UNDER THE MIGHTY HAND OF GOD

 A SERMON FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF SACRED HEART

During this Octave of the Feast of the Sacred Heart the Church places our focus on one thing and one thing only—the love of God for us.  Last week, we examined this love from God’s perspective and saw how his love extends, from the supreme act of sacrifice that was Calvary, to the present time  and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that continues daily, perpetuating that act of love and bringing us the graces of which we stand in constant need.  Today, we are reminded in no uncertain terms what is expected of us in return.  It’s really not very much at all, simply that we should love God in return.  And how do we do so?  Certainly, by obeying the commandments.  But there’s more to love than simply doing what we’re told.  Our Lord asks not just for blind obedience to his laws, but that we love him in return, not reluctantly, not begrudging God what we’re giving up, but loving him with all our heart and strength.  It is the Sacred Heart of Jesus that most clearly represents the love God has for us, and in return all he asks is that we love him with all our heart. 

What happens when we truly love someone?  When we love, our heart goes pit-a-pat, it beats more strongly.  And the more we love, the more intense becomes the beating of our heart.  One of the saints, Philip Neri, founder of the Oratorians, experienced this phenomenon in a strange and extreme way.  The historian Bacci describes it thus:  A few days before Pentecost in 1544, “while he was with the greatest earnestness asking of the Holy Ghost, His gifts, there appeared to him a globe of fire, which entered into his mouth and lodged in his breast; and thereupon he was suddenly surprised with such a fire of love, that, unable to bear it, he threw himself on the ground, and, like one trying to cool himself, bared his breast to temper in some measure the flame which he felt. When he had remained so for some time, and was a little recovered, he rose up full of unwonted joy, and immediately all his body began to shake with a violent tremour; and putting his hand to his bosom, he felt by the side of his heart, a swelling about as big as a man’s fist, but neither then nor afterwards was it attended with the slightest pain or wound.”  For the rest of his life St. Philip Neri was fueled by an intense divine love and possessed a joy that was contagious, and his heart would palpitate violently whenever he performed any spiritual action.  The cause of this swelling was discovered by the doctors who examined his body after death. The saint’s heart had been so dilated by that sudden impulse of love, that in order for it to have enough room to beat, two ribs had been broken, and curved in the form of an arch.  If a mere mortal, no matter how holy he may have been, could experience such love, how much more are we loved by the Sacred Heart himself.

If we poor sinners cannot “feel” such physical and emotional love, we must at least do our best to show our love by surrendering our will to God.  Our greatest act of love is in this sacrifice we make of ourselves, laying aside our attachment to our own wants and desires, and instead, placing ourselves trustingly into the hands of the Almighty.  As St. Paul admonishes us in today’s Epistle:  “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God… casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.” 

And indeed he does care for us.  That heart that was pierced with a lance, that shed its last drop of blood for us poor sinners, how much love did this God-Man have for us?  His love is infinite, and when we compare the feeble love we have for him, we may be tempted to despair that we come so short of truly pleasing him.  But if we think about it for a moment, we would realize that God’s love for us neither requires nor desires such despair.  What he does want is that we always try to raise ourselves above the mere mortals we are.  God wants us to stand up again when we fall, he wants us to reach out our hands for his almighty hand, take it in our own, and walk with him again.  And the Good Shepherd will raise us even higher, laying the lost sheep on his shoulders, rejoicing, for “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.”

It is such a great comfort for us to know that we live “under the mighty hand of God.”  During this Octave of the Sacred Heart we’re now celebrating, we should think often and deeply about this, for it is the great consolation of our lives, the only thing, in fact, that truly matters and that makes sense of all around us and within us.  That mighty hand of God holds us safe, guides us into the right directions when we stray.  It gently nudges us forward, encouraging us to persevere in our trials and difficulties without yielding to the temptations they cause. It is the hand that wards off our enemies, both physical and spiritual, who would do us harm, it is the hand that feeds us with good things, that gives us this day our daily bread.  Was there ever a reason to feel more safe, more confident, more at peace, than knowing that we are indeed under the mighty hand of God?  Every night, before we sleep, we should re-strengthen our grasp on that mighty hand, echoing the words of the Church’s night office, “Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”

St. Paul puts it very simply in today’s Epistle: “Dearly beloved,” he says, “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God… that he may exalt you in due time.”  Humble yourselves.  That doesn’t mean grovel like an animal or a slave.  It means simply, know your place.  Our place is that of a creature towards our Creator, our divine Creator who, out of love, made us out of the dust of the earth so that we can love him in return.  It’s not hard to understand.  We owe God everything, down to every single breath we take.  Without him we would be literally nothing.  He is all good and deserving of all our love.  This is humility—to know in our heart that we are nothing without God, and that it is only his mighty hand that preserves us so that we can do his will, save our souls, and be united with him in heaven for evermore.  “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.”

