The fellowship of the central characters
seems to suggest Tolkien’s biographical Inklings.The history of Middle-Earth seems to parody
prehistorical movements.The hobbit
shire life seems analogous to small town country English life, current and
past.The various classes of humanoids
seem to suggest an analogy to racial differences between actual humans.Tolkien insisted that there was not a racial
component to the book, and I believe him in the sense of the negative
associations with race.The racial
component I think should be associated with linguistic family groups such as
Germanic, Slavic, Romance languages.I
think—and I’m just speculating—that Tolkien’s philological knowledge of
language groups inspired him to create imagined, similar humanoid groups.Perhaps Tolkien might dispute my speculations.Here is his statement on use of analogy.
Other arrangements could be devised according to the
tastes or views of those who like allegory or topical reference. But I
cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so
since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history,
true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of
readers. I think that many confuse ‘applicability’ with ‘allegory’; but the one
resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination
of the author.
Perhaps I am confusing
“applicability” with allegory, but I don’t know what he means by that and he
never explains it.While what I perceive
as allegory in LotR is not a strong
corresponding allegory (there are levels of allegorical correspondence), I
still perceive some.Frankly this subtle
allegory I think helps the novel, and perhaps is what he means by
“applicability.”Perhaps we are in some
agreement.
Some of the themes we
will see is good versus evil, the power of evil to disorder our inner being,
the fellowship between friends, the simplicity of rural life, and the richness
of folklore of common folk.I think LotR is part of the folkloric Renaissance
and artistic movements that began with Romanticism in the 19th
century and has blossomed since then.Indeed, Tolkien in LotR uses
folklore and creates the folklore of the characters in a way that is truly
remarkable.I personally am not so
interested in the fantasy aspect of the novel, but I captivated by the
folkloric elements, taken from real life and imagined.
I’m sure there is more to
point out, and I look forward to discussing them, but we need to leave the
introduction here.
I hope that’s a
satisfactory introduction.
###
Kelly’s Comment:
I read somewhere that CS Lewis also denied that the
Narnia books used allegory. For some reason the idea of one's works containing
allegory suggests putting limits on what the reader might experience? Which I
take as using the term applicability -- the way in which you can read something
and I can read something and both go away with something different.
And you're right Manny, this is my (at least) fifth
reading of this series, PLUS having seen the movies several times, and still I
come away with something new each time!
I am using my old set of physical books, which I have
to turn pages very gingerly. I got the Kindle version as backup, haha.
Happy reading!
Bruce’s Reply to Kelly:
That depends on how you define allegory. If CS Lewis
did say that Narnia was not allegory, maybe it was because he saw the allusions
in Narnia as so obvious that it was like hitting the reader in the head with a
2X4.
My Reply to Kelly:
Well, there is a stronger level allegory in the Narnia
books than LotR. I understand Tolkien's point about over use of allegory. I
think Tolkien's dislike is just a little quirky on this. Great works of
literature have used allegory. Dante's Divine Comedy, the greatest. Gawain and
the Green Knight, which Tolkien translated from the Middle English, has strong
levels of allegory. Why Tolkien dislikes allegory is there at the end of the
quote I put up; he dislikes the "domination of the author." Yes, as
you point out, allegory forces the reader to a particular way of reading, and
Tolkien prefers a multiplicity of way of reading a book.
Funny you should mention old hardcopy books. I too am
reading from my old hardcopy from some forty years ago. It was read twice, so
not as flimsy as yours but it's still delicate. To my surprise, I had no notes
inside the book. It was from so long ago it was before I started writing notes
in the pages. I always do that now, and I am now writing notes in this old
hardcopy!
Frances’s Comment:
There’s a lovely,
informative video on You Tube which adds color to the story of Tolkien, LOTR
and Tolkien’s role in leading C.S. Lewis to Christianity. The video is only 13
minutes long. Just Google: You Tube, “On the Power of Fiction, Tolkien, Lewis.”
That really is a good article. “Celebrating the
Epochal Publication of “The Fellowship of the Ring” 70 Years On” by Holly Ordway.The relinquishing of power as the central
theme. Yes, I had not thought about it in that way before, and it is spot on.
Thank you Michelle.Here is an excerpt:
According to Eugene Vinaver, Tolkien once said that
“his typical response upon reading a medieval work was to desire not so much to
make a philological or critical study of it as to write a modern work in the
same tradition.”4 Tolkien was not an antiquarian whose eye is forever fixed on
his rearview mirror, but a translator who looks both ahead and behind, aiming
to preserve the best that history had to offer by making it accessible to
contemporary readers. And to achieve that translation, he had to know both
languages, as it were—tongues ancient and modern.
###
What I hope to do from
here is go one to three chapters at a time, give a chapter summary, provide my
thoughts on the chapters, and provide pertinent discussion of the book that
happened at the book club.I aim to put
out a post per week.Stay tuned.
