Dear Preachers:

The feast of the Most Holy Trinity celebrates one of our most ancient beliefs. But we don’t celebrate a dogma or official church teaching today. Nor will we try to "explain" the teaching in our preaching this weekend. Instead, we celebrate and reflect on our relationship with God and what our Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier has done for us. The scriptures remind us of our God’s graciousness and we rejoice in the God who has acted so mightily and lovingly on our behalf.

Let’s focus on the second reading today because the selection from Romans speaks of the Trinity in very basic terms. (It is always a challenge for the preacher to preach from Paul and today gives us a good opportunity. So, why not give it a try?) Paul articulates the work of the Trinity. God, our Creator, gives peace to us who have faith, even amid our suffering; pours out love and sustains our hope until one day we share in God’s fullness. This peace comes to us through Christ, who is God’s shalom, and in Christ we have constant assurance of grace. The Spirit, Paul tells us, provides the means by which we experience God’s love for us.

The Romans passage today begins with, "Therefore." Therefore what? Paul is drawing a conclusion from what he has been writing up to this point. He began Romans by stating his theme (1:16-17): the relationship between Judaism and Christianity and the power of the gospel to save believers, "...the Jews first, then the Greek. For in the gospel is revealed the justice of God, which begins and ends with faith." The central issue, Paul says is a faith, that through Jesus Christ, is now available to Jew and Gentile. Paul begins this section of Romans with "therefore" because he is going to elaborate on the consequences of being justified by faith. He is speaking to Christians ("we") and will show how our faith in God’s love and the work God has done for us in Christ will ground us in hope for the future, despite the present sufferings we endure for our beliefs.

What do we have, we who are "justified by faith?" The first consequence is peace. We believe we are in good relationship with God, not because of anything we have done, but because of what God has done for us in Christ. This grace didn’t just come once, but we have "access" to it continually. Paul helps us celebrate this feast by stirring up in us a festive mood. Because of God’s work in justifying us, we can, by the gift of faith, be assured that we are at peace with God. We may not always feel or think we are, but we place our faith in Christ.

We are assured by the Holy Spirit that we enjoy divine favor and access into God’s presence. It is as if we entered a castle and instead of being treated as outsiders, were immediately ushered into the royal presence as honored guests. Paul says we "stand" in grace. Reflect on that for a while: we have access to God continually because of our new status, we are standing in grace. No matter what our past, how unworthy we feel, or whether we deserve it or not, we can confidently stand before God because we have faith in Jesus.

Paul goes on to say that because of our standing in grace before God, we have hope that we will share in God’s glory; that we will be fully restored from all the damage sin has done to us and one day stand before God as we were created--- in God’s image and likeness. Meanwhile, in our daily struggles and as we face temptations against our very Christian identity, it doesn’t always feel like we are "standing in grace." That’s where faith comes in; it reassures us of God’s constant forgiveness and active love and keeps the hope alive that one day God’s work will be culminated, when the "glory of God" is shown in us.

All this may sound "other worldly," or "pie in the sky," except for what Paul says next. He acknowledges the "afflictions" Christians experience in this age. Taken on its own, the second half of the reading can sound like a spiritual fitness exercise: when we have suffering and endured we will develop a "proven character." But remember what Paul has been saying: it is grace and the faith it stirs up, that enable the Christian to endure afflictions and sufferings that threaten our beliefs. During these difficult times, God works overtime on our behalf to help us grow in hope and in the assurance of God’s love.

In the very moment of suffering we can "boast." Why? Because we are such strong and exemplary Christians able to bear up under severe testing? Able to overcome trials of all sorts that test our faith? No. We can "boast" because God stands with us and can turn even our trials into opportunities for our spiritual benefit. Only God can do this; only the free gift of grace in which we stand can make this possible. We may not see what the end will yield, but our hope reassures us, we are and will be in safe hands. The voice of the Holy Spirit in us reminds us amid our sufferings that God’s love will never abandon us, no matter how frail or unworthy of that love we feel. We are justified, made right with God, through faith.

For Paul, faith is the basis of our Christian lives. He reminds us at the beginning of Romans that to believe is to accept God’s power into our lives (1: 16-17; 3:24). As a result of this acceptance we have a whole new life and intimacy with God through Jesus. Based on this faith, we live a new life in obedience to God. Faith begins with God’s free offer of an intimate relathioship with us and we respond by living a life of good works, even under duress and suffering.