Of all the creatures the good Lord ever made, the most exalted, and yet the most truly humble of all, was the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Queen of Heaven, Queen of Angels, and yet, no matter how much God has exalted her, she humbles herself beneath the mighty hand of God.  Indeed, her humility is so great because her exaltation is so great.   In her divinely inspired canticle, the Magnificat, she declares her extraordinary humility, yet without losing that humility.  She recognizes that even her own humility is the work of Almighty God within her.  It is the mighty hand of God that has exalted her. “For he that is mighty hath magnified me, and holy is his Name.”  She truly understands that  if “from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed,” it is only because God “hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden.”  She humbles herself under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt her in due time. 

This Canticle of our Blessed Lady, the Magnificat, should inspire us to follow her example and humble our own selves under the mighty hand of God, so that, like a child holding on to the hand of his father, we might know our place and experience that feeling of protection and peace of mind that God’s mighty hand provides.  “He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath exalted the humble and meek.”  By holding on tight to God’s hand, we shall learn to feel that love for him who is our Father and protector.  The words of the 90^th Psalm, chanted at the night office of Compline, say it best: “Whoso dwelleth under the defence of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say unto the Lord, Thou art my hope, and my stronghold; my God, in him will I trust.”

 A HYMN FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF SACRED HEART

From Vespers of the Feast of the Sacred Heart

 

See how the haughty, savage horde

Of mankind's sins doth wound the Lord,

And pierce his Heart which, innocent,

Could ne'er deserve such punishment.

 

Unsteady was the soldier's lance,

But mankind's sins firmed its advance;

Its point was barbed by mortal sin

Which our own malice drave straight in.

 

That pierced Heart's engendering flood

Begat the Church from Christ's own blood:

Salvation's ark thus opened wide

Its door to man, set in Christ's side.

 

Unceasing grace therefrom doth flow,

And forth in seven-fold stream doth go

To wash our robes, and make them white,

In that Lamb's blood of quickening might.

 

What shame those whited robes to stain!

With sin to pierce his Heart again!

Far rather, be our hearts on fire

With love which doth his Heart inspire.

 

We give thee praise, who dost impart

Such grace, O Jesu, from thy Heart;

Whom with the Father we adore,

And Holy Ghost, for evermore.  Amen.

WHY DO THE HEATHEN RAGE?

 A REFLECTION FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE FEAST OF THE SACRED HEART

“Why do the heathen so furiously rage together? and why do the people imagine a vain thing?  The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against his Anointed.”  These somber words are taken from the 2^nd Psalm, sung at Sunday Matins, and describe perfectly what has been going on since Friday’s ruling by the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, that murderous decision that supposedly granted the federal government the right to kill unborn babies.  Now that “right” has been taken away and returned to the individual states, and the heathens have certainly been furiously raging.  They have concocted a fantasy world for themselves in which the imagined rights of women have been trampled and the tyrannical Christians have succeeded in imposing their laws on the poor and oppressed.  They fail, of course, to acknowledge that the murder of the unborn is not a Christian law, but the natural law.  They fail because they refuse to acknowledge that there is even such a thing as the “natural law”.  The only law they do acknowledge is the law of Satan, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.”

And so, the heathen rage.  On Friday night they had their so-called “Night of Rage.”  The exasperated heathens, unable to control their emotions, had to express their rage by ransacking pro-life clinics, threatening churches, politicians, and Supreme Court justices, and at one point even holding lawmakers hostage in the Arizona state capitol.  Of course, we should not expect to see any retribution or punishment for any of these violent acts, as our government is too busy prosecuting, or rather persecuting, the people who entered the US Capitol back in January 2021.  With the Democrats in power, there will never be any true justice in this country. 

