Welcoming the Holy Spirit

Pentecost Sunday
By Fr. Victor Feltes

On Pentecost, about one hundred and twenty people, including the Blessed Virgin Mary and the apostles were together in the upper room. There on this day, the third Person of the Trinity “appeared to them as tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them,” and “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” Yet this was not actually the first time Mary or the apostles had encountered the Spirit.

In response to Mary’s fiat, to her saying “Let it be done to me according to your word” at the Annunciation, the Holy Spirit descended to conceive the Christ Child within her. And we hear in today’s gospel how on Easter Sunday evening Jesus visited the apostles in the upper room, exhaled on them, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” So Mary and the apostles had each received the Holy Spirit before, sort of like us on this Pentecost Sunday.

We received the Holy Spirit at our baptisms, and received him again at our confirmations, and we can always encounter him anew. Since the Holy Spirit is an infinite Divine Person we can always receive more from him. So how can we receive the Spirit and his gifts more abundantly? Here are three ways:

First, ask for the Holy Spirit and his gifts in prayer. Prior to Pentecost, Jesus’ disciples had been praying for nine days—the Church’s first novena. They prayed to receive the promised Gift of the Father of which Jesus had spoken, to be “clothed with power from on high.” The disciples’ Pentecost joy and courage, the manifested miracle of speaking many languages, and that day’s three thousand conversions won were all fruits of the Holy Spirit in answer to their prayers.

A second way to welcome the Holy Spirit is to prepare a place for him. At Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit descended upon him in the likeness of a dove. Offer the Holy Spirit a hospitable place to land with you. If we are combative towards a dove or simply being too noisy, the bird will not approach us or stick around for long. So renounce all hostility towards God and cultivate peace within your house that his peace may rest on you. In other words, renounce your sins and go confession, and focus more on quieting your soul and dedicating time to daily prayer.

A third way to be touched and changed by the Holy Spirit is to expect and watch for his influence. The Holy Spirit descended on Pentecost in the likeness of fire. Fire transforms everything it touches. It causes other objects to radiate heat like itself, to shine like itself, to become fire like itself. If you ask for the Holy Spirit and his gifts and you are open to his influence, watch with eager expectation for him to inspire, empower, and transform you.

Back in my college days, one afternoon I was lying on my bed praying rather apologetically to the Holy Spirit. I said, ‘Holy Spirit, you’re like the most neglected Person of the Trinity. You’re just as much God as the Father or the Son but we direct much more prayer and worship to them than you. And when we do pray to you it’s because we want something, but you’re not just some divine vending machine. I’m sorry.’ Then I heard in my mind these words: “I am gift.” Now whenever you possibly receive a heavenly message, it is wise to check its truth in light of true Catholic teaching, since God will not contradict himself. So I considered that statement seemingly from the Holy Spirit: “I am gift.”

From all eternity, God the Father gives all that he is to his Son and the Son gives himself back as a total gift to the Father. And from this mutual exchange of self-gifting love, the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds. The Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit to earth as a gift to sanctify and transform us so that we may participate in the life of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit rejoices to be gifted. He is gift. And when we ask for his gifts we are inviting his presence—for how could his gifts be manifested someplace where he is not? So from this I concluded the Holy Spirit does not begrudge us asking him for his great and holy gifts.

On this Pentecost Sunday, what gifts do you desire of the Holy Spirit? Pray for his powerful presence, like Mary and the apostles did. Turn away from sin and cultivate quiet peace, offering a welcoming place for the Holy Spirit to land. And watch with eager expectation for the transforming effects of the Spirit’s fiery influence.

The Lord’s Prayer — Funeral Homily for Jack Wolf, 87

By Fr. Victor Feltes

In Jack’s final months, I regularly encountered him in his room at Dove Nursing Home. I always found his wife, Mary, there at his side. Like our Blessed Mother Mary or St. Mary Magdalene at the Cross, she faithfully supported Jack through his Passion. He was grateful to receive Holy Anointing and Last Rites, grateful for the consolation of prayers and blessings, and most especially grateful for the precious gift of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist I brought him. Jack was peaceful, prayerful, and well-prepared to die, ready to commend his spirit to God.

His wife Mary tells me that on Jack’s final Friday before God took him to himself, they were praying the Rosary together. Jack was too weak by then to speak very much, but he would join in the first words of the Rosary’s greatest prayer: “Our Father… Our Father… Our Father.” The “Our Father” is known as “The Lord’s Prayer” because it is how our Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples how to pray. Jesus’ prayer models what he wishes us to desire and to ask for.

One Friday afternoon outside Jerusalem, while darkness covered the whole land, Jesus hung dying on his Cross. Before breathing his last breath, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit!” He prays to God his Father, who is now our Father too. Jesus desires that God’s name would be hallowed; that is, known as holy and loved by all.

Though Jesus is both King of the Jews and the King of Kings, he serves and dies to help the reign of God’s Kingdom come. As Jesus sees and suffers the consequences of our sins, he longs that his Father’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Christ offers his Body on the Cross as he did at the Last Supper. He once declared, “the Bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.” He gives this Bread to his Church daily at every Holy Mass.

Jesus sacrifices himself to forgive us our trespasses hoping and insisting that we would likewise forgive those who trespass against us. Jesus wants us reconciled vertically to God and horizontally to each other, uniting heaven and earth and East and West in the likeness of the Cross. Jesus faces temptation to save us from temptation. He endures this world’s evil deliver us from evil. So you see, the Our Father prayer Jesus urges us to pray, reflects the great blessings the Lord wills for us.

St. Paul proclaims that “we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.” And “if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.” It is right that we should offer prayers for Jack’s soul, that he may be perfectly pure to stand before our holy God with all the saints and angels in heaven. Yet we have a great and calm confidence for Jack, that he who was united to Jesus and devoted to our Father will share in Christ’s resurrection to glory. Amen.

From Creation to this Cradle

Christmas, the Nativity of the Lord
By Fr. Victor Feltes

Before all time’s beginning,
before creation’s making,
was our Lord, who is living.

Omnipotent, all-knowing,
unlimited, all-loving,
the self-existent Being.

This eternal deity
was not solely unity,
but divine community.

Father and Son, self-giving,
Spirit from both, proceeding,
Trinity, ever-living.

