TRINITY SUNDAY "A" "B" "C"

AWESOME THREESOME

The Holy Trinity

A famous story has it that the early 5^th. century Augustine of Hippo was taking his summer holiday along the North African seashore. Strolling down the water’s edge on a delightful day, he was pondering, of all things, the mystery of the Holy Trinity! All this genius was getting for his efforts was a thundering headache. Finally he thought he was breaking the code of the enigma and was about to download the mystery, when suddenly at his feet he saw a boy of five or six. The little fellow had made a hole in the sand and was filling it with water from the ocean. The bishop asked him sharply what he was doing. The tyke replied tersely, “Can’t you see? I’m pouring the whole ocean into this pit.” The much too literal Augustine said, “That’s nonsense.” (He could have said, “Blistering Barnacles !”) “No one can do that.” Not at all intimidated by the towering figure above him, the mite sallied mightily, “Well, sir, neither can you contain the mystery of the Trinity in your head.” (He could have said, “Sir, you’re just as nutty.”)

Whether this account is true or false, I leave to your good judgement. But I think we all get the point. The Holy Trinity will remain a mystery forever and a day. The author, Jack Miller wrote a book, God: a Biography. After reading the book, a critic wrote these lines, “You cannot plumb the depth of the human heart, nor find out what a man is thinking; how do you expect to search out God and comprehend his thoughts?”  So you can see what we are up against on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity.

Jesus’ disciples didn’t fare better, though they had every advantage: they had spent time with Jesus, heard his teaching, witnessed his miracles, and the way he dealt with the people who came to him. And most of all, they sensed his love for them personally. Yet despite all this, the disciples didn’t understand. Jesus recognised their cerebral struggle, and promised them the Holy Spirit.

The early 17^th. Century poet, John Donne, wrote breathlessly, “Batter my heart, three person’d God; for you as yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend.” We should just as breathlessly repeat that prayer. But having said it, should we forget the Trinity and get on with our lives? No, never !  For how could we ever forget Jesus, the second Person of the Holy Trinity? And Jesus, in his great discourse at the Last Supper, referred to his Father an awesome 45 times. “Holy Father, keep those you have given me true to your name…..Father, I pray that where I am, they also may be (John chap. 17)….I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, the Spirit of Truth” (John 14, 16). These are just the lines we love to hear  -  so consoling, so reassuring.

At the heart of all true love lies both mystery and wonder. Anyone who has been in love knows this. We can only wonder that we are so unworthy and yet are objects of someone’s affection. And the gift of love has to be just that  -  an outpouring of our hearts, something that comes naturally from within and cannot be manufactured. The point is that two people in love do not stop to dissect the origin and complexities of their feelings  -  they merely rejoice in them and abandon themselves to their self-giving.

Forget the Trinity, and we do so at our peril.  You know that there is only one God and that God is one: but you want to find words to speak of how you experience him and invite others to experience him too. You experience him as Father, creator and sustainer of life, exalted in power and glory as Lord God, yet rich in sympathy, kindness and love. You experience him as the man (God-man, in fact), Jesus of Nazareth, God’s anointed one, who had lived so amazingly and still lives – risen, ascended, glorified. You experience him as Spirit, the holy and life-giving presence within you and among your brothers and sisters. The One, Eternal, God, encountered and experienced as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that is the good news you want to share. You don’t use the “Trinity” word, but you want people to have a trinity experience.

There is much spiritual richness to be wrestled from a devotion to the Holy Trinity.

We must all remember that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not up there somewhere in the heavens, but rather in each of our honourable selves; sometimes despite our dishonourable selves. We have gained a God who is not only cleverer and more subtle than we thought, but also more generous. Please note, that the sacrament of Baptism not only dunked us into the water but also drowned us into the Trinity. And the three divine Persons are delighted to take up residence in us. We in them and they in us. And that’s what Jesus said through John’s gospel. “Father, Son and Spirit blest, come and dwell within my breast,” is one of my favourite seven-syllable mantras.

Many people visiting Kolkata in the cool months tell us, “It’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to stay here.” Happily the Trinity do not say the same of us. They say, “We’re not just tourists; we’d love to stay. Any objections?” The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have pitched a four-season tent in each one of us, to be cultivated, called upon, prayed to, get angry with….you name it.  If you understand that, then the sky is the limit. The 14^th. Century German mystic, Meister Eckhart said light-heartedly, “God laughed and his Son was born. Together they laughed and the Holy Spirit was born. And from the laughter of all three the universe was born !” Laughter is symptomatic of bliss. So let’s all laugh with the Trinity, without laughing them off !

