Contributed by Fr. Ray Reitzel, C.R. Father Ray was born in Waterloo and is #9 of a family of 9 boys and 3 girls. One brother (Harry) is a C.R. priest, and two sisters, Cecilia & Marcella are Notre Dame Sisters. He taught at St. Jerome’s High School for 16 years, at Scollard Hall high school, North Bay for 15 years, and served in 4 parishes for 17 years. He is semi- retired and living in the priests’ residence at St. Jerome’s University, Louis Hall.

TRINITY May 22, 2016 GATHERING TIME (10-15 minutes)

Introduction to the Word:

Today is Sunday. Today marks the belief in the Holy Trinity that distinguishes the Christian faith from all other religions. It is a mystery. We can only scratch the surface in trying to ‘understand’ it.

The Most Holy Trinity The Most Holy Trinity is the greatest MYSTERY of our Faith and it is very hard to try to contemplate it and understand any part of it. It is pure revelation from to us. The language we use to talk about it is inadequate … too limited and too limiting. It is a very poor attempt to say anything about it, but out of necessity, we must. We need to say something about it – otherwise we can never talk about it or use it in prayer.

We need to be very humble before God in how we speak about God because of the awesomeness of the mystery of God’s being! Pray for understanding here.

First, let us look at the revelation of the identity of himself. He was born the son of Mary (and the foster-son of Joseph), the Son of Man, the son of David, a carpenter, the Messiah and Lamb of God (which He was revealed to be at his baptism), Rabbi (teacher, Rabboni), a miracle worker and healer, and only later on, the Son of God, Redeemer, God Himself: “The Father and I are one.” This latter aspect of Jesus’ identity is revealed very gradually as His end was drawing near. This is the great mystery of the Incarnation: God becoming human, and taking on flesh.

Biblical scholars agree that the theological notion of the Trinity is a later development, but with roots in Scripture. Theologians trace the development through the various disputes in the first five hundred years of the Church’s existence. Liturgists credit Benedictine monasteries of the ninth and eleventh centuries with being instrumental in promoting liturgical prominence for the Trinity. The Franciscan Pope John XXII decreed that the Divine Office of the Blessed Trinity should be observed by the entire Church (1334). (From Biblical scholar John J. Pilch) 1

In Scripture, St Paul in many of his letters greets his friends with, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God [the Father] and the fellowship of the be with you all.” At the Ascension of Jesus to heaven He tells the Apostles, “Go to the whole world…teaching them everything I have taught you, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And behold, I will be with you all days even until the end of time.” In John 10:30 Jesus says, “The Father and I are one.” Today’s also speaks of the Father and the Holy Spirit. However, the magnificent belief of our God is that God is not only the Creator, all powerful, all knowing ...but a tremendous Lover, and has a filial loving relationship with all human beings. This is a personal God who is as close as a heartbeat, as near as the breath we breathe, whether we are aware of it or not. We grasp at this awareness through forms of prayer, the scriptures, the sacraments and the marvels of creation. Pope Francis has declared this Year of Mercy to focus on God’s love and mercy for all persons. The Holy Trinity is the perfect loving community, and we are part of this “inner sanctum” by being one in Christ through Baptism or the Baptism of desire. We rejoice with peace and joy. , alleluia!

Warm-up Activity (about 8–10 minutes):

Life has often been called a waiting game, and the constant surprise is that many of us are not too sure for what we are waiting. Talk about a few of your “waiting times.” a. What are some of the waiting times that most disturb you? b. What will you endure, at all costs, to avoid “the waiting” for anything? c. My mother used to refer to her good ship, as in “Some day our good ship will come in.” Do you have a good ship you are waiting for, hoping it will “come in” some day? Talk about your own experience.

Table of the Word

THEME “The Trinity” is about a triune God (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit): it is about the life of God and creature coming together as one." God moves towards us so that we may move towards each other and towards God. The way God comes to us, is our way to each other and to God, through Jesus Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is our faith. We confess this in our Creed. We celebrate it eminently in Eucharist, yet we have a real problem believing it. Our God is For-Us. Who are we for? This is our personal question. This truth and mystery is what the Eucharistic presider invites us to celebrate every time he repeats Paul’s invocation from a triune God: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, our Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit IS with you!”

Leader: We celebrate the mystery of our triune God that we have named the “Most Holy Trinity:” Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: together, they create, redeem, animate and give life to all things.

Lord Jesus, You reveal for us the love of the Father, Lord, have mercy. Christ Jesus, You redeem us with your life-giving Word, Christ, have mercy. Lord Jesus, You call us to fullness of life through your Spirit, Lord, have mercy 2

Let us pray (together): Source of wisdom, love, and truth, it is never your will that we are lost. Please continue to seek us when we stray, love us when we strain to be lovable, and guide us to the truth when we deceive ourselves with comfortable lies. This is our prayer to our triune God— Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

SCRIPTURE REFLECTION TIME (45 minutes) (As Christians we believe that the WORD of God we hear proclaimed each Sunday is an empowering Word, and that God is present in the Word proclaimed. This is the Word that God wants us to hear today. The dynamic of the Small Christian Community, namely, reflecting on our life-story within the context of this Word, and sharing the insights of these reflections, is such that God’s Spirit becomes present, and the gifts of the Spirit are experienced as empowering and life-giving).