Though God could not be more great,
goodness loves to propagate,
so he opted to create.

The Lord said, “Let there be light,”
“earth” and “sky” and “day” and “night,”
“man” and “woman” in his sight
and in each did he delight.

Blessing us was his concern,
gifting gifts we did not earn,
minds to know and hearts to yearn
so we’d love him in return.

Like all things, he made us good,
yet, as God, he understood
human beings sadly would
freely choose to sin;
distaining the divine,
disturbing our domain.

Dissolution, desolation.
Division and dismay.
Despair and death.

Behold how in our world and lives,
sins stab and slice and scar like knives.
But our Lord lowers his lifeline,
a long thread throughout our timeline.

After the Flood and Babel’s tower,
God’s plan was launched with Abraham.
Summoned by the Higher-Power,
he journeyed to the Holy Land.

God vowed to him to give that earth,
to bless all peoples through his name,
and cause his barren wife to birth
a boy who would extend his fame.

Isaac was that wondrous son,
received back as from the dead.
His sacrifice was left undone;
as God supplied a ram instead.

(Note in Abraham’s descendants,
the Messianic lineage,
persons presenting precedents
repeated on the Gospel page.)

Next, from Isaac, Jacob came,
and suffered much from sinful deeds.
To “Israel” God changed his name,
and through twelve sons a kingdom seeds.

This tribe then west to Egypt fled
and grew up becoming many,
until from slavery God led
to “the land of milk and honey.”

For this nation, God appointed
from Bethlehem to kingly throne,
shepherd David, God’s anointed,
one with a heart after his own.

He was betrayed, mistreated,
but overcame each enemy.
God pledged there’d always be seated
a true son of his dynasty.

King Solomon, the peaceful one,
built with wisdom beyond compare
God’s temple in Jerusalem
for everyone from everywhere.

Isaiah’s prophesies foretold
and his consoling words record
how every nation would behold
salvation from our bridegroom Lord.

Then Babylon’s empire came
and took the Jews captive by sword.
But God removed his people’s shame
when to their homeland he restored.

These ups and downs had set the stage
for one night prepped thousands of years.
Between the old and current age,
the Son of God on earth appears.

It’s simple for our little ones,
the way in which our Savior comes.

A stable full of yellow hay?
Kids see a perfect place to stay.

Tiny Jesus is in his box,
asleep beside the sheep and ox.

His mom and dad on Christmas day,
as still as statues, kneel and pray.

That manger scene lit by a star
draws friends to Christ from near and far.

Our children lack experience
but maintain pure, sweet innocence.

They see with awe and gentle joy
our God become a baby boy.

Now that you and I are older,
we recognize complexity;
what Christ’s parents had to shoulder,
the burdens of humanity.

Joseph and Mary were displeased
when turned away from that hotel
and then unpleasant odors breathed
while giving birth where livestock dwell.

Stress-filled was that nativity,
mixed with their joys, feelings of dread,
as they combatted poverty
and unseen forces wished them dead.

The way of Christianity
is not promised to be easy,
but life with Christ, our deity,
has mercy, grace, and great beauty.

Our little ones are right in this,
though much in our world is amiss,
it’s right and wise to reminisce
on Christmas Day and feel great bliss.

Now to conclude, let us review:
God’s great goodness is real and true,
an ancient love that’s ever new
and through Christ’s birth comes into view.

So come to Mass — yes, please do!
His family’s less when lacking you.

Why Five & Five? What Is Our Oil?

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Victor Feltes

Jesus tells us, “The Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.” In those days, the Jewish custom was for a man and woman to get betrothed. This marked the start of their marriage covenant, yet the husband and wife would live separately for the first year. In the meantime, the bridegroom would return to his father’s house and prepare a dwelling place for their life together. Once all was ready, he would joyfully return to bring her to himself. She would be expecting him, but would not know the hour, so she awaited his arrival with her bridesmaids. The bridegroom and his groomsmen would come and escort the bride and her bridesmaids to his father’s house for the consummation of their marriage and seven days of feasting.

This is the cultural context for what Jesus tells us at the Last Supper, as recorded in St. John’s Gospel: “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” These Jewish marriage customs also provide the setting for today’s gospel parable about ten virgins awaiting the bridegroom.

Five of them were wise and five of them were foolish, with the foolish ones foregoing flasks of extra oil and, as a result, being shut out of the wedding feast. Jesus Christ called himself the Bridegroom and the Book of Revelation says his saints will enjoy “the wedding feast of the Lamb.” Before unpacking how we can avoid the foolish ones’ fate, consider this question: why five foolish ones and five wise?

Like other storytellers, our Lord theoretically could have crafted his parable’s details differently. Given ten female characters, instead of five foolish and five wise, Jesus could have told a tale about one foolish virgin and nine wise ones, or preached a parable about nine foolish virgins and one wise one, or shaped his story as one of the six other mixtures where some were foolish and some were wise. So why did he say five and five?

Jesus knew that if his parable had featured just one fool beside nine wise virgins, we might presumptuously assume this story’s warning does not apply to us. On the other hand, if Jesus’ parable had featured nine fools and only one wise virgin, we might despair of being among those who enter the feast. Instead, Jesus speaks of five and five so that we will take this parable seriously yet also have confidence that we can take prudent steps to follow the Bridegroom.

What do the five wise and five foolish virgins teach us? What sort of persons were they, and what oil do we require? For an answer, recall another parable of Jesus.

In the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, after a life in which he callously neglected to care for poor Lazarus at his doorstep, a rich man suffers punishment in flames. He calls out to Abraham above: “I beg you, father, send [Lazarus] to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment!” St. Jerome, the fourth-century Church Father and Doctor of the Church, saw symbolism in this rich man’s five brothers. Jerome sees them as the wicked man’s five bodily senses which were not ordered and dedicated to God. St. Jerome declares to that rich man:

“[Y]ou have five brothers: sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch. These are the brothers to whom formerly you were enslaved. Since they were the brothers you loved, you could not love your brother Lazarus. Naturally you could not love him as brother, because you loved them. Those brothers have no love for poverty. Your sight, your sense of smell, your taste, and your sense of touch were your brothers. These brothers of yours loved wealth and they had no eye for poverty. … They are the brothers who sent you into these torments.”