“The kings of the earth rise up.”  In today’s terms, the “president” and his cronies in government, education, the media and big business rise up, and “the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against his Anointed.”  Yes, even the self-proclaimed Catholics Nancy Pelosi and Joey Biden are already plotting ways to bypass the ruling of the Supreme Court and return to the unbridled killing of babies in the womb.  As true Catholics, we must recognize evil for what it is, no matter who conspires to commit it.  Popes and bishops, presidents, politicians—these are the kings of the earth, and they are busy taking counsel together.  Evil is as evil does, and we must redouble our prayers against the persecutors of Holy Church and the enemies of God, no matter what title they might pretend to hold.

Above all, let’s remember that seeking the destruction of the wicked is never an achievable goal.  We must rather replace their wickedness with something better, something more desirable, more fine and honorable.  “Desire of me,” continues the 2^nd Psalm, “and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance.” The good we seek will never come from hatred or vengeance, but from charity, compassion and good example.  It will, in short, come from God, and from the desire to please God we ourselves display in the face of the heathens’ persecution and their rage.

FROM GOD'S POINT OF VIEW

 A SERMON FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE CORPUS CHRISTI OCTAVE

As we’re having First Holy Communions this morning, it’s a good opportunity to take another look at what the Blessed Sacrament means to us.  Or rather, what it should mean to us.  But we’ve heard it all before, haven’t we, and I don’t think you want me to become a nag, constantly reminding you that the reception of the Holy Eucharist is the most important thing we can do in life.  So instead of going over the same points, I thought it might be more useful to examine things from God’s perspective rather than our own.  What does the Blessed Sacrament mean to God?

It's not difficult for us to know what happened.  God has revealed everything to us by means of Holy Scripture.  It all started with the opening of the first book of the Bible, Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”  But what about before that?  Before it all started, before the beginning, in that eternal present before time began?  In that everlasting state, there existed the most High, Omnipotent, All-Knowing God, and he alone.  This divine and eternal Being was Three Persons in One, supremely sufficient unto himself.  He didn’t need to create the heaven and the earth.  He didn’t need to create man.

And yet he did.  Why?  Why on earth would this supremely happy Divine Being cause to exist an entire universe solely for the sake of the creature known as man?  Man would constantly revolt against him, disobey his commandments, and ultimately be the reason why God the Father would send his Only-Begotten Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, to dwell among these miserable creatures only to be tortured and put to death by them.  Why did he do this?  Simple question, simple answer.  Out of love.  Who among us could summon up this kind of love or anything even approaching it?  But God’s love is infinite, it has no measure or limit, and so, in spite of all those men who would spurn that love he has for them, he created them nonetheless, along with the free will to choose whether to love him back, or not.

The reason for creating man, then, is love.  The love that God had from all eternity for this creature that he hadn’t even created yet.  And why did he make us?  So that we could know him, love him, and serve him in this world and be happy with him forever in the next.  He seeks our love.  Like anyone who loves, love is a hard thing if it goes only one way.  When we love, we desire to be loved by the object of our love.  We want to be united as closely as possible with that person.  While we can never begin to compare our human love with God’s love, we should nonetheless remember that this pale human love of ours is our best reflection of that love of God who made us in his image and likeness.  It is the closest we come in human and natural terms to the love God has for us.  So when we love, let’s stand in awe of this supremely powerful emotion, the willingness we have to sacrifice ourselves for the person loved, and let’s see it as that spark of divine love which allowed God to sacrifice his Son for us on the Cross.

That one single act of love, more than any other before or since, is the sign from heaven that we are beloved by God.  “Greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for his friends.”  And for the Second Person of the Trinity to lay down his life for us is surely the greatest love that has ever been shown.  So great is it that it cannot be contained in this one single event of the crucifixion.  God desires to share his love constantly throughout our natural lives by the continuation of that single moment in history.  He does so by the continuation of the Holy Sacrifice of the Cross, which is, of course the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  Daily we celebrate this great mystery of love, of the new and everlasting covenant between God and man.  Daily our blessed Lord offers himself not only to God the Father, but also to us.  He offers us his most holy Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist.