PRAYER (by Richard Harries):

O God, Father, moment by moment you hold me in being,

on you I depend.

O God, eternal Son, friend and brother beside me,

in you I trust.

O God, Holy Spirit, life and love within me,

from you I live.

TRINITY SUNDAY

Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9
Daniel 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
John 3:16-18

Today is the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity--one God in Three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The words "Holy Spirit" and "Holy Ghost" are interchangeable, since "spirit" is directly translated from the Latin Sanctus Spiritus, while "ghost" is the Old English word for spirit. How do you explain the Holy Trinity? You don't really. It's beyond our human reason. Just use multiplication--3 times one still equals three. Right? But three Persons times One God equals One God. Now, if you want to carry it further, you'll get dizzy and may even suffer a headache. At this point, you really should give up!

Logic doesn't carry us very far in trying to explain the mystery of three Persons in one God. St. Anselm had it right a long time ago when he wrote, "I don't understand so that I can believe; I believe so that I can understand." Just believe Jesus' teaching that there is a Holy Trinity. From there, let's look at our heart's experience of God's beauty, His wisdom, His mercy, and His limitless love. It's as though someone were to ask you, "Do you believe in sunsets, or mountain tops or starry nights?" We'd tell them, "Just go out and watch a sunset--just go up and sit on a mountain top--just go out on a warm summer evening, lie on your back, and gaze up at a sky filled with stars!

God is powerful, and eternally in motion. Think of a celebration that never comes to an end. At a celebration, there are people--there is action, music, food and drink, and a good time. So, the life of the Holy Trinity is like an eternal party. God the Father loves the Son without interruption, and the Son returns that Love with every breath of His being--and that breath becomes the Holy Spirit of them both--full of the power of love and jubilant motion.

God the Father is like a beautiful sunset, soothing and quieting my soul. God the Son is like a lover, forgiving and tender, feeding my hunger, satisfying my desire. And the Holy Spirit is like a hot scorching fire, a whirlwind of inspiration, stirring me to intense praise and dynamic action.

Through faith, we believe that this Holy Trinity actually dwells inside the souls of the baptized when they are in a state of grace. Our only proper response to that awesome truth is: Wow! No wonder we speak of the dignity of the Christian.

Three-personed God, I gape at the wonder of Your beauty, May I glow with the light of Your Truth, May I burn with the excitement of Your Life! Someday I pray that I will see You face to face, and enjoy Your life and love forever.

THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY (TRINITY SUNDAY), CYCLE A

JOHN 3:16-18

Friends, our Gospel for Trinity Sunday tells us that the Father sent his Son to save the world. I want to draw your attention to the fact that the Trinity is invoked by us every time we make the sign of the cross. This juxtaposition of Trinity and cross is by no means accidental. For the cross is the moment when the tensive unity of the three divine persons is on most vivid display. The Father, in short, sent the Son all the way into time, history, and the human condition. But then the Father sent him further, into our sin and dysfunction, and finally all the way down into hatred, violence, rejection, and death itself. Why would the Father have done such a terrible thing? Out of love. He wanted to bring the divine life even into the darkest places. He wanted to hunt us down. But notice, please, that what kept the Son tethered to the Father, even on his downward journey, was nothing other than the Holy Spirit, the love between the Father and the Son. And this is precisely why we are saved in the Holy

PENTECOST - 3

PENTECOST SUNDAY

Introduction: Today the Church celebrates the Father’s gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is given to the Church to communicate to us the things of Jesus (John 1, 15). He makes Jesus known to us (1 Cor 12, 13). He communicates to us all the fruits of salvation that Jesus gained for the human race by his saving death and life-giving Resurrection. How wonderful that we can receive the power and fruits of the Spirit from Jesus. Turn to him in faith and receive the Spirit from him.

Prayer: 1. Jesus, my Saviour and my Lord, breathe your Spirit into me and fill me with your forgiveness, salvation, life and peace. Lord, have mercy.

2. Jesus, my Lord and Saviour, pour into our hearts the Spirit of your promise that we may be purified and comforted. Christ, have mercy.