God created and bestowed us our bodily senses, and they are good. Through them we sustain our lives, experience one another and this world, and delight in God’s good creations. The goodness of these material things reflect the goodness of their Maker. But it is easy for sinful humanity to become fixated on these delightful things resulting in the distracted neglect or sinful contempt of our Creator.

What is to keep our flame of faith from going out, plunging us into darkness, stopping us from following the Bridegroom? How can we properly order our five senses, and be like the wise virgins rather than the foolish, lest the Lord declare, “Amen, I say to you, I do not know you”? We need oil to keep our lamps faithfully burning and follow Christ in the light. But what is that oil?

In the Old Testament, priests, prophets, and kings were anointed with holy olive oil. Jesus was revealed to be the Christ, the Messiah – titles which mean “Anointed One.” At Jesus’ baptism, St. John the Baptist knew Jesus was the “Anointed One” when he saw the Holy Spirit descend upon him. And then at Nazareth, Jesus proclaimed, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me…” So the Holy Spirit, who descended upon Jesus, our priest, prophet, and king, is like anointing oil. The Holy Spirit is the oil we need for our burning lamps. If we are wise we will invite and welcome this third divine Person to pour out upon us, fill us, and fuel us. He will keep our faith burning and direct our bodily senses so that we may wisely follow Christ our Bridegroom into joy.

“Come Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful
& kindle in them the fire of your love.”

God is a Loving Communion of Persons

Trinity Sunday
By Fr. Victor Feltes

A Muslim man once accused me of what he called an “unforgivable sin.” My supposed offense was espousing a core truth of our faith, the foundation of all reality: Trinitarianism — that God is one being in three persons. (That man’s charge struck me as a rather poor conversion strategy. I mean, if proclaiming the Trinity were really an unforgivable sin, why would I bother converting to Islam?) I was dialoguing on that occasion with generally friendly and thoughtful Muslims, Jews, and Unitarians in a website’s comments section, responding to something a man who believes in God but rejects the Trinity had posted. This is what he wrote:

“The Jews had no idea of the Trinity. Their faith was centred in the Shema: a unitary monotheistic confession. Jesus clearly affirmed that very same unitary monotheism in Mark 12:29″ where Jesus says, “Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God, the LORD is one!” This fellow concluded by chiding, “How is it that Christians today have abandoned their rabbi on this point?”

Both that online poster and Jesus Christ referenced the Shema, which faithful Jews would recite every morning and evening. “Shema” is the Hebrew word meaning “hear” or “listen,” and the Shema prayer quotes Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Does this oneness proclaimed by God’s Word refute our Trinitarian Christian Faith? Should we reject our belief in the Trinity because Jews in the Old Testament did not profess it? No, and here’s why.

This famous scripture verse declaring, “the Lord is one,” uses the Hebrew word “echad” for “one.” Now echad can mean singularity, solitary oneness, but this same word sometimes points to a unified oneness. For instance, when Genesis recounts the creation of the two sexes it says, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall become one (echad) flesh.” Later in Genesis, in the story of the Tower of Babel, God laments, “If now, while they are one (echad) people and all have the same language, they have started to do this, nothing they presume to do will be out of their reach.” God, by selecting the word “echad” to proclaim “the Lord is one,” inspired a passage with providential flexibility. Echad allows for the unified oneness of the Persons of the Trinity without requiring that interpretation from the Jewish generations who came before Christ.

In the Bible, we see God gradually leading humanity along from darkness to light, from error to truth. For example, from unchecked blood vendettas, to “an eye for an eye” taught in the Mosaic Laws, to the Gospel teaching of loving our enemies. Or from polygamy, to monogamy, to sacramental marriage. Or in this case, from polytheism (belief in many gods), to monotheism (belief in one God), to Trinitarianism (our belief in one God in three divine Persons).

We see God’s progressive revelation occurring at the Burning Bush, where Moses must ask God to clarify for him, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what do I tell them?” The Lord replies, “I AM (the God) WHO AM.” That the Lord was not just another god among many pagan gods — that the Lord is, in fact, the only God — was a revelation God’s people were taught and accepted over time.

So who reveals to us that God is a Trinity; that the one divine being is three distinct Persons? This is revealed to us through Jesus Christ himself. Jesus claims authority to forgive sins, declares himself Lord of the Sabbath, demands an absolute and total commitment to himself, and presents himself as the one way of salvation. He accepts peoples’ worship, which would be idolatrous if he were not divine. And Jesus says “the Father and I are one” and “whoever has seen me has seen the Father,” yet he speaks to God his Father as another Person.

You and I are single-person beings, so we would naturally assume a personal God would be a singular-person like us. But through Jesus Christ we discover that God as a solitary one would be less perfect, less complete, less great than our God is. Our triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is a loving communion of Persons. God the Father entirely gifts himself to his Son. God the Son entirely gifts himself back to his Father. And God the Holy Spirit proceeds from this eternal, self-gifting exchange. Indeed, as St. John writes, “God is love,” and we are made in and called to the image and likeness of God.

What does this teach us for our lives? The Holy Trinity teaches us our personal perfection will not come in isolation. God the Son calls us to be God’s children with himself, while God the Holy Spirit calls us to be animated with himself, while God the Father calls us to offer all things to himself, so that he — the source of all good things — may give us all good things in return. Loving personal relationships are the meaning of life. Our lives come from a loving communion of persons, and we are called to a loving communion of persons, the Trinity and their Church. We will only become Christian saints through self-gifting and receiving in the oneness of a holy, loving communion of persons.

The Holy Spirit Outpoured

Vigil of Pentecost
By Fr. Victor Feltes

All plants and animals depend upon water to live. Water comes down to us freely from the sky. Though its appearance may vary (as rain, or hail, or snow, or dew) once it rests upon the earth it produces many different effects throughout creation. Water, while ever remaining itself, adapts to the need of every creature that receives it, growing apples on an apple tree, creating sweet sap in a maple tree, or generating many-kernelled cobs on a cornstalk. In this way, water is similar to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit descends as a free gift from heaven. He comes in different appearances (as fire, as a dove, as wind, or invisibly) while always remaining his same divine self. He is the Lord, the giver of life, and in each person who receives him through Christ he produces fruits through gifts which he imparts as he pleases.