All he asks in return is that we accept his offering to us, humbly as the poor, miserable and sinful creatures that we are: “O Lord, I am not worthy...”  We receive Holy Communion not because we deserve such an infinitely amazing gift.  We are truly not worthy of it.  And yet we are commanded to receive, because without this most blessed Sacrament of the Altar, our souls are dead souls and have no life in them.  And we do receive, hopefully as devoutly and as often as we can.  We should be so eager to show our love for God by uniting with him in Holy Communion that nothing could ever stop us from seeking out daily Mass and the opportunity to comfort that Son of God dying on the Cross for our sakes.  He died so that heaven’s gates could be reopened.  He died so that we could save our souls.  He died so that we could be one with him forever in heaven.  And in Holy Communion, his sacrifice continues so that we can one with him here on earth.

Today’s Gospel parable reflects the desire of God for us to accept his invitation to his great supper.  The lord in the parable who invites his guests spares no effort to get as many people as he can to come and share in his supper, to unite in rejoicing with him at this great gathering.  Alas, so many refuse to come.  They find excuses not to come.  The end result is that the lord of the house declares that “none of these men which were bidden, shall taste of my supper.”  That sounds obvious, doesn’t it?  If they were invited but didn’t come, how can they possibly taste of his supper—they don’t even want to.  But in real life, where God himself invites us to receive Holy Communion, it goes beyond telling us that if we don’t go, we won’t receive just Holy Communion.  God is telling us here that if we don’t respond to the invitation to go to Mass and Communion, not only will we not be receiving Holy Communion, but neither shall we ever taste of that union with God which comes with everlasting life in heaven.

All of this, simply because God loves us so much.  His desire to be united with us far surpasses our own lukewarm desire for the Blessed Sacrament.  Let us pray on this day, if not for ourselves, then at least for these two young men who approach the Altar for the first time, that their desire and ours to be united with God as often as we possibly can may grow every day, and that we will never permit anything, anything to stand between us and the God who loves us so very much.  Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy upon us!

LET ALL MORTAL FLESH KEEP SILENCE

 A HYMN FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF CORPUS CHRISTI

By Gerard Moultrie, 1864

 

 

1 Let all mortal flesh keep silence

And with fear and trembling stand;

Ponder nothing earthly-minded,

for with blessing in his hand

Christ, our God, to earth descending,

Comes our homage to command.

 

2 King of kings, yet born of Mary,

As of old on earth he stood,

Lord of lords in human likeness,

In the body and the blood

He will give to all the faithful

His own self for heav’nly food.

 

3 Rank on rank the host of heaven

Spreads its vanguard on the way

As the Light from Light, descending

From the realms of endless day,

Comes the pow’rs of hell to vanquish

As the darkness clears away.

 

4 At his feet the six-winged seraph,

Cherubim with sleepless eye,

Veil their faces to the presence

As with ceaseless voice they cry:

“Alleluia, alleluia!

Alleluia, Lord Most High!”

WHY DO WE OBEY?

  A REFLECTION FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF CORPUS CHRISTI

When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, he did not tell the Hebrews anything they didn’t already know.  The Jews back then were the same human beings created by God as the human beings who exist in the world today.  We all have had the same human nature since God created Adam and Eve, or at least since they took a bite out of that famous apple.  Our human nature follows the laws of nature.  Just as surely as we know we can’t levitate off the ground in defiance of the law of gravity, so too do we instinctively know we shouldn’t murder or lie or steal, or any of the other things forbidden by the Ten Commandments.

The conscience within us is the result of the biting of the apple by Adam and Eve.  They chose to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.  From that point on, they knew the difference, and their misuse of that knowledge, the choosing of evil over good, would forever haunt the conscience of them and their descendants.  Our conscience therefore helps us avoid evil—if we want to be free from guilt and the psychological challenges it causes, we try to stay on the straight and narrow.  In other words, we’re ultimately happier if we do what’s right and avoid what’s wrong.

This is a reason why we try to be good, but is it really a good reason?  Any reason for being good is a good reason, but the self-centered focus on our own well-being is hardly the best reason!  It’s actually no more elevated a motivation than our attempts to avoid the loss of heaven and the pains of hell.  When we’re sorry for acting badly for these reasons, it’s what we call “imperfect contrition”—sufficient for the absolution we receive in the Sacrament of Penance, and yet “imperfect”.  Like our contrition for sins already committed, our resolution to avoid falling into future sins can also be based on such “imperfect” motives.

