Fr. Roger J. Landry
St. Anthony of Padua Parish, New Bedford, MA
Trinity Sunday, Year C
May 30, 2010
Prov 8:22-31; Rom 5:1-5; Jn 16:12-15
The following text guided today’s homily:
- Feast of who God is. God is a communion of three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in one. It’s a mystery that exceeds our comprehension but it’s true. There are three persons, but a unity, and the unity is stronger. God is love, which implies a lover, a beloved and the love between them.
- We have been made in God’s image and likeness and that means that we’re called to exist in a communion of persons. This does not mean merely that we exist in a community. But we’re supposed to be a new entity.
- We see this in marriage, the indissoluble one flesh union between a man and a woman.
- But it’s also supposed to exist in the Church and as a parish. As we saw two weeks ago, this type of union Jesus begged for during the Last Supper, when he prayed that we would be one just as he and the Father are one.
- I want to return to this theme today, because as I announced in January, this is the major theme of the whole year, to focus on the unity that God asks of us as a parish.
- Today I want to focus on one particular aspect of the Trinity that we’re called to emulate. We see it in today’s Gospel:
- Jesus tells us that the Spirit will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, that he will take from what is Jesus’ and declare it to you. His focus will be on glorifying the Son.
- Then Jesus says, “All that the Father has is mine.”
- In sum, we see that God the Father gives himself wholly and entirely to the Son, the Son gives himself wholly entirely to the Spirit, and the communion of persons is constituted by this total exchange. They have everything in common except what it means to be Father, Son and spirated from among them.
- They couldn’t have that union, in other words, if they were retaining anything else.
- That’s what we need to learn. We’re never going to have unity if we’re holding back.
- St. Basil the Great, a fourth century doctor of the Church, taught that the Church has the duty to reflect God’s nature by becoming a communion of persons who love each other as God loves us. This was easily and readily seen in the early Church.
- The Acts of the Apostles states, “The whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common” (Acts 4:32). That they were united in heart and soul was seen in the fact that everyone was selling their possessions and giving the proceeds to the Apostles to use to care for those in most need.
- They weren’t holding anything back.
- We need to reflect on that honestly here.
- The parish won’t make it unless we all start contributing.
- Jesus in the Eucharist gives all for us, down to his last drop of blood. He tells us to do this in memory of him. He wants to form us into a true image of God in the midst of the world, but we’ve got to stop saying that we can be a good Catholic by merely doing the minimum. We need to sacrifice for others, and not just sacrifice a little but be all in.
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 PRV 8:22-31
“The LORD possessed me, the beginning of his ways,
the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago;
from of old I was poured forth,
at the first, before the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no fountains or springs of water;
before the mountains were settled into place,
before the hills, I was brought forth;
while as yet the earth and fields were not made,
nor the first clods of the world.
“When the Lord established the heavens I was there,
when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep;
when he made firm the skies above,
when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth;
when he set for the sea its limit,
so that the waters should not transgress his command;
then was I beside him as his craftsman,
and I was his delight day by day,
playing before him all the while,
playing on the surface of his earth;
and I found delight in the human race.”
Responsorial Psalm PS 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars which you set in place —
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet:
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
Reading 2 ROM 5:1-5
Brothers and sisters:
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have gained access by faith
to this grace in which we stand,
and we boast in hope of the glory of God.
Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions,
knowing that affliction produces endurance,
and endurance, proven character,
and proven character, hope,
and hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Gospel JN 16:12-15
“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,
he will guide you to all truth.
He will not speak on his own,
but he will speak what he hears,
and will declare to you the things that are coming.
He will glorify me,
because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.
Everything that the Father has is mine;
for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine
and declare it to you.”