On the last and greatest day of a Jewish feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. As Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me!” John’s Gospel tells us “he said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive,” adding, “There was, of course, no Spirit yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” How are we to understand this verse which says, ‘There was no Spirit yet’?

Is it teaching that the Holy Spirit did not yet exist? No, the third Person of the Trinity is co-eternal with the Father and the Son. There was never a time when he was not.

Is the passage saying the Holy Spirit was not yet present and active in the world? No, Luke’s Gospel describes several actions of the Holy Spirit on earth long before Easter or Pentecost. He overshadowed Mary at Jesus’ conception and inspired Elizabeth at the Visitation. He enlightened Simeon and Anna to recognize the Christ Child at the Presentation in the Temple, and our Nicene Creed proclaims that he has spoken through the Old Testament prophets.

Is Pentecost of note because that is when the apostles received the Holy Spirit for the first time? No, for John’s Gospel records how Jesus appeared in the Upper Room on Easter Sunday evening and breathed on them saying, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Seeing as how they had already received the Holy Spirit on Easter, what is special and new about the descent of the Holy Spirit fifty days later on Pentecost such that previous eras can be likened to there be “no Spirit yet“?

We remember and celebrate Pentecost because it is a broader and more manifest outpouring of the Holy Spirit than ever before. The Acts of the Apostles recounts how “there was a group of about 120 persons in the one place,” and “when the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. … Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them.”

He does not descend and rest upon a few of them, but on all of them, and the power he manifests through them is not subtle nor secret. They fearlessly go into the streets proclaiming Jesus Christ in languages they do not even know. The Holy Spirit would no longer to be an occasional, temporary visitor for a special select few, but the enduring animating Spirit of the Body of Christ, the Church in the world.

Surely, the Holy Spirit would like to do more among us, but we must be open to receiving more from him. How can we receive more of his gifts and inspirations? First, we should desire them, and ask for them, and praise and thank him for all the graces we have already received. Next, we should resolve to be open to him, choose to be available for him, and decide to be generous with him, trusting that God is good and wills our greatest good. Finally, we should practice daily prayer, pursue silence and peace in this noisy and anxious world, and be attentive to the subtle movements in our minds and hearts which are the Holy Spirit’s quiet words and gentle nudges. If we ask, are open, and then listen to him, we will receive more of the Holy Spirit’s good gifts and inspirations.

“Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats,” as the Prophet Isaiah wrote, so the Holy Spirit would come to us like water from heaven anew, more powerfully fruitful throughout our world today.

God Is With His People

6th Sunday of Easter
By Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran

We are approaching the end of the Easter season. Next Sunday, we will celebrate the Ascension of the Lord into heaven. At today’s point in Easter time, Jesus is about to leave the world and return to His Father, as he promises to send the Holy Spirit to his disciples. He tells them that he will not leave them orphaned but his Spirit will be with the church and his people till the end of time.

Today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles was a historical event in the church. Deacon Philip was on a mission to Samaritans, who were non-Jewish. While he was preaching to them, they accepted Jesus as their promised Messiah and received the Holy Spirit in their lives through the laying of the hands of Peter and John. The laying of hands is used in the church even today at baptism, confirmation, and ordination.

Today’s Gospel is once again in the context of the Last Supper. Jesus is preparing His disciples for his coming suffering and death but also for his resurrection and Ascension. Jesus promises them that even after his ascension he will remain with them in a very different way from now. He tells them clearly that he is the way, truth, and life. Jesus promises His Holy Spirit, the “Advocate”. The Advocate will come upon the Apostles and continue the work of Jesus.

“Advocate” means an intercessor, defender, and witness for the accused, best friend, comforter in distress, counselor, and Helper. The Advocate is always by our side to instruct and correct us when we make mistakes. The Advocate encourages and motivates us when we fall down, and fights for our rights when judges are unfair.

God is with us neither judging us nor rejecting us but patiently waiting and calling us to change. God is with us in our suffering. When sickness and death surround us, God is with us affirming us and calling us to patience and to courage. There is a beautiful line in today’s second reading. It says, “Always be prepared to give your defense to anyone who wants an explanation of the hope that is within you.” Always be ready to explain why we are people of hope. We are people of hope because God is with us. God is with us now and always. God is with us forever. We are not alone. In good times and in bad, God’s presence will always be with us. No matter how hard life is, He will stay with us and will never leave us. God, the Holy Spirit, is always our Advocate.

Pay special attention to the Holy Spirit who is present in your thoughts, words, and deeds. Give thanks for all the gifts you have received. Ask the Holy Spirit to take over your life, and allow Him to fill you with His gifts of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self–control.

From Earthly to Divine — Funeral Homily for John Boehm, 85

By Fr. Victor Feltes

John’s family has told me about his many loves. How he has loved Sharon, to whom he was married for twenty-two years until her passing in 1981. How he has loved Maria, his wife these last twenty-six years. And how he has loved his family as a good Christian father who “always told you he loved ya.”

He loved any kind of music and any opportunity to sing. He commonly sang at funerals, and his fellow parishioners in church liked to sit near him to help make themselves sound better. He used to work all week and then proudly lead “Johnny’s Family Affair” every weekend. Then, each Sunday morning he would shepherd his family to St. Jude’s for Mass, followed by Sunday fun with the kids. John loved being a mechanic through six decades; taking things apart and putting them back together right. He also loved his motorcycles and (like his natural children) he would name them; including Grey Dog, Happy, Jolly, King, Silver Hawk, and others.

When he turned eighty, his family gifted him a bike. Since John’s balance had become rather poor, they bought him a three-wheeler. He loved riding it as much as he could, being outside enjoying the weather, touring around New Auburn and the surrounding countryside. Even a week before his death, he was talking about his desire to go riding again. He hoped to experience that familiar good anew and more deeply.

Now these various examples of John’s loves reflect the ambiguity of that word. “Love” is an equivocal term — not meaning the same exact thing every time it is used. John, of course, did not love music or his motorcycles in the same way that he loves his family or loves our God, and yet he loves them all. Similarly, the words we use to speak of God are true and yet remain mysterious.