God’s laws have one reason for existing: they are to protect us from doing harm to ourselves and others.  They do so by reminding us what is God’s will in the various categories they cover.  Even though it’s sufficient to just “love God with our whole heart and mind and strength”, it’s good to have these reminders of how exactly this love should be practiced.  By obeying these laws in their entirety we are protected from the evil that would ensue from breaking them, namely, eternal damnation if the sin is sufficiently grave.  Damnation is not what God wills for us.

God loves us.  The gift of his Blessed Sacrament is the ultimate manifestation of that love, as it is the fruit of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, itself the continuation of the love he showed us at Calvary.  Even more than the laws of God, this Sacrament of Union, Communion, with God is our greatest reminder of how much God loves us, and our frequent and devout reception of the Holy Eucharist is the best way in which we can show God that we love him in return.  O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine!

TO KNOW GOD IS TO LOVE HIM

A SERMON FOR TRINITY SUNDAY

 “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!  For who hath known the mind of the Lord?”

Today is Trinity Sunday, and I’m sure you’re all anxiously waiting for me to explain everything there is to know about the Blessed Trinity.  However, I’m not.  I’ll say this much: the Holy Trinity, the whole idea of three Persons in one God, is that it’s a mystery.  And there’s not much I can do to explain a mystery.  Our faith has several mysteries that we can never fully understand, and of all these mysteries, that of the Trinity is by far the most profound and basic.  The greatest theologians of all time have been unable to explain successfully the Holy Trinity, and have had to resort to almost childlike analogies.  Take St. Patrick and his shamrock, for example—a single plant with three separate leaves was enough to give the people of Ireland a small insight into what the Trinity is, but of course, it comes nowhere close to providing them or us with anything like a complete understanding of this mystery.

Having established that it’s impossible for us to know the Trinity, we may be tempted to throw up our arms in despair and just give up.  We can never understand it anyway, so why bother trying?.  That’s the lazy man’s answer to everything when you get right down to it.  People tend to be quite content, thank you very much, with their state of complete ignorance of almost everything.  We have no idea where Sri Lanka is, we don’t know how to make eggs benedict, or how to spell pterodactyl, or what’s the name of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical condemning socialism.  Some people can’t even tell you who composed Brahms’ Lullaby.  And for the most part we couldn’t car less.

Sometimes, that’s okay.  We can’t be expected to know everything, so we focus on the things we need to know.  If I need to fly to Sri Lanka on business, for example, I’ll need to find out where it is and how to get there.  Otherwise, who cares?  As I said, we focus on the things we need to know.  So what exactly do we need to know?

Let’s not go through all the different things we absolutely must know in order to basically survive.  They range from knowing how to find the peanut butter aisle in Kroger’s to knowing who to vote for in an election.  We assimilate an amazing amount of knowledge during the course of our lives.  But as we lie on our death bed and look back at all the knowledge we’ve acquired, are we only then going to realize how little we know about what really counts, about God?  Will the sudden realization that it’s now too late to fulfill our chief purpose in life and truly know God as best we can?  And does it even matter?

The answer to that last question is that yes, it does matter.  It matters a lot.  In fact, it’s the very reason God created us.  Catechism: Why did God make me?  Answer: God made me to know him, love him and serve him in this world.  If we don’t know him, we can’t love him.  And if we don’t love him, we won’t serve him.  So it’s essential—essential beyond all else that we may think essential—that we know God first.  Without sufficient knowledge, we will be hopelessly floating on this ocean of mishaps which is life, with no sense of what we’re doing or why we’re doing it, and certainly, no idea of where we’re going.

So our mission today is to at least realize that it is our primary duty in life to get to know God as best we can.  True, the full knowledge of the Blessed Trinity may be beyond the rational powers of even the most intelligent of men, but that must not inhibit us from learning as much as we can, not only about the Trinity, but about the whole story of Redemption, and all the things pertaining to God and his holy religion.  The more we know, the more we’ll love God and the better we’ll serve him.