On the first Sunday after Pentecost the
Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity.Each liturgical year has different readings,
and for Year A the Gospel is the often quoted, “God so loved the world that he
gave his only Son.”Why is this passage
read for the Feast of the Holy Trinity?On
the surface it only mentions two of the three persons of the Trinity.God the Father and the Son are clearly
stated.But look carefully.The Holy Spirit is a spiraling forth of the
love between the Father and the Son.That love is clearly there, and so then is the Holy Spirit.
Today’s Gospel:
God so loved the world that he gave
his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him
might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be
condemned,
but whoever does not believe has
already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the
name of the only Son of God.
~Jn:3:16-18
It is so hard to describe the Trinity.I don’t think you can capture it with one image.It takes a complex set of words to formulate the
Christian notion of the Trinity.This program,
Catholic Saints & Feasts, does a noteworthy job of it in short of a seven
minute video.
Catholic Saints & Feasts:
God is the ultimate
superlative adjective whose nature admits of no competing God. Christian
monotheism stops us from approaching different gods for different things. We believe
in one God with one will, one mind, and one plan for mankind.The Holy Trinity, the God of Christianity, is
complex. Clear language must be used and clear thinking deployed to grasp the
Christian God.
The church believes
that God is one in his nature and three in his persons.This means that if you were in a pitch black
room and sensed a presence nearby, your first question would be, "What is that?
Is it the dog or the cat, my spouse or the wind?" If it were God in the
darkness, he would answer the question of what by saying, "I am God."
Satisfied that the presence was a person and not an animal or the wind, the
next question would be, "Who are you?" And to that question, God
would reply in three successive voices. I am the father. I am the son. I am the
holy spirit. A nature is the source of operations, but a person does [music]
them. A statue has eyes, but it is not its nature to see.It is not man's nature to lay eggs or to
breathe underwater, but it is the nature of a bird or a fish to do so. Our
nature sets the parameters for what actions are possible for us. The daughter
of a lion is a lioness and does what lions do. The son of a man is a man and
does what men do. And the son of God is God and knows, loves, and acts as God
does perfectly.Our trinitarian
supernova is both a unity and a plurality, both one and many at the same time.
This means that God does not exist alone but in a community of love. God is not
narcissistic admiring his own beauty and perfection.Instead, the love of the father is directed
toward the son for all eternity. And the love of the holy spirit animates and
passes between the father and the son. The trinity's three persons do not share
portions of the divine nature. They each possess it totally.
Our God, distinct in
his persons, one in his essence and equal in his majesty, is solemnly invoked
as the water spills on our heads at baptism and as the oil is traced on our
palms at our anointing. God in all of his complexity and in all of his
simplicity is with us always in this world and hopefully in the world to come.
Most Holy Trinity, we look to your three persons as a model of true love, knowledge,
and community life. Help all marriages and families strive for the high ideal
of perfection you set before the world, no matter the discouragement resulting
from our sins and imperfections. Amen.
Not only did the words make the Trinity understandable, but there were
so many beautiful images to present how artists through the ages have tried to
capture the Trinity.
For the pastoral homily I turn to Fr. Kris Janczak in his YouTube
Channel, Good Soil.I’m not sure
if I’ve ever posted one of Fr. Janczak’s homilies before but I have listened to
a few.I think today he really highlights
what is a pastoral understanding of this Solemnity.
Fr. Kris:
Even though we
celebrate this feast day once a year, every single day we pray to the holy
trinity. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. May
almighty God bless you, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Glory be to the
Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Through him and with him and in
him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and
honor is yours forever and ever.Sound
familiar? See, sometimes we automatically repeat these prayers, forgetting that
when we say them, we honor one God who is in three persons.
There were much
smarter and more educated people in the past who tried but failed. However, I
am here to tell you that this is not about understanding but believing. That is
not to grasp all this with our brains but with our hearts. And that makes all
the difference. There were endless times during Jesus ministry when he
repeated, "Believe, have faith, trust me." He didn't ask people to
understand.He asked them to believe.
Today he is asking us to believe to believe that the father and the son and the
holy spirit are one. One God. Yet what does this mean to us? What does it mean
to believe in the Holy Trinity? Well, the holy trinity is united in the
greatest love.The one thing that
connects these three, father, son, and the spirit is love. It is love that
makes them one God.
If I could compare
this truth to something, it would be to a marriage between a man and a woman.During our Catholic wedding ceremony during
the mass, before the end of mass, the priest blesses the couple using a unique
and beautiful blessing.It is called the
Nuptial Blessing. It is a rather long blessing or prayer if you wish. But there
is one sentence in there that says, "God, we pray that they husband and
wife become one flesh, become one body." How can they become one flesh?
How can they become connected? Only by a true love that they have for each
other. They are still two separate people, but they are equal. And by their
sacrificial love, they become one, one flesh, husband and wife. And nothing
should separate that union.
If I could summarize it, through love, persons become one.
Sunday Meditation: God
so loved the world that he gave his only Son.
We sang this at our parish today, “All Hail Adored Trinity.”