The Holy Trinity gives us images and terms to reveal what the divine Persons are like; such as Father, Lord, King, Son, Shepherd, Lamb, Rock, Light, Judge, Advocate, Creator, and Savior. God’s inspired word identifies him as truly and perfectly Good, Loving, Holy, Just, and Merciful. At the same time, divine Fatherhood transcends earthly fatherhood, and God’s goodness far surpasses in quantity and quality, our human understanding and experiences of goodness.

These images and terms are analogies, likening the earthly to the divine. And in every instance, where some similarity is noted between God and his creatures there remains an even greater dissimilarity. We know something of goodness, but God is truly good and even better than we know.

Created things, the people and good things we know and love, all do reflect something of the divine. Our Triune God reveals himself to us as our Father, as the Church’s Spouse, and as our Brother in Christ, who will always tell us that he loves us. God is a mechanic, too; repairing things and putting them back together right. God delights in his children, and invites his family to join in his eternal song. And he leads us to worship, to fellowship, and to rest with him, calling each of us by name.

As St. John writes, “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. Beloved, we are God’s children now…” So even though there is sadness in life’s partings, we approach John’s death and our own deaths one day with consolation and hopeful expectation. For all created things, the people and things we know and love, reflect something true and good of our Creator and Savior. And if we cooperate with our Lord in grace and love and goodness, on the day of Resurrection, “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

Lessons for the Raising of Lazarus

5th Sunday of Lent
By Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran

Eternal life begins now for those in a relationship with Jesus. Jesus is telling us that eternal life begins now for those who believe in Him. He tells us, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25–26)

The first reading today is from the book of Ezekiel, which tells us of God’s promise to put his Spirit within the people so they may live. Before this promise, the prophet Ezekiel, led by the Spirit, was taken into the plain where his mission was revealed to him. The passage is a prediction of the renewed life of the people of Israel after their exile from Jerusalem. The people seemed dead, their temple was destroyed, their land wasted, and their leaders gone. Ezekiel was told that through his gift of prophesying, God’s chosen people that had been exiled in Babylon for some time would receive a new Spirit that would give them new hope. They would be led to a new life in the land of Israel. God promises to put a new spirit in His people, which is a promise to give new life to them.

In the second reading of today, St. Paul continues talking about the resurrection. The life of the flesh is dominated by our human way of thinking, which has no future, it is the way to death. People who are living according to the Spirit have a life of grace. They have God as their center and are spiritually alive. Their faith gives them a future and a new life path. Therefore, St. Paul says that those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit.

Today’s gospel reading gives us two messages. First, it tells us that our living faith in Jesus will raise all our bodies in the final resurrection. Secondly, with the approach of Easter Sunday, we are called symbolically to resurrect ourselves from sin to grace by partaking in the sacrament of reconciliation. In raising Lazarus, Jesus showed His authority as the Son and showed His divine power. By raising him on the fourth day, Jesus proved that He is master over life and death, and he is able to bring all the dead back to life, the holy Patriarchs, the Jews, and even the righteous Gentiles from centuries before. To be raised from the dead means to be in a living, loving relationship with Jesus, who teaches us that resurrection and life are a call to be united with Him

There are a few lessons we can learn from today’s gospel. First, this miracle is an expression of love. Second, our faith is very important in any miracle God does for us. The third lesson is that everything is possible with Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Finally, Jesus is willing to help us no matter what it will cost Him. It does not matter how long we have been spiritually dead or away from Him. If we hear and obey His voice, He will restore life to our weak and mortal bodies through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is because Jesus has authority over life and death.

The Loving Communion of Persons — The Larry Feltes & Shirley Conibear Wedding

By Fr. Victor Feltes

For the story of humanity, God began with a single couple, Adam and Eve; a single family, the family of Abraham; a single people, the twelve tribes of Jacob; a single nation, the nation of Israel; and ultimately a single Church, a Church for all peoples and lands, the Church of Jesus Christ. Notice the trend of God creating a wider and wider circle of relationship.

This growth is all detailed in the Bible. God began with two in the Garden of Eden, later a family of seventy journeyed into Egypt, generations later hundreds of thousands came out of Egypt in the Exodus, until there was up to millions at the birth of the Church. These events are all recounted through personal stories, about people such as Joseph, Moses, Jesus and Mary and his friends, the Apostles. This was necessary for God’s purpose. Perhaps an angel could be engaged by a long list of statistics and historical dates, But human persons require personal stories of personal experience to come to know God.

God desires us to know him better. In the time of Moses, God commanded his people to worship no other gods. In the time of the prophets, God clarified for his people that there are no other gods. But in the coming of Jesus, God revealed for all people that God is a communion of Persons. Our God is not a solitary oneness but a unity of three, an eternally loving and blessed Trinity.

So why did God create us? Did he need us to do something for him? Was he incomplete without us? No, we are not the result of necessity. God is complete in himself, but his fullness overflows. Love likes to share. Our creation, our existence, is a gratuitous gift. And God desires and delights that we would be in personal relationship with him and in close personal relationship with one another through him.

Larry and Shirley, you are about to enter a holy covenant together. In a moment, you will exchange vows to be married, and we are all here to support you. But hypothetically, could you both survive without marrying each other? Sure. Could you survive without music, or sweet foods, or sunsets? Of course! You marry today not by compulsion, nor from necessity, but freely and overflowing delight. You both desire to be a blessing to each other; to be the blessing that a wife can be to her husband and the blessing that a husband can be to his wife in this holy communion of persons. He desires for you to have holy joys in life, to support each other through the inevitable trials ahead, and to sanctify each other, to grow each other as saints for Heaven with God.

Larry and Shirley, you both know that wedding days are full of many memories, but from this homily I hope you will remember this: at quiet times in days ahead reflect and see how Jesus has walked with you, leading you to this moment. And as you go forward together in marriage, grow in love with him. You, like all of us here, are created in love, made for love, and called to more perfect love, together with our Lord.

Holy Shepherds and a Holy Mother

Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
By Fr. Victor Feltes

The shepherds, after encountering the herald angels, went in haste to Bethlehem. They knew they were searching for an animal stable, for the angel had told them their “Messiah and Lord” would be “lying in a manger.” They came to the cave of the Nativity and found St. Joseph, Mother Mary, and her holy child. She had wrapped Jesus’ tiny body in strips of cloth called swaddling clothes and laid him in a feed trough to serve as his first crib. On the first Christmas night, lots of people were in and around the little town of Bethlehem. The Roman census had brought so many visitors that there was no room for the Holy Family at the inn. So of all the people in the area why did the angels announce the big news of the Savior’s birth to the shepherds in particular?

