May 30, 2021

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

• Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40
• Romans 8:14-17
• Matthew 28:16-20

Reflection Written By: Katy Callaghan Huston, MAPS; Lector and RCIA Catechist

I am not a theologian. I am more attracted to the mystical and poetic words of saints and spiritual teachers. So this reflection on the Trinity is a collection of some of my favorites.

I love this icon of the trinity by the Russian painter Andrei Rublev (15^th Century). This is Henri Nouwen (1932 – 1996) describing how we can find ourselves drawn into the life of the Trinity, “As we place ourselves in front of the icon in prayer, we come to experience a gentle invitation to participate in the intimate conversation that is taking place… 

Richard Rohr, OFM (born 1943) says that the icon shows the Holy One in the form of Three, eating and drinking, in infinite hospitality and utter enjoyment between themselves. If we take the depiction of God in The Trinity seriously, we have to say, “In the beginning was the Relationship.”

I remember hearing this story of St. Augustine very early in my school years.

While Augustine of Hippo (354 –430) was working on his book On the Trinity, he was walking by the seaside one day, meditating on the difficult problem of how God could be three Persons at once. He came upon a little child. The child had dug a little hole in the sand, and with a seashell was scooping water from the sea into the small hole. Augustine watched him for a while and finally asked the child what he was doing. The child answered that he would scoop all the water from the sea and pour it into the little hole in the sand. ‘What?’ Augustine said. ‘That is impossible. Obviously, the sea is too large and the hole too small.’ ‘Indeed,’ said the child, ‘but I will sooner draw all the water from the sea and empty it into this hole than you will succeed in penetrating the mystery of the Holy Trinity with your limited understanding.’ Augustine turned away in amazement and when he looked back the child had disappeared.

Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) says. “Do you want to know what goes on in the core of Trinity?  I will tell you. The Father laughs and gives birth to the Son. The Son laughs back at the Father and the gives birth to the Spirit. The whole Trinity laughs and gives birth to us.”

Some Church Fathers spoke about Perichresis – the dance of the Trinity. CS Lewis (1898 –1963) used this imagery to describe God. In Mere Christianity, he says, “In Christianity God is not a static thing… but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance.” 

Jesus sings to us in the words of the English songwriter Sydney Carter (1915 – 2004). “I danced in the morning when the world was begun. I danced in the moon, and the stars, and the sun. And I came down from heaven and I danced on the Earth. At Bethlehem I had my birth. Dance, then, wherever you may be. I am the Lord of the Dance said he. And I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be. And I’ll lead you all in the Dance, said he.” Amen.

Questions for Reflection

• Do you ever use dance and prayer? “Dance as if no one [but God!] is watching.”
• Any music will do if it leads you on your spiritual path!
• Do you have a favorite person of the Trinity on whom you focus prayer?

May 23, 2021

Pentecost

• Acts of the Apostles  2:1-11
• I Cor 12:3b-7; 12-13
• John 20:19-23

“The Love of God has been poured into our hearts” Rom5:5

Reflection written by: Janet McDermott, MTS

Last Sunday we celebrated Jesus’ ascension into heaven.  We as a community were witnesses once again, remembering that Jesus left the community of believers to rejoin his Father, returning now to the Father as the Son who is both divine and human.  When Jesus left them, he told his disciples that there was one essential gift yet to come – the Spirit who will tell them all they need to know moving forward.  Their ‘instructions” were simple – go.  Tell everyone.  Tell the whole world.  As we hear today in the selection from Acts, the Spirit came and the disciples were transformed into Christ’s messengers demonstrated with the gift of “tongues” such as people from many of the world’s nations who were in the city at that time could receive their words.  That was just the beginning.

At the first Pentecost, the initial work of the Church began with a bang.  I try to imagine the lives of each of the disciples who, up to the day of Pentecost, were certainly interested in Jesus’ message, were filled with amazement at his deeds, who experienced the sorrow of Jesus’ death, and who most recently heard or witnessed that Jesus was back among them once more – only, to leave them behind, being lifted up out of their sight on the day of his ascension.  These disciples were, most of them, people who had already left behind the ordinary tasks of living, together with putting on hold former relationships, in order to walk with Jesus.  Already these disciples were not the typical practicing Jews.  So, when the Spirit came down upon them – with noise, wind, and fury – the disciples (although at the time gathered together out of fear) had already taken steps in their lives to prepare them to listen to the works that the Spirit called for in their hearts.