What we know is sometimes based on reason and sometimes on faith.  By reason, we can acquire knowledge about church history, the liturgy, the sacraments, and so on.  But it will take the virtue of faith to fully accept everything the Church teaches about these things.  Take the sacraments for example: we can know that Christ is truly present in the Holy Eucharist under the appearance of bread and wine.  We can know that this miracle is called Transubstantiation.  But it takes our faith to believe it.  Faith then, is an essential part of truly knowing God.  And the first way we can sin against faith, again according to the catechism, is by not trying to know what God has taught.  If we do not, at some point or other, endeavor to hear sermons or instructions, to keep up to date with what’s happening in our religion, to learn about the saints, or read good books, then we sin against the faith.  That’s a sin against the First Commandment, and we would be neglecting that primary duty of Catholic, every human being, which is to continually increase our knowledge about God and the things of God.

I’ll say it again: the more we know God, the more we’ll love him.  But that knowledge also equips us to serve him.  We serve God best by saving our own soul and then the souls of our neighbors, as many of our neighbors as we can.  Obviously, the more we know God and the things of God, the more easily we can persuade our neighbors of the truths of the faith, of the necessity of being members of the true Church which teaches that true faith infallibly. 

I’ll give you just one example, one that we can apply to every interaction with our neighbor… Suppose you’re asked, “Why don’t you eat meat on Friday?” “What makes it wrong to eat flesh-meat on this particular day of the week?”  Of course, you all know the basic answer, “Because Christ died on Friday.”  But will that glib response be enough to convert anyone?  Of course not.  If we knew our faith a little better, maybe we could answer in this way: “I don’t eat flesh meat on Friday because I am a Christian and wish to keep always before my mind how our Blessed Lord suffered for me in his holy flesh on that day; and anyone who claims to be a Christian, ought, I think, to be glad to do what reminds him so regularly and well of our Lord’s Passion.”  Such an answer, if given kindly and mildly would silence and instruct your adversary; it might make him reflect, and might, in time, bring him to the true religion.  That example was taken from the reflections on the Baltimore Catechism by Fr. Thomas Kinkead, which I would highly recommend as a good way to start deepening our knowledge of God.

If we neglect to learn the Christian doctrine, we will never appreciate God enough to save our souls.  Sure, we may never fully understand the deep truths of the Holy Trinity, but our efforts to get closer to such understanding will be duly noted by the Almighty, who will give us the corresponding graces to increase our love for him.  There will come a time when we will be struck, as though by lightning, by how much there is to learn about God, and this very realization that we can never reach those depths of knowledge will cause us to exclaim, in the words of St. Paul, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!  For who hath known the mind of the Lord?”

HOLY, HOLY, HOLY!

A HYMN FOR TRINITY SUNDAY

By Reginald Heber (1826)

 

 

1 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!

Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.

Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!

God in three persons, blessed Trinity!

 

2 Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,

Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;

Cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,

Which wert and art and evermore shalt be.

 

 

3 Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,

Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,

Only thou art holy; there is none beside thee,

perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity.

 

4 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!

All thy works shall praise thy name in earth, and sky and sea.

Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!

God in three persons, blessed Trinity!

ONE GOD, THREE PERSONS

 A REFLECTION FOR TRINITY SUNDAY

The Holy Trinity is the biblical, monotheistic doctrine that there is only one God in three distinct co-equal, co-eternal Persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Ghost; three Persons of the one nature and being. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father, but each of them are fully, equally, and simultaneously God. These three Persons are not three gods, but one God—the only God in existence. There are three essential parts of the Holy Trinity:

• There is only one God.

• The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three different Persons.

• The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are the same Being (God).

In summary, the Holy Trinity is: “one God in three Persons”. Person, in this context, is best described as someone who can say “I” and “You” and who possesses individuality and self-awareness. Being (or substance / essence) is best described as what you are, or everything that you consist of that that makes you what you are. Some Christians find it helpful to say that God is three “Who’s” (Persons) and one “What” (Being).

Nature, in this context, refers to the specific qualities and aspects of beings or things that make them of the same kind or of a different kind of other beings or things (e.g. human nature, angelic nature, and divine nature, the last of which refers to God). It should be noted that we sometimes use the term “Godhead” to refer to all Persons (or members) of the Holy Trinity. In addition, we often call the Father the first Person of the Trinity, the Son the second, and the Holy Spirit the third. We worship a three-in-one God.