Jesus was “born of a woman, born under the law,” about five miles from the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. In the law of the Old Covenant, God commanded his people to sacrifice lambs. Every day and especially for the Feast of Passover, lambs were offered on Jerusalem’s holy altar. God’s instructions were clear: the “lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish.” By custom, these lambs came from the fields outside of Bethlehem. And so, the young, male, flawless lambs to be sacrificed in Jerusalem were first presented by these shepherds. Mary had a little lamb; the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world, and these shepherds made him known. The circumstances of Jesus’ birth foreshadowed what was to come.

Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God, would go on to be slain, sacrificed at Passover. His mother Mary, who had wrapped him in swaddling clothes, would go on to see him wrapped in a linen shroud. One Joseph had arranged the place for his birth, another Joseph would provide the place for his burial. Mary, who had given birth to Jesus in a cave, would deliver his body to a rock-hewn tomb. And Baby Jesus, who was laid in a grain box in a city whose name means “House of Bread,” would offer his own Body as the Bread of Life for the salvation of the world.

Today we celebrate Mary as the mother of God. How is she the mother of God? Is she the mother of God the Father? No. Is she the mother of the Holy Spirit? No. Is she the mother of Jesus? She is. Is Jesus God? Yes, he is. Therefore, Mary is rightfully called the mother of God. Celebrating her as the mother of God at the start of each year helps to preserve and protect the truth about who her Son is. Jesus is fully human, born of a human mother, while at the same time he is also fully divine, begotten by God the Father. On Christmas, Mary gives birth to a single person who is both God and man. Without Mary, we would not know Jesus in the way that we do now.

There is further reason to celebrate Mary: God created her to be Jesus’ mother and to be our mother, too. As the recently departed Pope Benedict XVI said, “Mary has truly become the mother of all believers.” He observed that “if Mary no longer finds a place in many theologies and ecclesiologies, the reason is obvious: they have reduced the faith to an abstraction. And an abstraction does not need a mother.” Our faith is more than a mere concept—it is about relationship as part of a family. “Being Christian,” Pope Benedict wrote, “is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” He wrote: “Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary. There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ.”

In the future, Pope Benedict is very likely to be canonized a saint and declared a Doctor (that is, a great teacher) of the Church. He is arguably the greatest theologian of the 20th century. So what would you guess were the last dying words of this brilliant man (according to his private secretary)? They were simply, “Jesus, I love you.” We are blessed and rejoice to have a mother in Mary. And through her we have a Brother, Friend, Lord, and Savior in her Son, Jesus. With this new year, let us rejoice in Jesus Christ, our Mother Mary, and our Catholic Faith, for they produce great saints and salvation from Christmas in Bethlehem to across our world today.

Encountering the Holy Trinity at St. John the Baptist Church

Trinity Sunday
By Fr. Victor Feltes

I am back again at St. John’s this Sunday for the final weekend of our Inspired by the Spirit capital campaign and I have good news to share. Going into this weekend, nineteen households have pledged and their pledges total almost $83,000. From the actual monies received to date, our Diocesan Annual Appeal for next year is already covered. And if all of our campaign pledges are fulfilled, about $54,000 will come back to replenish St. John’s Building Maintenance Fund over the next five years.

That’s a great thing; however, this depends upon people following through on their pledges over the coming years. And things happen, so it’s likely not everyone will fulfill them. So today during announcement time I’ll provide one more chance to fill out or grab a pledge card to make a five-year pledge for our capital campaign. If our actual campaign monies raised over these next five years happen to surpass our $80,000 goal, 80% of that overage will return to St. John’s. Or if you prefer, you can always write checks directly to St. John’s with “Building Fund” in the memo line and we will deposit your entire gift into that St. John’s Parish account.

As I mentioned last week, St. John’s Building Fund was depleted by our interior renovation project which made this church of ours one of the most beautiful in our area. And what I love about our church’s new design is that it’s not only beautiful but meaningful. This design, like everything in the universe, is connected to the Most Holy Trinity. Like Sacred Scripture, our sacred art has multiple true interpretations.

Consider, for instance, the colors of the nave where you sit. Our earth tone floor and walls recall how St. John the Baptist, with suntanned skin and camel hair clothes, dwelt among the rocky ground and sandy hillsides of the arid wilderness. Our blue ceiling down the center is like the Jordan River flowing through the desert. It was in this wilderness where John the Baptist, on more than one occasion, pointed out Jesus to declare “Behold the Lamb of God! … Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” In Latin, “Behold the Lamb of God” is “Ecce Agnus Dei,” which is the phrase upon our sanctuary’s arch. St. John the Baptist’s statue in our sanctuary points higher to Christ the Lamb of God. The Baptist said of him, “He must increase, I must decrease.” At Jesus’ baptism the Holy Trinity is revealed.

After Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan, he came up from the water and the heavens were opened. The Holy Spirit was seen descending in the likeness of a dove and came down upon him. In our sanctuary, the Holy Spirit is seen descending over Jesus; Jesus on the Cross, Jesus in the Tabernacle, and Jesus on the altar. At the Jordan, the invisible Father—still unseen, pointed out his Son from the heavens, like the hand which represents God the Father points to Jesus’ Sacred Heart Statue in our sanctuary. At Jesus’ baptism, the words of the Father were heard: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

At our baptisms in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we became children of God, temples of the Holy Spirit, and members of the Body of Christ. St. John the Baptist leads us to this personal union with the Holy Trinity. Our blue ceiling may also be taken to represent the sky. Many churches of Europe and the Eastern Church have blue ceilings. The gold plants featured on our walls have old precedent as well. The walls inside the ancient Jewish Temple in Jerusalem were decorated like a garden, with golden depictions of “palm trees and open flowers.” This is because God’s Temple represents a new Garden of Eden, where God dwells with the human race. Our Catholic churches, like the Temple, represent the whole created universe in union with our God in heaven.