3. Jesus, our Saviour and Lord, may we be your missionaries of reconcilement and peace n our world where we live and work. Lord, have mercy.

Homily:  Usually we associate Pentecost with the founding of the Church under the action of the Holy Spirit. On the day of the Jewish Pentecost, the Spirit came down and the Apostles preached the good news of salvation. The Church was launched upon its work.                                                                     The question is, why the gap of 50 days between Easter and Pentecost? Wasn’t the Spirit given on Easter itself by Jesus, as today’s Gospel has it? Didn’t Jesus already give his apostles the mission immediately after his own resurrection?                                                                                                        Pentecost was not invented by the Catholic Church. It was originally a harvest festival of the Jews. They brought in the barley harvest at Pentecost. It was then a time of abundance when the people were in a mood of joy and thanksgiving. Now this feast of Pentecost came 50 days after the Passover. The Passover, as you know, was to commemorate the liberation of the Jews from Egypt. And 50 days after the Jews left Egypt they entered into the Covenant with God on Mt.  Sinai.

Easter is our Passover, and Pentecost is the New Covenant. Earlier on, the Prophets had spoken about the New Covenant in which the Spirit of Yahweh would be spread abundantly over all flesh. Hearts would be transformed and the New Law would be written on them. People would not have to depend upon outside sources for divine precepts. Creation itself would be renewed. This new age would be brought about by the fidelity of the Messiah, the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit was always at work in the life of Jesus Christ. In fact, at the Annunciation the Spirit overshadowed the Virgin Mary, making her the Mother of the Saviour. The young Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, and during his ministry cast out devils by the Spirit's power. After his death it is again the Spirit who brings about the marvel of the Resurrection.
Jesus, in turn, after his Resurrection, breathed into his disciples the Holy Spirit and gave them the power to forgive sins. The solidarity of all the people in sin from then on became the solidarity of all in love. "I believe in the Holy Spirit", we profess in the Apostles' Creed. But what does He do? What are his works? The answer that is contained  in the remaining and last paragraph of the Profession of Faith: "The Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting." These are precisely the activities and fruit of the Holy Spirit. And may we not hinder his work but join ourselves to his action.
The New Covenant has been established in the Spirit. To each one of us it is an offer. We can accept  it or we can reject it. A covenant requires us to act as God's partners in his working out of the plan of salvation. Each one of us is summoned to fill a role in the building of the Kingdom, an irreplaceable role. That is the mandate we received at Baptism. The time of the Spirit begins definitely with the Resurrection-Ascension of the Lord. And it was made possible by Christ's sacrifice on the Cross. In the 19th. chapter of St. John's Gospel, vs. 30, the account reads: "When Jesus took the wine, he said, 'Now it is consummated'. Then he bowed his head and delivered over his spirit." This was Jesus' passing on of the Spirit to the first two members of the new community, namely, the church, Mary, the Mother of Jesus and John the disciple. The new community was inaugurated already under the Cross.
When Jesus, at his Resurrection, said to his disciples, "Receive the Holy Spirit," he was telling them in effect, "In you has dawned the age of the Spirit that I have earned for you by my death and resurrection."
So, to come back to my original question: Why this 50 day gap between Easter and Pentecost ? If you look at it from the point of view of Christ, the Church is born at the great moment of the Cross. And from the very moment of the first appearance of the Risen Lord, all that Pentecost means is expressed: "As the Father has sent me, I also send you...receive the Holy Spirit."
Now if you look at it from the point of view of the Apostles, 50 days elapsed after the Resurrection and before the Spirit was poured out on the first assembled community. It is understandable that time would have to elapse before the Apostles could fully grasp the meaning of all that had taken place: the death of Christ, the Easter happenings and appearances, and the Ascension. It was at the Ascension that the Apostles understood that the Kingdom would not be of this world, though it would begin to grow in this world. They got themselves ready to witness to this fact. In concrete, it was this witnessing and this preaching that founded the new community. The Spirit of Jesus was really poured out and was abroad.
The New Covenant has been sealed in the Spirit of the Father and the Son. Let us be single-hearted in the acceptance of the New Covenant. Covenant is a partnership, a partnership with God. Our share in the partnership must be faithful, and it must be active. It must be faithful, i.e. we must not cheat God in our service, not play him false, do the dirty on him. St. Paul advises us, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit."

PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

O Holy Spirit of God,

Come into my heart and fill me:

I open the window of my soul to let you in.

I surrender my whole life to you.

Come and possess me, fill me with light and truth.

I offer to you the one thing I really possess –

My capacity of being filled by you.

Of myself I am an empty vessel.

Fill me so that I may live the life of the Spirit,

The life of Truth and Goodness,

The life of Beauty and Love,

The life of Wisdom and Strength.

But, above all, make Christ to be formed in me,

That I may dethrone self in my heart

And make him King,

So that he is in me, and I in him,

Today and forever.

PENTECOST - 2

PENTECOST

Introduction:   Today the Church celebrates

the Father’s gift of the Holy Spirit.

 The Spirit is given to the Church to

 communicate to us the things of Jesus (John 16,15).

 He makes Jesus known to us (1 Cor 12,13),

 He communicates to us all the fruits of salvation that

 Jesus gained for the human race by his saving death

and life-giving resurrection.

 How wonderful that we can receive

the power of the Spirit from Jesus!

Turn to him in faith and receive the Spirit from him.

Prayer: Jesus, my Saviour and my Lord,

 breathe your Spirit into me and fill me

with your forgiveness, salvation, life and peace.

THE HOMILY:          Several years ago a group of

 computer salesmen from Milwaukee went

to a regional sales convention in Chicago.

They assured their wives that they would be home in plenty

 of time for dinner. But with one thing or another

 the meeting ran overtime,

so the men had to race to the station, tickets in hand.

 As they barraged through the terminal, one man inadvertently

 kicked over a table supporting a basket of apples.

Without stopping they all reached the train and boarded it

with a sigh of relief. All but one. He paused, got in touch

with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of

 compunction for the boy whose apple stand had

 been overturned. He waved goodbye to his fellow salesmen

 and returned to the terminal. He was glad he did.

 The ten-year-old boy was blind.  The salesman gathered up

his apples and noticed that several of them were bruised.

He reached into his wallet and said to the boy,

“Here, please take this $10/- for the damage we did.

 I hope it didn’t spoil you day.” As he started to walk

 away the bewildered boy called after him,

“Hey, mister, are you Jesus?”

My dear friends, when we get in touch with

our honest feelings, we touch the Holy Spirit.

 When you act upon the impulse of the Holy Spirit

 you are bound to do good to someone, build up somebody.

You may appear to yourself quite ordinary, even no good,

 but others will discern something uniquely good in you,

something you never dreamed. Jesus, at 30 years went down

 to the river Jordan, and as he came out of the water

his Father declared, “You are my beloved Son.” Jesus

 did not need to proclaim himself.

The Spirit descended upon him, and under

 the impulse of the Spirit he entered the wilderness

 to fast and pray. After that period of prayer and fasting

he began his public ministry of teaching and healing.

The people paid him two beautiful compliments.

 About his teaching they said, “What gracious

words fall from his lips.” And about his work,

 “He has done all things well.” How we wish people

 could say of us, too. Even the demons that Jesus

 challenged residing in those poor victims

 had to declare: “We know who you are,

the holy one of God.”

Great things happen when you surrender to

 the action of the Holy Spirit. Even your smallest

 actions help to restore and build up other people.

Handing your life over to the Holy Spirit produces

a new life programming; then you begin to work

 according to God’s timetable, the divine schedule,

 and you don’t have to worry where it will lead.

 It’s like jumping on to a fast moving train without

 worrying about the timetable or destination.

Only faith can take such risks, because faith has a wild,

 spontaneous quality about it. The faith that made

Peter jump into the lake and walk on the water to meet

 his Lord. Faith that made those people remove the tiles

 from the roof of the house and send down

 their paralytic friend – special delivery to Jesus.

 Think of those soldiers, sailors and airmen who saw

action in the Second World War, Korea and Vietnam

 and many other battle zones. So many of them have

 taken to the caring professions, even become priests

 and contemplatives. Like Peter they took that

wild plunge into the waters of the Spirit and discovered

 to their wonderment that they could walk a new road,

build a new world, have a new fire-power.

Actually by our baptism we have been plunged

into the Holy Spirit, truly immersed,

like sponges in the ocean. All we need do is

to become aware of this profound truth and open

 ourselves to the cool and gentle current of the Spirit.

