SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY
A Solemnity is the highest feast of our church year.
We find ourselves in the midst of a series of solemnities…The Resurrection…
The Ascension…Pentecost…today The Most Holy Trinity…
and next weekend The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
(Corpus Christi).
Today we celebrate a unity of Three In One…The Most Holy Trinity.
Today we celebrate the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity…
-a mystery of our mysteries…
-we cannot fully wrap our minds around a mystery…
cannot fully understand a ministry.
-if we fully understand a mystery we have missed the mystery…
because it is a mystery and cannot be fully understood.
What we are called to do…in faith…is to enter the mystery
and celebrate the mystery.
In the scriptures we hear proclaimed today…
We celebrate the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity…
We celebrate the Father…creator of heaven and earth…of all things…
creator of each of us…created in wonder and glory.
Hence the sacredness of all human life
from conception to natural death.
Do we see each other…and relate to each other…
and relate to others as sacred?
Can we look around this church and see the sacred?
We celebrate Jesus…through whom we have been justified by faith…
are experiencing peace with God…have gained access by faith to grace…
can boast in hope…even of our afflictions that shape, form, and
strengthen us enabling us to be the people He wants us to be
and do what He wants us to do.
We celebrate the Holy Spirit…
who enables us to experience the love of God…
to know the wisdom of God…
be equipped with grace of God.
CC2003 “Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit.”
How do we enter and celebrate this mystery?
How do we live and celebrate this mystery daily?
By grace…allowing the Lord to form our hearts…and thereby form us.
Where is my heart?...Where is your heart?…Where is our hearts?
-I know the answer is easy…it is in our chest.
But what about the other heart?
What about the heart that is the essence of who we are?
What about the heart that leads to who we are and what we do?
David Livingstone…
-lived 1813-1873…born in Scotland…a member of the British Empire.
-he was missionary…a medical missionary…and an explorer
he spent most of his adult life in Africa.
-he discovered rivers and bodies of water…plants and animal life…
mapped areas of Africa…
all of which were till then unknown to Europeans.
-coming face to face with the slave trade he became a staunch abolitionist.
-he was asked to return to Britain…and he did.
-lacking peace and happiness there
he returned to Africa spending the rest of his life there.
-at one time he had not been heard from for a long time
and fearing he might be lost Britain sent Henry Stanley in search of him.
-from that encounter we have the quoted words of Stanley,
“Livingstone I presume.”
-when David Livingstone died in Africa…
Britain sent representatives to bring the body of this highly
respected and celebrated citizen back to Britain for burial there.
The Africans refused to release his body saying his love for Africa
demanded he be buried there.
After negotiations the Africans agreed to release his body to them.
The night before the journey with his body to Britain began…
Africans open his chest and took his heart.
Today David Livingstone body is buried in Westminster Abby in England
and David Livingstone heart is buried in Africa where his heart was.
Where is my heart?...Where is your heart?…Where is our hearts?
That heart that is the essence of who we are?
That heart that leads to who we are and what we do?
What do we love that demands that our heart should be buried there?
What are we to do to form our heart in love?
Our hearts are formed in love and formed to love…
In prayer…
In Sacraments…
In Mass and the Eucharist…
In responding to the Sermon on the Mount…
In living the words of the Our Father…
In living the commandments to love God and love others…
In the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy…
In being an active…serving member of the Body of Christ…
In being an active advocate for life
from conception to natural death…
In having a preferential option for the poor.
These are some of the ways we allow the Lord to form our hearts…
to form our hearts to love.
These are some of the ways that form our hearts…
in the essence of who we are.
These are some of the ways that form our hearts…
leading us to who we are and what we do.
These are some of the ways we can enter, celebrate,
and live the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity.
--Deacon Jim Thill