The Holy Trinity is a very difficult concept to wrap our heads around. God is far greater than how we think of him, after all. However, there are some real-life objects or concepts which may help us come to terms with God’s Triune nature. One example is a three-leafed clover. There are three leafs on the one plant, similar to the three Persons in the one God. Another example is matter. Matter consists of solids, liquids, and gases, but there is only one matter, not three. Another example is an apple: it has the skin, flesh, and seeds, yet these are not three apples, but one apple.

These examples are not perfect, though, and should not be used as accurate descriptions of God’s Triune nature. God is both known by those who love him (Galatians 4:9) and at the same time he is a mystery whom the human mind can never comprehend (Romans 11:33–35). This makes sense, to a certain degree; after all, one should be suspicious of any claims that the finite human mind can contain and understand the infinite and transcendent God (Isaiah 40:28; Jeremiah 23:24).

The Holy Trinity Is a Standard of Orthodoxy.  Because the Holy Trinity deals with the nature and identity of the God of the Bible, the Catholic Church across all centuries has rightly labeled those who reject this doctrine as non-Christian and heretical. If you do not see God in a Trinitarian way, then you do not know God at all, because the God of the Bible has revealed himself as the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Holy Trinity is an essential doctrine of the Church; you must believe in it in order to be a Catholic.

[Adapted from www.redemptionofhumanity.org]

WITH ONE TONGUE

 A SERMON FOR WHITSUNDAY

Did you ever wonder how Adam and Eve communicated with each other?  Did they just grunt and gesticulate like the Neanderthals in the movies?  Or did they use a language?  If so, what language, and how did they learn that language?  These may be idle thoughts, and no doubt, theologians and linguists have considered the origins of human speech from their own diverse perspectives.  What we do know, however, is that they did indeed speak.  In the Book of Genesis there are several examples of Eve speaking with the serpent, and of both Adam and Eve speaking to God, perhaps some form of linguistic telepathy between humans and supernatural beings.  But between Adam and Eve themselves you won’t find a single word passed between them, which, I understand, is still a common occurrence among some married couples today.

However, we do know that Adam did have the use of language, because Genesis informs us that “Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field.”  We can be sure that if he knew the words for shrimp and cow, he had names also for things like fire, water, and plenty of other words too.  And if he knew those words, he would have communicated them to his wife Eve, so that they could come to understand what the other was saying.  Soon Eve would be able to ask Adam to pass the ketchup, and Adam would learn never to tell Eve that her dress makes her look fat.  And thus we have the beginnings of human language which were passed down to their descendants.

That worked very well for a while and people said a lot of things to each other, some good, some bad, just like it is today.  The difference back then was that everyone totally understood what everyone else was saying, because they all spoke the same language, and so it was for hundreds and hundreds of years, well past the Great Flood of Noah and for many generations more.  Genesis Chapter 11, first verse: “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.” 

But then something happened.  Men learned how to build with bricks and mortar and very soon they desired to build something that would reach high up into the heavens, a tower that would show God how clever and powerful mankind had become.  This was the great tower of Babel, but it would not be a great tower for long.  God was not happy with their declaration of pride and strength.  God never is.  As always he seeks “an humble and contrite heart,” not acts of pride and defiance.  And by the way, in passing, and on that subject, let me mention one of this past week’s acts of pride and defiance, this one committed by no less than the United States Embassy to the Vatican, which to mark the beginning of Gay Pride month, proudly and defiantly displayed the rainbow-colored pride flag from its rooftop down the road from St. Peter’s Basilica in the center of the Holy City of Rome.  It’s part of the increasingly blatant plan to test the power and authority of Christ’s Church, which has already capitulated in this and so many other ways.  If this display of evil was designed to upset the leaders of the conciliar Church, it will fail, simply because most of them, including their “beloved Holy Father” will see the flag and be tickled pink…

God will no doubt deal eventually with such acts of defiance against his authority as he did with that Tower of Babel.  God’s answer to these proud and rebellious men was to “go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.”  He scattered them throughout the earth, and there they settled, each with their own form of speech, or language.  And so it was from that time forth.

