Our Places of Worship: Trinity Sunday

                                                Our Places of Worship:

Trinity Sunday

June 4, 2023

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Exodus 34: 4-9; Daniel 3; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18

 

The stories of Moses are always vivid for me as I spent years in the land where he lived with the Hebrews before crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land. A favorite place is Mount Nebo where Moses bid farewell to the people before they set out, and he stayed behind to die in the desert. It has become a sacred place because of the stature of Moses as the Lawgiver and as the one who spoke with God. As I walked the desert roads, I often thought of the type of bush he saw on fire that was not consumed. In his conversation with God, he learned that God was gracious and merciful, kind and faithful. 

 

Each of us have our “places” where God has “spoken” to us and made God’s very self known to us. For some, it is a mountaintop experience or a deep place in the forest, while others feel close at the beach or the ocean. They are the places we cherish because God has visited us, and we hold it sacred in our memory. Sometimes, our experiences of God are unexplainable and yet we can remember every detail of the encounter. We typically get a fundamental message that orients us through our days. We remember some characteristic of God, Jesus, or Mary that communicates something about their style or way of being, and we treasure it in our hearts. 

 

The feast that we celebrate today, Trinity Sunday, honors the relationship that exists between the Triune God and the people. This God has a few ways of meeting us where we are, to give a message that we really need to hear, or to help us discern a difficult choice, or simply to say that God knows of our concerns. The reason for the incarnation and the resurrection was for God to let us know that God truly does understand human suffering and that we can turn to God as a loving parent and know the abiding closeness that our Creator has for us. From the Gospel, we hear that the birth of Jesus took place so that we would know that God wanted to live among us and to be one of us because, despite our warts and imperfections, God finds us lovable and wants to be loving to us. God’s Spirit breathes through us as we daily discern our actions and choose our words, and the Spirit gives us encouragement and hope when we need it. 

 

We cannot speak about a relationship with God without speaking about our relationship to one another. As we have our special places to meet God, God also needs a place for the reign of God to exist, and it is in the People of God. The place for God is God’s own people. Where we exist, God’s reign exists. We make the reign of God known through our care and affection for one another, through our forgiveness of sins, and through our concern for those on the margins. When we build right relations with others, we are participating in the reign of God. The Trinity exists to show us that it is all about right relationships, and the dynamism that occurs when the relationship flourishes, is the Holy Spirit in action. All relationships need to be fed if they are to grow and develop, and that is the reason we return to our places of encounter. We come to remember how and what and why God was present to us, and in return, we come to our places of worship just to say thanks. God has found a place of encounter. God has found a place to manifest God’s reign. It is within you – the People of God. Just as you are sacred to God, you are likewise sacred to us. We are the place of encounter with God. Wherever you are, God can be found.

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

Monday: (Tobit 1) I, Tobit, have walked all the days of my life on the paths of truth and righteousness. I performed many charitable works for my kinsmen and my people who had been deported with me to Nineveh, in Assyria.

 

Tuesday: (Tobit 2) On the night of Pentecost, after I had buried the dead, I, Tobit, went into my courtyard to sleep next to the courtyard wall. My face was uncovered because of the heat. I did not know there were birds perched on the wall above me, till their warm droppings settled in my eyes, causing cataracts.

 

Wednesday: (Tobit 3) At that very time, the prayer of these two suppliants was heard in the glorious presence of Almighty God. So Raphael was sent to heal them both: to remove the cataracts from Tobit's eyes, so that he might again see God's sunlight; and to marry Raguel's daughter Sarah to Tobit's son Tobiah, and then drive the wicked demon Asmodeus from her.

 

Thursday: (Tobit 6) She is yours according to the decree of the Book of Moses. Your marriage to her has been decided in heaven! Take your kinswoman; from now on you are her love, and she is your beloved. She is yours today and ever after. And tonight, son, may the Lord of heaven prosper you both. May he grant you mercy and peace."

 

Friday (Tobit 11) Next he smeared the medicine on his eyes, and it made them smart. Then, beginning at the corners of Tobit's eyes, Tobiah used both hands to peel off the cataracts. When Tobit saw his son, he threw his arms around him and wept. He exclaimed, "I can see you, son, the light of my eyes!"

 

 

Saturday (Tobit 12) Before all the living, acknowledge the many good things he has done for you, by blessing and extolling his name in song. Honor and proclaim God's deeds,
and do not be slack in praising him.

Gospel: 

Monday: (Mark 12) "A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey. At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.

 

Tuesday: (Mark 12) "Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you are not concerned with anyone's opinion. You do not regard a person's status but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?
Should we pay or should we not pay?"

 

Wednesday (Mark 12) Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and put this question to him, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone's brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.

 

Thursday (Mark 12) Jesus replied, "The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these."

 

Friday (Mark 12) David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said: The Lord said to my lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies under your feet.' David himself calls him 'lord'; so how is he his son?" The great crowd heard this with delight.

 

Saturday (Mark 12) In the course of his teaching Jesus said, "Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets.

 

Saints of the Week

 

June 5: Boniface, bishop and martyr (675-754), was born in England and raised in a Benedictine monastery. He became a good preacher and was sent to the northern Netherlands as a missionary. Pope Gregory gave him the name Boniface with an edict to preach to non-Christians. We was made a bishop in Germany and gained many converts when he cut down the famed Oak of Thor and garnered no bad fortune by the Norse gods. Many years later he was killed by non-Christians when he was preparing to confirm many converts. The church referred to him as the "Apostle of Germany."

 

June 6: Norbert, bishop (1080-1134), a German, became a priest after a near-death experience. He became an itinerant preacher in northern France and established a community founded on strict asceticism. They became the Norbertines and defended the rights of the church against secular authorities.

 

June 9: Ephrem, deacon and doctor (306-373), was born in the area that is now Iraq. He was ordained a deacon and refused priestly ordination. After Persians conquered his hometown, Ephrem lived in seclusion where he wrote scriptural commentaries and hymns. He was the first to introduce hymns into public worship.

 

June 9: Joseph de Anchieta, S.J., priest (1534-1597), was from the Canary Islands and became a leading missionary to Brazil. He was one of the founders of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janiero. He is considered the first Brazilian writer and is regarded as a considerate evangelizer of the native Brazilian population. Alongside the Jesuit Manuel de Nobrega, he created stable colonial establishments in the new country.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• June 4, 1667. The death in Rome of Cardinal Sforza Pallavicini, a man of great knowledge and humility. While he was Prefect of Studies of the Roman College he wrote his great work, The History of the Council of Trent. 
• June 5, 1546. Paul III, in the document Exponi Nobis, empowered the Society to admit coadjutors, both spiritual and temporal. 
• June 6, 1610. At the funeral of Henry IV in Paris, two priests preaching in the Churches of St Eustace and St Gervase denounced the Jesuits as accomplices in his death. This was due primarily to the book De Rege of Father Mariana. 
• June 7, 1556. Peter Canisius becomes the first provincial superior of the newly constituted Province of Upper Germany. 
• June 8, 1889. Poet Gerard Manley Hopkins died at the age of 44 in Dublin. His final words were "I am so happy, so happy." He wrote, "I wish that my pieces could at some time become known but in some spontaneous way ... and without my forcing." 
• June 9, 1597. The death of Blessed Jose de Ancieta, Brazil's most famous missionary and the founder of the cities of Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro. 
• June 10, 1537. Ignatius and his companions were given minor orders at the house of Bishop Vincenzo Negusanti in Venice, Italy.