Jesus once said to Peter: “The Spirit breathes where it will;

 you do not know where is comes or where it goes.”

 Then Jesus continued, “When you were young you

 could go where you pleased. But once you are old

(i.e. matured in the Spirit or handed over), the Spirit

 will take you where your human instinct

 wouldn’t like you to go.” The human instinct

 of the computer salesman was to hurry back home,

but the Spirit took him back to that ten-year-old

 blind boy whose apples he’d overturned.

 Peter once tried escaping from Rome when the

 persecution was getting too hot for him.

 But, true to himself, he went back and he

 was finally dragged to his execution by crucifixion.

The manner of death doesn’t count for those

 who die with honour in the Holy Spirit.

PRAYER: (Hildegaard of Bingen, 1089 – 1179)

Holy Spirit, the life that gives life,

You are the cause of all movement,

You are the breath of all creatures,

You are the salve that purifies all souls,

You are the ointment that heals all wounds,

You are the fire that warms our hearts,

You are the light that guides our feet.

Let the world praise you.

HOLY TRINITY

AWESOME THREESOME

The Holy Trinity

A famous story has it that the early 5^th. century Augustine of Hippo was taking his summer holiday along the North African seashore. Strolling down the water’s edge on a delightful day, he was pondering, of all things, the mystery of the Holy Trinity! All this genius was getting for his efforts was a thundering headache. Finally he thought he was breaking the code of the enigma and was about to download the mystery, when suddenly at his feet he saw a boy of five or six. The little fellow had made a hole in the sand and was filling it with water from the ocean. The bishop asked him sharply what he was doing. The tyke replied tersely, “Can’t you see? I’m pouring the whole ocean into this pit.” The much too literal Augustine said, “That’s nonsense.” (He could have said, “Blistering Barnacles !”) “No one can do that.” Not at all intimidated by the towering figure above him, the mite sallied mightily, “Well, sir, neither can you contain the mystery of the Trinity in your head.” (He could have said, “Sir, you’re just as nutty.”)

Whether this account is true or false, I leave to your good judgement. But I think we all get the point. The Holy Trinity will remain a mystery forever and a day. The author, Jack Miller wrote a book, God: a Biography. After reading the book, a critic wrote these lines, “You cannot plumb the depth of the human heart, nor find out what a man is thinking; how do you expect to search out God and comprehend his thoughts?”  So you can see what we are up against on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity.

Jesus’ disciples didn’t fare better, though they had every advantage: they had spent time with Jesus, heard his teaching, witnessed his miracles, and the way he dealt with the people who came to him. And most of all, they sensed his love for them personally. Yet despite all this, the disciples didn’t understand. Jesus recognised their cerebral struggle, and promised them the Holy Spirit.

The early 17^th. Century poet, John Donne, wrote breathlessly, “Batter my heart, three person’d God; for you as yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend.” We should just as breathlessly repeat that prayer. But having said it, should we forget the Trinity and get on with our lives? No, never !  For how could we ever forget Jesus, the second Person of the Holy Trinity? And Jesus, in his great discourse at the Last Supper, referred to his Father an awesome 45 times. “Holy Father, keep those you have given me true to your name…..Father, I pray that where I am, they also may be (John chap. 17)….I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, the Spirit of Truth” (John 14, 16). These are just the lines we love to hear  -  so consoling, so reassuring.

At the heart of all true love lies both mystery and wonder. Anyone who has been in love knows this. We can only wonder that we are so unworthy and yet are objects of someone’s affection. And the gift of love has to be just that  -  an outpouring of our hearts, something that comes naturally from within and cannot be manufactured. The point is that two people in love do not stop to dissect the origin and complexities of their feelings  -  they merely rejoice in them and abandon themselves to their self-giving.

Forget the Trinity, and we do so at our peril.  You know that there is only one God and that God is one: but you want to find words to speak of how you experience him and invite others to experience him too. You experience him as Father, creator and sustainer of life, exalted in power and glory as Lord God, yet rich in sympathy, kindness and love. You experience him as the man (God-man, in fact), Jesus of Nazareth, God’s anointed one, who had lived so amazingly and still lives – risen, ascended, glorified. You experience him as Spirit, the holy and life-giving presence within you and among your brothers and sisters. The One, Eternal, God, encountered and experienced as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that is the good news you want to share. You don’t use the “Trinity” word, but you want people to have a trinity experience.

