The Holy Trinity 2019

The Holy Trinity

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June 16, 2019

Proverbs 8:22-31; Psalm 8; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15

The events that began at Easter have come to completion at Pentecost, and this feast that celebrates the Trinity is designed to share with us our union with God. We celebrate that we have multiple ways of relating to God, but the message is clear: God is one and God draws us close to God’s heart. During Passover, we celebrated how God remained steadfast to us during adversity; we then shared in the victory with the God who redeemed us; now we live in the reality of a God who sustains us. We are assured that nothing can separate us from the reach of God.

Each time we gather for the Eucharist, we bring to mind the Passover meal Jesus celebrated. This meal was traditionally marked by a quiet joy because God remained faithful from the beginning of the covenant and because faith believes that God will always remain with the people at all times. The work of Jesus was to break any perceived barriers we held that separated us from God, and the Spirit works to sustain this friendship and to enlighten our minds.

The symbol of the Holy Spirit reminds us of our foundational aid, our breath, that is designed to reconnect us to God and to the world around us. Suffering isolates us and makes us feel as if we are alone, and we often live isolated from one another. It causes loneliness, but when we touch the earth, we are no longer alienated from our bodies or from the earth. Our mindful breathing is the first step in bringing us back to our place in the world. Simply walking while breathing heals our alienation and we become aware of the feelings of suffering we have been ignoring. Our suffering has been trying to communicate with us, to let us know it is there, but we have spent a lot of time and energy ignoring it. When we acknowledge our feelings and suffering, it is the work of the Holy Spirit assisting us to clear any barriers that keep us from alienated from God. The Spirit is present to unite us.

We know the Spirit intercedes for us and even groans for us when we do not have the right words to pray, and, through Jesus, brings our needs and concerns to God. Why do we pray? Why do we make retreats? We know that we need to reconnect with God, to be intimately understood, and to try to understand a bit of God’s will for ourselves. Time is prayer is spent being quiet and trying to understand each other more fully, and when we are heard with compassion, love is nourished. The foundation of love is understanding, which mans to understand suffering. We spend time with God so we can know that God understands our suffering. To really love someone and to make them happy is to understand the person’s suffering. This is what God does for us in prayer. After we know that God has heard our pleas, we feel lighter, even happy while in the midst of pain because God understands. With this understanding, our love for God can deepen and become the true love we seek. God gives us happiness, which is our capacity to understand and to love ourselves, our neighbors, and God as well.

This happiness is what we celebrate today. God is doing what is possible to keep us united, nourished, and sustained. Everywhere we turn, we have glimpses of God’s activity. God draws us into the relationship that existed with the Wisdom of God, for she was with God from the beginning, shared everything, and delighted in each other’s presence. The Trinity helps us achieve the same type of relationship. The Spirit will make us one with God just as God is one with Godself and can never be divided.

        

Scripture for Daily Mass

First Reading: 

Monday: (2 Corinthians 6) Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We cause no one to stumble in anything, in order that no fault may be found with our ministry; on the contrary, in everything we commend ourselves as ministers of God, through much endurance, in afflictions, hardships, constraints, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, vigils, fasts; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in unfeigned love, in truthful speech, in the power of God.

Tuesday: (2 Corinthians 8) We want you to know, brothers and sisters, of the grace of God that has been given to the churches of Macedonia. for in a severe test of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their profound poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. Now as you excel in every respect, in faith, discourse, knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love we have for you, may you excel in this gracious act also.

Wednesday: (2 Corinthians 9) consider this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work.

Thursday: (2 Corinthians 11) For if someone comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received
or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough. For I think that I am not in any way inferior to these "superapostles." Even if I am untrained in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.

Friday (2 Corinthians 11) Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned,
three times I was shipwrecked, I passed a night and a day on the deep; on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own race,
dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea,
dangers among false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights,
through hunger and thirst, through frequent fastings, through cold and exposure.
And apart from these things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led to sin, and I am not indignant?
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

Saturday (2 Corinthians 12) Therefore, that I might not become too elated, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me, but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Gospel: 

Monday: (Matthew 5) You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.

Tuesday: (Matthew 5) You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

Wednesday (Matthew 6) Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.

Thursday (Matthew 6) In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Friday (Matthew 6) Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

Saturday (Matthew 6) Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Saints of the Week

June 19: Romuald, abbot (950-1027), was born into a family of dukes from Ravenna and became known for founding the Camaldolese Benedictine order that combined the solitary life of hermits into a monastic community life. He founded other hermitages and monasteries throughout Italy.

June 21: Aloysius Gonzaga, S.J., priest (1568-1591), gave up a great inheritance to join the Jesuits in 1585 in his dreams of going to the missions. However, when a plague hit Rome, Gonzaga served the sick and dying in hospitals where he contracted the plague and died within three months. He is a patron saint of youth.

June 22: Paulinus of Nola, bishop (353-431) was a prominent lawyer who married a Spaniard and was baptized. Their infant son died while in Spain. He became a priest and was sent to Nola, near Naples, where he lived a semi-monastic life and helped the poor and pilgrims.

June 22: John Fisher, bishop and martyr (1469-1535) taught theology at Cambridge University and became the University Chancellor and bishop of Rochester. Fisher defended the queen against Henry VIII who wanted the marriage annulled. Fisher refused to sign the Act of Succession. When the Pope made Fisher a cardinal, the angry king beheaded him.

June 22: Thomas More, martyr (1478-1535) was a gifted lawyer, Member of Parliament, scholar, and public official. He was reluctant to serve Cardinal Woolsey at court and he resigned after he opposed the king’s Act of Succession, which would allow him to divorce his wife. He was imprisoned and eventually beheaded.

This Week in Jesuit History

·      Jun 16, 1675. St Margaret Mary Alacoque received her great revelation about devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

·      Jun 17, 1900. The martyrdom at Wuyi, China, of Blesseds Modeste Andlauer and Remy Asore, slain during the Boxer Rebellion.

·      Jun 18, 1804. Fr. John Roothan, a future general of the Society, left his native Holland at the age of seventeen to join the Society in White Russia.

·      Jun 19, 1558. Fr. Lainez, the Vicar General, summoned the opening of the First General Congregation, nearly two years after the death of Ignatius. Some trouble arose from the fact that Fr. Bobadilla thought himself entitled to some share in the governance. Pope Paul IV ordered that the Institute of the Society should be strictly adhered to.

·      Jun 20, 1626. The martyrdom in Nagasaki, Japan, of Blesseds Francis Pacheco, John Baptist Zola, Vincent Caun, Balthasar De Torres, Michael Tozo, Gaspar Sadamatzu, John Kinsaco, Paul Xinsuki, and Peter Rinscei.

·      Jun 21, 1591. The death of St Aloysius Gonzaga, who died from the plague, which he caught while attending the sick.

·      Jun 22, 1611. The first arrival of the Jesuit fathers in Canada, sent there at the request of Henry IV of France.