This brings us to today’s account of that first Whitsunday, when pilgrims from all over the world congregated in the Holy City of Jerusalem for the important Jewish feast of Pentecost.  How were the apostles, who were not exactly linguistic experts, going to make any impression on this huge multitude of Jews with their various languages, and convert any of them to the holy faith of Christ and his new Church?  How could they possibly understand what the Apostles were saying?  Well, just as God could so easily confound the language of the men at Babel, so too could he just as easily restore their understanding on Pentecost Sunday.  Through the Holy Ghost, he gave the apostles a very special charism to speak in tongues.

We hear a lot about people speaking in tongues these days.  It refers to certain Pentecostal sects, some of which have been able to infiltrate the Conciliar Church, whereby people will suddenly stand up in the middle of a service and start shouting out words in a nonsensical gibberish that nobody can understand.  It beggars the mind how otherwise intelligent people could ever believe that God would perform or condone such a “wonder” for no other reason than for the speaker to make a fool of himself.  On Pentecost, though, there was a reason.  In fact, it was the most valid of all reasons, that the souls of men may be saved by hearing the words of the Gospel.  And so God performed the miracle that everyone who heard the apostles speak that day, heard them in their own language and were able to understand what they were saying.

Not only were they able to hear and understand the Gospel of Christ expounded to them in words they could understand, but the very fact that they could all understand them in their diverse languages solidified and confirmed their conversion.   It was a miracle.  No matter where in the world they came from, they each heard and understood in their own language, everything the apostles were saying.  For the first time since the Tower of Babel, mankind was able to understand once more in the same language.

The Church was born that day, and very soon, she learned the importance of having one universal language that all men would understand.  She adopted the common language of Latin.  Latin was the language spoken throughout the Roman Empire, which pretty much corresponded to the entire known world of that time, and so provided a means of communication which all men would know and understand.  Latin continued to be used for nearly two thousand years, in the liturgy of the Church, her official documents, and in her universities.  And it is no coincidence that it would be in the 1960s, that age of rebellion against all moral, spiritual and civil authority, that the use of Latin would be discarded and abandoned.  The false teachers in the Church at that time thought they could improve upon the Mass of all time, the traditional apostolic Mass passed down through the ages.  They thought in their pride they could build something better, a whole new edifice built to the glory of man and not God, a modern-day Tower of Babel.  Today, hardly anyone knows Latin, and it is rarely taught in the schools.  With this whole new age of defiant rebellion against God, we have reverted to the times of Babel.  God has scattered his people so that the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church” is no longer “one.”  As soon as we lost the use of the common language of Latin, we lost the unity that went with it.  We see this very well today, when Conciliar Archbishop Cordeleone of San Francisco publishes a decree that Nancy Pelosi must be refused Communion because of her publicly sinful support of abortion, and then the very next day, she is given Communion in another church in Washington.  Where is Church Unity?  Real Church Unity, not the fake joining together of truth and falsehood that they like to call Church Unity.

The current leader of the Conciliar Church, their pope Francis, manages to deny the faith in whatever language he speaks, so his lack of Latin is no great loss in his case.  But to restore the Catholic faith worldwide, we must be committed to the restoration also of that common language which will pave the way for the truth to be once more expounded among the nations of the world, and we may all hear the Church speak again with a single voice “the wonderful works of God.”

COME HOLY GHOST

 A HYMN FOR WHITSUNTIDE

By Rabanus Maurus (776-856)

 

 

Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest,

Vouchsafe within our souls to rest;

Come with thy grace and heavenly aid,

And fill the hearts which thou hast made.

 

To thee, the Paraclete, we cry,

To thee, the Gift of God most high,

The Fount of life, the Fire of love,

The soul's Anointing from above.

 

The sevenfold gifts of grace are thine,

O Finger of the Hand Divine;

True Promise of the Father thou,

Who dost the tongue with speech endow.

 

Thy light to every sense impart,

And shed thy love in every heart;

Thine own unfailing might supply

To strengthen our infirmity.

 

Drive far away our ghostly foe,

And thine abiding peace bestow;

If thou be our preventing Guide,

No evil can our steps betide.

 

Make thou to us the Father known,

Teach us the eternal Son to own,

Be this our neverchanging creed,

That thou dost from them both proceed.

 

All praise be thine, O risen Lord,

From death to endless life restored;

Whom with the Father we adore,

And Holy Ghost, for evermore.  Amen.