There is much spiritual richness to be wrestled from a devotion to the Holy Trinity.

We must all remember that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not up there somewhere in the heavens, but rather in each of our honourable selves; sometimes despite our dishonourable selves. We have gained a God who is not only cleverer and more subtle than we thought, but also more generous. Please note, that the sacrament of Baptism not only dunked us into the water but also drowned us into the Trinity. And the three divine Persons are delighted to take up residence in us. We in them and they in us. And that’s what Jesus said through John’s gospel. “Father, Son and Spirit blest, come and dwell within my breast,” is one of my favourite seven-syllable mantras.

Many people visiting Kolkata in the cool months tell us, “It’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to stay here.” Happily the Trinity do not say the same of us. They say, “We’re not just tourists; we’d love to stay. Any objections?” The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have pitched a four-season tent in each one of us, to be cultivated, called upon, prayed to, get angry with….you name it.  If you understand that, then the sky is the limit. The 14^th. Century German mystic, Meister Eckhart said light-heartedly, “God laughed and his Son was born. Together they laughed and the Holy Spirit was born. And from the laughter of all three the universe was born !” Laughter is symptomatic of bliss. So let’s all laugh with the Trinity, without laughing them off !

PRAYER (by Richard Harries):

O God, Father, moment by moment you hold me in being,

on you I depend.

O God, eternal Son, friend and brother beside me,

in you I trust.

O God, Holy Spirit, life and love within me,

from you I live.

  

Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9
Daniel 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
John 3:16-18

Today is the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity--one God in Three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The words "Holy Spirit" and "Holy Ghost" are interchangeable, since "spirit" is directly translated from the Latin Sanctus Spiritus, while "ghost" is the Old English word for spirit. How do you explain the Holy Trinity? You don't really. It's beyond our human reason. Just use multiplication--3 times one still equals three. Right? But three Persons times One God equals One God. Now, if you want to carry it further, you'll get dizzy and may even suffer a headache. At this point, you really should give up!

Logic doesn't carry us very far in trying to explain the mystery of three Persons in one God. St. Anselm had it right a long time ago when he wrote, "I don't understand so that I can believe; I believe so that I can understand." Just believe Jesus' teaching that there is a Holy Trinity. From there, let's look at our heart's experience of God's beauty, His wisdom, His mercy, and His limitless love. It's as though someone were to ask you, "Do you believe in sunsets, or mountain tops or starry nights?" We'd tell them, "Just go out and watch a sunset--just go up and sit on a mountain top--just go out on a warm summer evening, lie on your back, and gaze up at a sky filled with stars!

God is powerful, and eternally in motion. Think of a celebration that never comes to an end. At a celebration, there are people--there is action, music, food and drink, and a good time. So, the life of the Holy Trinity is like an eternal party. God the Father loves the Son without interruption, and the Son returns that Love with every breath of His being--and that breath becomes the Holy Spirit of them both--full of the power of love and jubilant motion.

God the Father is like a beautiful sunset, soothing and quieting my soul. God the Son is like a lover, forgiving and tender, feeding my hunger, satisfying my desire. And the Holy Spirit is like a hot scorching fire, a whirlwind of inspiration, stirring me to intense praise and dynamic action.

Through faith, we believe that this Holy Trinity actually dwells inside the souls of the baptized when they are in a state of grace. Our only proper response to that awesome truth is: Wow! No wonder we speak of the dignity of the Christian.

Three-personed God, I gape at the wonder of Your beauty, May I glow with the light of Your Truth, May I burn with the excitement of Your Life! Someday I pray that I will see You face to face, and enjoy Your life and love forever.

PENTECOST                

It is said that a certain guide lived in the desert of Arabia who never lost his way.

 He carried with him a homing pigeon with a very fine cord attached to one of its legs.

 When in doubt as to which path to take, he flushed the bird into the air

The pigeon quickly strained at the cord to fly in the direction of home and thus

led the guide accurately to his destination.

 Because of this unique practice, he was known as the “dove man

So, too, the Holy Spirit, the heavenly Dove, is willing and able to direct us

 in the strait and narrow way that leads us to

the more abundant life, if in humble self-denial we submit to his unerring supervision.

we shall be men and women of  Pentecost. The famous Protestant charismatic preacher,

 Rev. Moody, once said, “You might as well try to hear without ears or breathe without lungs,

 as try to live a Christian life without the Spirit of God.”

