I am writing this bulletin column in advance as I am getting ready for my trip to our missions in Saltillo, Mexico with Bishop Kopacz and Bishop Kihneman of Biloxi the week of June 6 - 10. I last went to our missions in Saltillo with youth from our Diocese in 2007, a trip that included some of the youth and Miss Val from St Jude. Since then, with the dangerous travel conditions in Mexico, we have not had any Diocesan mission trips to our missions in Saltillo. As I think of that mission trip and think of the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity that we celebrate this weekend, I think of how everything we do should be rooted in our life in the Trinity, in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In fact, our faith has its foundations in the Trinity. In the Catholic Church, we cannot just be baptized in the name of Jesus. Jesus mandated that we be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We participate in the life of the Trinity as disciples of Christ. Gregory of Nyssa (335-395), an Early Church Father who wrote a great deal about the Trinity, stated that “Holy Baptism imparts to us the grace of eternal life because of our faith in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
The Trinity is not just an ancient teaching from the Early Church that does not matter anymore. The reality of the Trinity still matters to us today because Christianity is more than following God’s laws and commandments and attending Mass. As disciples of Christ, we are in a relationship with God, so who God is really matters to us in our daily lives. Our Creator, who is a Trinity of divine persons, invites us into an intimate relationship with him.
As we remember that God is the most perfect expression of love, it makes sense that God is not solitary, but rather an eternal community of three persons who pour out themselves in love for one another. We are called to emulate the love of the Trinity in the way we live out our lives as disciples of Christ. The spiritual and corporal works of mercy are some of the ways we can live out the love of the Most Holy Trinity in the reality of daily life.
Blessings to all of you on this great solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity that we celebrate today in our Church’s liturgical year. Father Lincoln.
No comments:
Post a Comment