We are united with a community that professes, as we do, faith in Jesus Christ. The members of this community, with the support of one another, seek to practice this faith in daily life and in our worship today. Gathered in prayer and praise we celebrate those who have handed on faith to us, our ancestors. We also rely on those who are with us today, whose faith deepens and sustains our own. The community is the sign to us of God’s grace and love and so stirs up our hope and assurance that God’s love will never abandon us. Who among us hasn’t been through trials that have shaken us to our foundation and seemed like they would extinguish our faith? Yet, in the midst of the dark night we have found hope through other members of the community who, by their presence, phone calls, notes and spontaneous and loving outreach, have strengthened our flagging spirits.

"Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved."

Citation: Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, §6.

Have you ever stopped to contemplate these words? It seems almost too-good-to-be-true that an infinite Creator would place us on such a pedestal. Yet, just in the reading before, God’s Wisdom, who is such a delight for God, finds her delight in the human race. Wisdom, always portrayed as feminine in the Old Testament, is with God from the beginning, before creation. She participates in creation foreshadowing the divine intent to pour out God’s own loving being upon humanity. Both of today’s New Testament readings speak of divine life shared so that humankind can also find delight in God. This is how life is supposed to be!

The contemplative prayer practiced by the desert mothers and fathers of many centuries ago, and known today as centering prayer, is once again being practiced. In the book, Christian Spirituality: Themes from the Tradition (Paulist, 1996), the authors, Lawrence S. Cunningham and Keith J. Egan, write: "Ever since Gregory the Great, monks of the west claimed that the goal of their way of life was to see God. . .Teresa of Avila wrote in the sixteenth century, ‘I was dying to see God.’"

This kind of prayer involves moving beyond traditional spoken prayers to achieve a deeper communion with God through silence (God’s first language), stillness, and surrender. Often, the person praying picks a sacred word as their focus. The source of centering prayer is the Trinity dwelling in us with the Holy Spirit calling us to consent to God’s presence and action within. Contemplative prayer is like a rendezvous with the One you love the most.

On this day of the Most Holy Trinity, the gift of God’s own being through Christ, remaining with us in the Spirit, intends the complete transformation of human persons. A deepening union with Christ, the center of love, leads to love of others. When you realize how much you are loved, how can you not love others? What transformation is God drawing you toward? Perhaps, it may be one of the many ways that Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral serves with joy the least among us, those who also bear the image of our loving God. To participate, contact socialconcern@hnojnc.org

Contemplate today how life is supposed to be, your life with God. Re-connect with the One who loves you best and always. God is mindful of you, is your mind full of God?

Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS, Director

Office of Human Life, Dignity, and Justice Ministries

Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, Raleigh, NC

The Spirit will not speak on [his] own,

but will take what [he] hears,

and will declare to you the things that are coming.

God is beyond our human capacity to know, but even before we reached out to God, God had already decided to redeem the world. God has taken the initiative, offered us grace in Jesus Christ and through the Spirit enables us to enter into relationship with God.

• Do you ever pray to the Holy Spirit?

• What occasion causes you to turn to the Holy Spirit in prayer?

POSTCARDS TO DEATH ROW INMATES

Inmates on death row are the most forgotten people in the prison system. Each week I am posting in this space several inmates’ names and locations. I invite you to write a postcard to one or more of them to let them know that: we have not forgotten them; are praying for them and their families; or, whatever personal encouragement you might like to give them. If the inmate responds, you might consider becoming pen pals.

Please write to:

----Central Prison P.O. 247 Phoenix, MD 21131

Please note: Central Prison is in Raleigh, NC., but for security purposes, mail to inmates is processed through a clearing house at the above address in Maryland.

If you would like to support this ministry, please send tax deductible contributions to Fr. Jude Siciliano, O.P.

St. Albert Priory

3150 Vince Hagan Drive

Irving, Texas 75062-4736

Make checks payable to: Dominican Friars.

RESOURCES

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If you are a preacher, lead a Lectionary-based scripture group, or are a member of a liturgical team, these CDs will be helpful in your preparation process. Individual worshipers report they also use these reflections as they prepare for Sunday liturgy.

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