A little girl was visiting her grandmother in a small country town in southern United States.

 Grandmother took the girl to a highly charged Pentecostal function.

 The people got all worked up and expressed their feelings by jumping about and shouting.

 It was another of those “Holy Roller” services. The little girl asked her grandmother

if all that jumping meant that the Holy Spirit was really present. Her grandmother said

“Honey, it doesn’t matter how high they jump; it’s what they do when they come down

that will tell you if it is the real thing.” My comment is that it would be good if we were

 a little more enthusiastic about our faith, but what matters is what we do in everyday life.

 Does the Holy Spirit have a practical effect on our daily life, and in what way ?

 As someone put it, “We do not need more of the Spirit. Rather, the Spirit needs more of us.”

Let us focus on our Lord Jesus. When Jesus was baptised in the Jordan and the Spirit

descended on him in the visible form of a dove, it wasn’t a piece of advertisement

 or comic routine,

 but serious business.  Immediately after the baptism, Jesus submitted

 to the Spirit who drove him

 into the desert as a prelude to his mission. The body of Jesus was instinct with the Spirit,

 such that whenever he exhaled he breathed out the Spirit. You will recall how after his

he breathed on his disciples saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit; those whose sins you forgive,

they are forgiven” (John 20,22). That was the Spirit of pardon and reconcilement.

 After Jesus assigns to the disciples (and to all of us) the ministry of making his love present

in the world, he offers the strength to carry out such a difficult task:

 “He breathed on them and said to them,

 ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ (John 20, 22). This is like a new creation scene in which Jesus enlivens

 and empowers his followers much as the creator breathed life into the first human being (Gen 2,7).

 Then Jesus singles out what is clearly the very first duty of his followers: “If you forgive the sins of any

they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (20,23). This can only mean

 that one of the primary effects of true Christian love is the willingness to forgive others who may

have hurt us in any way. This is an awesome responsibility and it cannot be restricted  simply

 to the sacrament of reconciliation. Every one of us is offered the help

 of the Holy Spirit so that we may have the courage to forgive and if we do not do so,

 in some very real and tragic sense the healing will be thwarted.

Sometimes I think that the only question that will be asked at the last judgement will be

quite simply, Did you let my people go ? In other words, was the overall effect of your presence

 in the world to liberate or to hold in bondage ? Were you a Moses, friend of God, or a pharaoh,

 holding others in slavery ? Forgiveness can be very difficult, but that is precisely why

 Jesus sends his powerful Spirit to assist us.

Jesus clearly told his disciples, “The Spirit blows where it wills. There’s no telling where

 it will blow you.” After Pentecost day the apostles were dispersed on the wings of the Spirit

to the four corners of the earth on the mission of evangelisation. Jesus told Peter,

 “When you were young, you clad your belt and went where you pleased.

 But when you are old (i.e. matured in the Spirit) somebody else will clad you

 and take you where you do not wish to go.” You might also remember that decisive

 turning point in the life of Peter. He was in Rome in the year 52

but the antichristian persecution was getting too hot for him there.

So he struck out for home and country back in Palestine, accompanied by a little servant boy.

 But on the way, on the Appian way, to be exact, he was intercepted by Jesus

 who appeared to him.

Peter was shocked to see the Lord and asked him that famous question:

 “Quo vadis, Domine ?”

 (“Where are you headed, Lord ?) and suddenly the little boy began speaking,

“My brethren in Rome need me.” The vision was over, the Spirit had spoken,

 and Peter made an about turn, double-timing it back to Rome where

 he was crucified upside-down.

Living a spiritual life is living a life in which our spirits and Spirit of God bear

joint witness that we belong to God as his beloved children.

This witness involves every aspect of our lives: “Whatever you eat, then, or drink,

and whatever else you do, do it all for the glory of God”, says St. Paul (Rom 10,31).

Wherever we go and whomever we meet, God’s Spirit will manifest himself through us.

 We may occasionally need to speak up in defence of God,

 even enlighten someone about Jesus Christ, as long as it doesn’t create divisions.