In our world today, perhaps in ways no other generation has witnessed, we have seen people leave everything to follow someone who called them to abandon what came before, taking steps they hoped would change the course of history.  These charismatic leaders too have somehow spoken words that inspired the hearts of their followers.  In a way, the events in our own Nation have raised issues that can divide community, can promote marginalization, and dismiss the needs of others as being a threat to one’s own needs.  So, as I reflect on the works of God’s Spirit, I search for words that can convey the differences. What then distinguishes the works of the Spirit offered to the world through the disciples of Jesus today?  How can a person or a community hear the Spirit and “go forth” to tell all peoples what wondrous love God has bestowed on creation through the Word made flesh?

What, then, are the gifts of the Holy Spirit?  And how does the Spirit act in each of our lives?  In the book of Isaiah (IS 11:2-3) the seven gifts are Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord. It seems to me that there is a somewhat tranquil purposefulness to each of the gifts, something that dwells deep in our hearts.  Yet, as I look back to the events of the past year, “tranquility” is not the least bit evident.  I therefore have asked myself, do today’s disciples of Jesus have a call to passionate discipleship or is our presence better served by being “nice”.  [“nice” to me in this context means preserving the status-quo, not “rocking the boat” of civil and religious customs and practices – a sort of pious tranquility.] Jesus told us that we are missioned to proclaim by our lives that, above all, God loves us – each and all.  Disciples of Jesus are missioned to love one another! (All of one another!)  The Spirit acts within our hearts enabling us to do just that.  Where there is love, there is God. That desire to share God’s love requires all of our personal and community talents.  We have what we need to spread the news of love but we must ask, with Mary, how can this be done?  We are missioned by the Spirit to stand up for the quality of life of all, to love all, to learn from all, even from those who don’t accept our way of loving.  That is the work of love we are called to do.

Understanding the impact of Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit on our lives today continues to be challenging.  God’s gift of love, the love among the Persons of the Trinity, and now for each of us is a mystery that continues to shape who I am as an individual and the community of Faith in which we are blessed to live.  I sense that somehow the life changing – community changing events of the recent months are signs that the Spirit is indeed at work among us.  We are asked to leave old ways behind, creating new ways of being community and Church, looking forward to new relationships with one another and with the planet where we are blessed to live.  I deeply believe that, because it is the work of the Holy Spirit of God, the work of God’s love among us, (quoting the mystic Julian of Norwich) “all will be well”.  Our work as disciples is to listen, receive, and to go tell the nations.

Please, therefore, join with me and with our Faith community around the world as we pray once again:

“Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in our hearts the fire of your divine love.”

Thoughts for consideration:

• God chose to share God’s love through the act of creation.  And God saw that it is good.  How am I called to reflect the goodness of God in creation?
• It is said that “you will know them (the followers of Jesus) by their fruits”.  Can I look at the current chaos to consider my complicity and/or mission forward using these words as my guide?
• Spend some prayer time talking to the Holy Spirit, asking for strength and guidance during these changing times.

May 16, 2021

Ascension of the Lord

• Acts 1:1-11
• Ephesians 1:17-23
• Mark 16:15-20

Theresa Shepherd-Lukasik, MA Spirituality

We often see pictures of Jesus rising into the heavens with the apostles starring in awe and wonder, and we tend to envision Jesus commanding us to go and baptize the nations. But in the Book of Acts, and in Mark’s Gospel, we get an inkling that Jesus wants us to continue the work he started. He could have stayed but he is going to empower his church to continue the work.

The Book of Acts tells us that Jesus spent, “forty days speaking about the kingdom of God.” I wish I knew what he told them, but I suspect he told them a vision of the lion laying down with the lamb, the meek will inherit the earth, and a vision of the same rule of love he taught them and showed them during his earthly ministry. Jesus told them about the kingdom, and they were waiting for him to establish it because they asked, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” They still did not get it. They still wanted the Jesus who did all the miracles and was going to restore rule to the kingdom of Israel. Yet, it is at the ascension that Jesus is preparing them to receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus told them he was going to send power of the Holy Spirit upon them. And the gospel of Mark tells us that those who are baptized in the Holy Spirit will “in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages… They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

With Jesus’ ascension, he hands over his power to the church, to the body of Christ, to the baptized members to continue his work, but he does not leave us to do this on our own. He sends us his Holy Spirit, to live in us, to dwell in us and work through us. We work to build up the kingdom of God on earth that he promised. We work to heal wounds and restore people to community. We work to feed the hungry and give shelter to the stranger and homeless. We work to help un-wed mom’s raise their kids. We work toward a more welcoming in inclusive community, and we don’t do this work alone or in our own strength. Jesus sends us his own Spirit to do the work in us, to strengthen us, to give us courage, to give us wisdom and words of counsel to life up the lowly.

So, people of St. Joe’s “why are you standing there looking at the sky?” Get working on building the Kingdom.

Questions for Reflection

• What has been a gift or a joy for you this Easter Season?
• What new life has grown in you?
• What work to help build up the kingdom to do you want to commit to for the upcoming season of Ordinary Time?