The Bible speaks of three heavens. St. Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians of a man, most likely himself, who either in his body or out of his body “was caught up to the third heaven… to paradise, and heard inexpressible things…” What are those three heavens? The first heaven is our sky, where the clouds float and the birds fly. The second heaven is the outer space beyond it, where the stars and planets shine. But the third heaven is beyond them both, a dimension you cannot climb or ride a rocket to, the very presence of the Holy Trinity.

In this church, we are taken beyond the sky above us and the shining star before us into the presence of the Holy Trinity. In our church, through the waters of baptism we come to this altar of Sacrifice, where through Jesus, in union with the Holy Spirit, we offer glory and honor to our Father. At Mass, we give gifts to God; including our wealth and thanks and praise but, most importantly, the gift of ourselves. And at this altar the graces pour down from heaven and flow forth upon us and out into the world. The mystical river flows both ways. All being and truth flows from the Trinity, and all of creation is called back to God.

St. John’s Church is a beautiful church and its purpose is salvific. I desire, that centuries from now, Cooks Valley’s church will still be here, advancing the kingdom of God. That is why I am supporting St. John’s in this Inspired by the Spirit campaign and I encourage you to do the same.

“Receive the Holy Spirit”

Pentecost Sunday
By Fr. Chinnappan Pelavendran

On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended with power upon the Apostles in the image of tongues of fire and thus began the mission of the Church in the world. Once they received the Spirit, they went out boldly and preached to all in Jerusalem and elsewhere. Jesus himself prepared the Eleven for this mission, appearing to them on many occasions after his Resurrection.

Jesus asked them to stay together to prepare themselves to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The disciples followed the command of Jesus. They as a community gathered together in prayer along with Mary in the Upper Room, awaiting the promised event. It is here they all received the Holy Spirit. This feast of Pentecost is the culmination of the Paschal mystery which tells us of the sending of the Spirit of the Father and the Son on the disciples.

During his apparitions Jesus gives two gifts to his followers, the gift of his abiding peace and the power to forgive sins. He commissions them to carry on his work, empowered by the gift of the Holy Spirit and peace. The Holy Spirit will continue to teach them the message of Jesus. Today is also the birthday of the Church. This Sunday is a commemoration and celebration of the receiving of the Holy Spirit by the early church.

We celebrate this day to recognize the gift of the Holy Spirit, realizing that God’s very life, breath, and energy lives in believers. The celebration reminds us of the reality that we are all having the unifying Spirit that was poured out upon the first disciples. It tells us that the same Spirit is given to each one of us, that we are all baptized by one Spirit into one body, and that the Spirit which raised Jesus from the dead will raise us too. So he said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” With the giving of the Spirit came also the authority to speak and act in the name of Jesus.

“If you forgive sins, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Forgiving sin, reconciling people with God has been the very core of the work of Christ and the Christian mission. The Holy Spirit will teach them the divine knowledge and wisdom of the Father that belongs to Jesus, both the Father and the Son is one in the Blessed Trinity

Being filled with the Holy Spirit, they were given the power of preaching and healing and they spoke in tongues. Thus having received the Holy Spirit, the disciples went out and preached the message of Jesus. Jesus greets his disciples with the gift of peace. “Peace be with you,” he says. Jesus then commissions his disciples to continue the work that he has begun “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” He breathes the Holy Spirit upon the disciples and sends them to continue his work of reconciliation through the forgiveness of sins.

As we celebrate this great feast of the Church’s fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus, how have we been a sign of reconciliation in our families, in our world, and among people of faith everywhere? Have we been an instrument of God’s peace to everyone we meet? With the faith and trust modeled by Mary, the Mother of God, let us offer our prayers to God this day. Heavenly Father, in your wisdom, please hear and answer our prayers this day. We ask through Jesus Christ, your Son.

Why Did Jesus Go?

The Ascension
By Fr. Victor Feltes

This week, our Catholic school celebrated our eighth graders’ graduation with a Mass and an awards ceremony. Afterwards, while the graduates were having their pictures taken, a teacher and I stood off to the side, looking on. He remarked, “It’s sad to see them go.” I replied, “Yeah, but it would be even sadder if they stayed.”

Just whimsically imagine remaining an eighth grader well into your twenties. You don’t have a full-time job because you’re a full-time student without a high school degree. Of course you’re unmarried and have no kids—you’re still in middle school! And sure, after a decade of eighth grade, having had the same lessons over and over, you could ace all of your homework and tests (if you still had any motivation left to do so) but you would not be learning very much. It is bittersweet to see our graduates go forth from us, but it is better that they go. Though in one sense they are leaving us, they are not really gone. Yet this departure is necessary for them to reach their full human maturity and to fulfill God’s plans for their glory.

Today we celebrate Jesus’ bodily ascension into Heaven. The traditional day for celebrating the Ascension is forty days after Easter, which was last Thursday, or “Ascension Thursday.” Our diocese, like most dioceses in our country, transfers this celebration to this Sunday. I guess we like keeping Jesus around longer. But seriously, the ascension of Jesus into heaven raises this question: “Why did he go? Why didn’t Jesus stay?”

Now Jesus does tell us, “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name I am there in their midst.” He says, “Behold, I am with you always until the end of the age.” And he is truly present for us in the Holy Eucharist. But Jesus’ presence now remains invisible or veiled to our eyes. By bodily ascending and disappearing into the clouds Jesus is visibly departing from us until he comes again with a glory manifested to all. “But I tell you the truth,” he says, “it is better for you that I go.” Why is this better? What would it be like if Jesus dwelt among us throughout the centuries like he did with his disciples those forty days, walking with them and talking with them, following his Resurrection?

There is no physical reason why Jesus could not have done this. His risen body is a glorified body no longer subject to injury or death, so that’s not the reason he did not remain. Did he go because on earth he’s reduced to being in one particular place, or limited in how much he can see, know, or do? Remember, Jesus is not merely human but divine, all-knowing and all-powerful, and his bi-locating saints (such as Venerable Mary of Ágreda or St. Padre Pio) who have manifested the miracle of being more than one place at once surely do not possess any supernatural ability which Jesus lacks.

So God the Father could have chosen “by his own authority” for his Son to remain visibly active here with us, in one, or thousands, or millions of locations at once, throughout the centuries up to our day. Jesus could be the pastor in every parish, the teacher in every classroom, the doctor in every hospital, and the leader in every country. He is the perfect priest, the best teacher, the greatest healer, and the rightful ruler of all. Who is better-qualified than Jesus to do any of these things? Nobody. People would demand this of him and resent him for not doing it. But if Jesus were visibly present and doing everything, then we would be left doing very little.