 But the way that the Holy Spirit manifests himself most convincingly is through the fruit:

 “love, joy, peace, endurance, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness

and self-control” (Gal 5,22).

 These fruit speak for themselves. Circle the odd one out. Joy is the odd one out.

Why ? The other items, like love, peace, goodness, are virtues requiring

 strength and application,

 to have and to develop, especially self-control. But joy seems to come and go by itself.

 I feel it or I don’t. I feel good when I do and sad when I do not.

 It’s like the difference between good cool weather and physical fitness.

 I can’t produce cool weather but I can work towards physical fitness

by proper dieting and exercise. “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we diet !”

Patience and self control fall into the gymnasium variety; joy is like the weather.

 We cannot earn it or acquire it, though we can pray for it since we know that

 God and the saints are in the fullness of joy. And we can prepare ourselves

 to work together with God’s generosity in the power of the Holy Spirit

 precisely by making other people happy.

Happiness is the result of spiritual health, not material wealth.

Material wealth certainly can be a positive factor of security for our children and ourselves.

 But by working for our spiritual health we can acquire a deeper foundation for inner security.

 A happy person is not a person in a given set of circumstances, but rather a person

 with a certain set of attitudes. Story of the woman waking up her son reluctant to go to school.

Son pleads, “I hate school; and besides, the boys don’t like me.” Mother reasons,

 “You’re 40 years old; and besides, you’re the headmaster.”

So, you can get out of bed ready to make the day an adventure.

 Or you can drag yourself out of bed dreading the hours ahead. You can get up early enough

 to have the time to relax with a healthful breakfast. Or you can stay in bed as long as possible

 and rush to work, mind and body all tense, and thoughts all scrambled from hurrying.

 Your attitudes help create your circumstances; they make you either

 a happy or unhappy person, to overcome problems or go under them.

Among the saints who are identified with joy or mirth is St. Thomas More of England.

Erasmus said of him: “From boyhood he was always so pleased with a joke that it

 might seem that jesting was the main object of his life.” “In adulthood,

 his countenance answers to his character, having an expression of kind and

 friendly cheerfulness with a little air of raillery." Thomas More was once asked

 whether he preferred short women to tall ones. He answered, “short ones;

they are the lesser of two evils.” Before you draw your conclusion from

 the joke about the joker, let me report what his latest biographer, Ackroyd, stresses,

 that Thomas More regarded women as the intellectual equal of men,

 and made his daughter Margaret the most learned woman of her day.

 Thomas More’s wife was Dame Alice. Despite their public teasing, husband and wife

 were very happy with each other. Thomas More was condemned to death by a

 perverse and petulant King Henry VIII. But the death sentence did not dampen his gaiety.

 During his last days, while in prison and suffering from his old disease in the chest - gravel,

 stone and the cramps  -  he habitually joked with his family and friends,

whenever they were permitted to see him, as merrily as in the old days of Chelsea

when he was Lord Chancellor. When it came time for him to ascend

 the executioner’s scaffold,

 it was discovered that the structure was so weak that

 it appeared ready to collapse.

Turning to the man assisting him, Thomas More remarked,

“I pray you, I pray you,

 Mr. Lieutenant, see me safe up, and as for coming down,

 let me shift for myself.”

After kneeling and saying  prayers, he turned to the executioner and,

 with a cheerful countenance spoke to him: “Pluck up thy spirits, man,

 and be not afraid to do thine office. My neck is very short. Take heed

therefore, thou strike not awry for saving thine honour.” As he placed

 his head on the block, he shifted his prison grown beard aside saying,

“This has committed no crime.” May I remind you, dear friends,

that under his finery as Lord Chancellor, St. Thomas More always

wore a hair shirt and prayed five hours a day.

Focusing on today’s great feast, we recall that our dear Lord Jesus

 has poured into our hearts the Spirit of the promise. May we be open to his joy,

 strength and consolation.

We believe in the Holy Spirit who animates the Holy Catholic Church,

who brings about the forgiveness of sins,

and accomplishes the resurrection and life everlasting.

PRAYER: (Hildegaard of Bingen, 1098 – 1179)

Holy Spirit, the life that gives life,

You are the cause of all movement,

You are the breath of all creatures,

You are the salve that purifies all souls,

You are the ointment that heals all wounds,

You are the fire that warms our hearts,

You are the light that guides our feet.

Let the world praise you.