From the Pastor's Desk, June 11 & 12, 2022
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
The celebration of this Solemnity comes at the most appropriate time in the liturgical calendar because it follows the celebrations of the Resurrection of Christ Jesus, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, and the descent of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Blessed Trinity, at the Pentecost. Prior to these two great feasts, on the third Sunday of Lent this year (Year C), we read about the God who called Moses from the burning bush and sent him to lead his people out of oppression. This God revealed his name as the I AM, meaning Yahweh, the One Who Is. The very first reading of the Easter vigil identified the I AM as the God who made heaven and earth (Genesis 1:1). All these set the stage for the revelation of the fullness of the inner nature of this God as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Are we talking about three Gods? No, we are talking about three divine persons in one God. It is a mystery faith that eludes human reason. God revealed this about himself in the Scriptures. This mystery shines forth with splendor in today’s three readings and the gospel acclamation. Beginning with the first reading, we ask, “Who is the wisdom of God who was there with the Creator before creation and who was God’s delight and who found delight in the human race?” Starting with the former, we answer that at the baptism of Jesus and at the holy mountain of Transfiguration, the wisdom of God is the one in whom the Father is well pleased. He is the Father’s delight and he loved the human race so intently as to give his life for it on the cross. Affirming the truth that Wisdom of God, Logos, the Word is Jesus, St John, says. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1). Nailing it home, he says, “All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.” (John 1:3). That no one may be in doubt about who is the Word, John states, “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Who else but Jesus took on flesh?
The second reading (Romans 5:1-5) names the Most Holy Trinity in this line, “The Love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (Romans 5:5). In this statement, we encounter God, Love and the Holy Spirit. Love refers to the Son and God refers to the Father. In a prayer of praise (doxology), the gospel acclamation invokes the name of the Trinity saying, Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; to God who is , who was, and who is to come (Revelation 1:8). In the gospel, Jesus reveals the Most Trinity when he said, “Everything the Father has is mine; the Spirit will take from what is mine and declare it to you (John 16:15).
How does the Body of Christ understand the Blessed Trinity? She holds that, “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the "hierarchy of the truths of faith". The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men "and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin"(CCC 234).
Further, the Bride of Christ teaches: “The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are revealed by God".
To be sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But his inmost being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone or even to Israel's faith before the Incarnation of God's Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit.(CCC 237). Incarnation and the sending of the Holy Spirit shine light on the mystery of the Most Trinity. They help us to see that God is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. By saying that God is Father, we do not mean male because God transcends above gender. He is existence in itself, suum esse subsistens.
God loves us and that is the reason why he revealed his inner nature to us. “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.” ( John 3:16). Do you feel unloved? Do you have a father's or mother’s wound? Know today that God loves without “ifs, ands or buts.”
Love,
Fr. Francis Chiawa
Father Francis Chiawa
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
The celebration of this Solemnity comes at the most appropriate time in the liturgical calendar because it follows the celebrations of the Resurrection of Christ Jesus, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, and the descent of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Blessed Trinity, at the Pentecost. Prior to these two great feasts, on the third Sunday of Lent this year (Year C), we read about the God who called Moses from the burning bush and sent him to lead his people out of oppression. This God revealed his name as the I AM, meaning Yahweh, the One Who Is. The very first reading of the Easter vigil identified the I AM as the God who made heaven and earth (Genesis 1:1). All these set the stage for the revelation of the fullness of the inner nature of this God as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Are we talking about three Gods? No, we are talking about three divine persons in one God. It is a mystery faith that eludes human reason. God revealed this about himself in the Scriptures. This mystery shines forth with splendor in today’s three readings and the gospel acclamation. Beginning with the first reading, we ask, “Who is the wisdom of God who was there with the Creator before creation and who was God’s delight and who found delight in the human race?” Starting with the former, we answer that at the baptism of Jesus and at the holy mountain of Transfiguration, the wisdom of God is the one in whom the Father is well pleased. He is the Father’s delight and he loved the human race so intently as to give his life for it on the cross. Affirming the truth that Wisdom of God, Logos, the Word is Jesus, St John, says. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1). Nailing it home, he says, “All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.” (John 1:3). That no one may be in doubt about who is the Word, John states, “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Who else but Jesus took on flesh?
The second reading (Romans 5:1-5) names the Most Holy Trinity in this line, “The Love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (Romans 5:5). In this statement, we encounter God, Love and the Holy Spirit. Love refers to the Son and God refers to the Father. In a prayer of praise (doxology), the gospel acclamation invokes the name of the Trinity saying, Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; to God who is , who was, and who is to come (Revelation 1:8). In the gospel, Jesus reveals the Most Trinity when he said, “Everything the Father has is mine; the Spirit will take from what is mine and declare it to you (John 16:15).
How does the Body of Christ understand the Blessed Trinity? She holds that, “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the "hierarchy of the truths of faith". The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men "and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin"(CCC 234).
Further, the Bride of Christ teaches: “The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are revealed by God".
To be sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But his inmost being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone or even to Israel's faith before the Incarnation of God's Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit.(CCC 237). Incarnation and the sending of the Holy Spirit shine light on the mystery of the Most Trinity. They help us to see that God is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. By saying that God is Father, we do not mean male because God transcends above gender. He is existence in itself, suum esse subsistens.
God loves us and that is the reason why he revealed his inner nature to us. “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.” ( John 3:16). Do you feel unloved? Do you have a father's or mother’s wound? Know today that God loves without “ifs, ands or buts.”
Love,
Fr. Francis Chiawa
Father Francis Chiawa