Would it be a better world if Jesus personally did everything? In some ways, yes. Earth would be closer to paradise in many respects. But would this lead to more souls being saved? I’m not so sure. Adam and Eve lived in an earthly paradise, too, before they fell. And the glory of Christ being manifested to the world in an undeniable way might gain peoples’ submission, but not necessarily their conversion or love. The demons who fell had no doubts about God’s existence and yet they chose to disobey him as far as they were able.

If Jesus did everything of importance on earth without us, one result which seems evident to me is that we would remain in an unending adolescence, like someone attending the eighth grade well into their adulthood. This is why it was better for us that Jesus ascended. We are children of God called to what St. Paul calls “the stature of the fullness of Christ.” If everything which matters were just Jesus’ job to handle, how would we grow from our immaturity into the full maturity of Christ?

Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the (Holy Spirit) will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” By the Holy Spirit, the Church (which is Christ’s Body) is animated in this world. As members of his body we are moved by the Holy Spirit to love and to work united with Christ, growing more into his likeness and glory along the way. Would Jesus not ascending into heaven, remaining constantly here on earth and doing everything without us, have been easier than this present Christian life of ours? Perhaps, but Jesus desires that we would graduate with him to higher things and ascend to a greater glory with himself.

The Trinity is a Communion of Love

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
By Deacon Matthew Bowe

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, one of the Church’s most profound and deepest mystery. One thing to know about the Trinity, even if it is the only thing that you remember today about the Trinity, is this – the Trinity is a communion of Love. The Trinity is Love, for God is Love. As St. Augustine said long ago in the fourth century, the Father is the Lover, the Son is the Beloved, and the Holy Spirit is the shared Love between the Father and the Son. That is the mystery that dwells deeply within our prayers and meditations.

Throughout the centuries, many great theologians, mystics, and spiritual masters have meditated and contemplated upon the mystery of the Holy Trinity. They wrote treaties titled On the Trinity, of which there are many, and the reason for this desire to understand this mystery is that this is one of the mysteries that a person must believe in order to be a Christian.

Now the word “mystery” comes from the Greek word “mysterios,” meaning secret. “Mystery” does not mean something to be solved by following clues nor does it mean “secret” as in it is not meant to be known, for the mystery of the Holy Trinity is inexhaustible, and cannot be fully known or explained, and is therefore unsolvable, but it has been revealed to us, something to be known through faith. God wants us to know who He is in his infinite mysteriousness and greatness.

So what do we know about the Holy Trinity? I would like to use a lesser-known source. It is a Creed, like the Nicene or Apostle’s Creed that we profess during the Mass. It is attributed to St. Athanasius, who is known as the Doctor of Orthodoxy. The first part of this creed explains who the Trinity is.

The first truth is that we worship one God in Trinity, or Three Persons, and the Trinity in unity. There is one God, who is a Trinity, Three Persons who are in unity, hence the name, and we know the Three Persons are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The second truth is that God is one substance, or one Being. There are not three gods, only one, but a Being in Three Persons. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are God, but they are not each other. The Father is neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit, the Son is neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father and the Son, yet God is a Trinity of Three Persons who are in unity. Within the Godhead, there are what are called two processions. The Father begets the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

The third truth is that each Person is equal, in majesty and glory. Each Person is uncreated, incomprehensible, eternal, and almighty. Each Person is God and Lord, yet we do not say that there are three gods and three lords. What we say about the Godhead can be said about each Person of the Trinity, again, not as three separate gods but each Person sharing in the attribute infinitely. This is the truth of the Catholic faith about the Trinity. As this part of the Athanasius Creed finishes, the belief of “the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.”

In fact, St. Caesarius of Arles stated that “the faith of all Christians rests on the Trinity” (CCC #232). The Trinity is the most real thing. Yet, the mystery of the Trinity cannot be known by reason. God needed to reveal this truth about Himself for us to know Him as a Trinity. It cannot be known by reason that the Godhead is a Trinity and that each Person is in relation to each other, of which there are four relations. The Father relates to the Son, and vice versa, and the Father and the Son to the Holy Spirit, and vice versa. The Three Persons are in an intimate communion with each other, and this communion of Persons is an archetype of the communion God desires with His people.

This is why Jesus commands His disciples to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” God, Who is a communion of Three Persons, desires also to commune with His people and for His people to commune with Him. According to the Catechism, “Baptism signifies and actually brings about death to sin and entry into the life of the Most Holy Trinity through configuration to the Paschal mystery of Christ” (CCC #1239). This is why Baptism is so important and why the Church seeks newborns to be baptized within a short time after birth.

Next, the Holy Trinity, as a communion of Three Persons, is also an archetype of the family. The Catechism states that “the Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit” (CCC #2205). Families are called to be missionaries and to evangelize to others. They are called to be witnesses to the Gospel message to other families and people who need Jesus in their lives. As members of the Mystical Body of Christ, of the Church, of the People of God, we should desire that other people come into communion with God and His Church, to experience His love. God is a Trinity because God is love.

How does someone pray to the Holy Trinity? First, simply sit in His presence. Have you ever sat with someone who is dear to you and you did not have to say anything? You simply enjoyed each other’s presence. This is good way to pray to God, especially when our words fail us. Simply sit silently in God’s love. Second, learn about the Holy Trinity (as I said, there are many treatises on it). In order to love something or someone, you must first know about it. The more you learn about the Holy Trinity the more that you will be capable of loving the Trinity. Third, pray to each Person of the Trinity, to the Father, Jesus the Son, or the Holy Spirit as persons, as you would speak to your friends and family.

The Trinity, although inexhaustible in mystery, is something that can be known and is accessible to us. The Trinity is near us. We remember both the Trinity and our Baptism when we sign ourselves with holy water. Just as the Trinity lives in intimate communion and relation with each other, the Trinity desires for us to do the same, for us to live in communion and unity with each other, and more importantly, for us to dwell in communion, relationship, and unity with the Most Holy Trinity. And if you remember nothing else from this homily, remember this: the Trinity is a communion of Love.