FIRST READING (Proverbs 8:22–31) Thus says the Wisdom of God: “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. “Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth – when he had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil. When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.” The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

SECOND READING (Romans 5:1–5) Brothers and sisters: Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

GOSPEL (John 16:12–15) A reading from the holy Gospel according to John. Glory to you, O Lord. Jesus said to his disciples: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ. (Allow 5-10 minutes for quiet and a brief reflection on a meaningful word or thought.)

COMMENTARY:  More pertinent to our purpose for today’s Feast of the Most Holy Trinity is the very interesting figure of Wisdom – Lady Wisdom, (a hint of the Holy Spirit) in our First Reading (the text of the Book of Proverbs explicitly refers to Wisdom as a woman – hence the common name for her as Lady Wisdom).

3  In the very first chapter of the Book of Proverbs (1:20-33), wisdom is depicted as a woman who goes throughout the city looking for disciples. “What is unusual is that wisdom is characterized as a woman.” (Sister Diane Bergant, O.S.A.). How did this come about? Some scholars see here a remnant of ancient Near Eastern (even early Israelite) worship of a goddess, the goddess of wisdom. Other scholars see a development from the Hebrew word, hokmah (wisdom) which is a feminine form. We see Lady Wisdom existing before time and accompanying the Lord in the creation of the world, and “rejoicing with the Lord in the inhabited world and delighting in the human race.”  Finally, she promises life and the favour of God to those who find her, death to those who despise her.” (footnote, New American Bible)  I would like to point out that normally we think only masculine talk or images can be used of God, but here clearly we have beautiful feminine talk of God in the beautiful female image of Lady Wisdom. Even though the Bible uses more male images of God, it also makes use of female images too and we need both to have a better picture of God.  We can never forget that God is pure mystery and we always will have difficulty speaking about God and thinking about God. As said before, we only stutter!

In his letter to the Romans, Paul refers to the three Persons: “we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ… God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”

In the Gospel we see the role of the “Spirit of Truth will come [at ] and will guide you in all truth.” At the Jesus had plenty to teach the Apostles. The poor fellows had no iPods, tape recorders, pencils or paper, to record all that Jesus was teaching them. Much of it was mind-boggling, confusing. It only made sense after the , and after they were filled with the Holy Spirit at the time of Pentecost. Then they told the story of Jesus and proclaimed the Good News with joy and conviction. Only Paul, Peter, James and John wrote a few letters. The Gospels were only written years later. The truth of the Gospel was preserved in them by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth.

The mystery of the Trinity cannot be arrived at by reason, but only by revelation through the person of Jesus Christ.

So what can we take away for our benefit from this "mystery" feast? One point is clear. While The Trinity is a feast that glorifies the central mystery of our faith—a mystery based on the way the three persons relate to each other (from within)—all three readings address the way God relates to us, namely through his creation— through the ways we experience his personal love as Father, the way we experience the grace-filled presence of Jesus his Son, and the way we are empowered (energized) by the love of the Father for the Son which is the Holy Spirit. We are not well served when we concentrate mostly on an abstract doctrine. It is all about God’s love in the Trinity, and God’s love for us. “God is Love!” This is well described for us in Jesus’ image of the “Vine and the branches” (John 15:1-10) “As the Father loves me, remain, abide, make your home in me.” In these few verses Jesus uses the word remain, or abide, or make your home in me (depending on the version of the Bible) 11 times. But if we concentrate, as the texts today suggest, on all the ways our triune God continues to bless us in our daily lives, we may be more inclined to cry out with the psalmist, "O Lord, our God, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"().

(Allow about 10 minutes for the participants to react to the Commentary and identify a newly discovered insight or idea.)

4 Questions for Reflection and Discussion: 1. (General Question) In our day we encounter divisive, negative and conflict-generating talk. And this is true even on the Internet. The feast of the Most Holy Trinity is one of divine interaction in unity, whereas human interaction so often involves lack of good interaction and even bad interaction, leading to disunity. a) Where do you tend to engage in divisive talk? Does the message of this feast suggest any ideas how we might change that habit? b) Have you ever experienced "people talking past you" rather than to you? How does it make you feel? Have you ever "talked past other people?" Why did you do this? Is there a way we can learn to talk to each other rather than past each other?

2. (Romans) “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” a. Share your experiences of “feeling alone.” Is this kind of thing a welcome experience in this busy world, or is it a painful one? Comment. b. Our faith teaches us that we are never alone, yet many people still experience the pain of feeling alone. How would you explain this? How can we strengthen the faith of such people? c. “My heart is restless until it rests in You, O Lord!” was one of St. Augustine’s favourite short prayers. What sort of prayers or activities do you engage in when you have such an experience?

3. (Proverbs) “…and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always ... and delighting in the human race.” Do you think God has a sense of humour? Are you hoping God has a sense of humour? Do you tend to associate holiness and spiritual growth with being serious or being joyful? Whom do you know who appears to have a happy balance?

4. (John) “I still have many things to say to you.” Share your typical responses to the following: a. Is your communication with God a one way monologue or do you give God a chance to speak to you? Which posture (talking or listening) do you find is “more productive”? b. What insight does this feast of the Most Holy Trinity give you regarding the kind of relationship God desires to have with you? c. Which Person of the Holy Trinity do you usually address or pray to? d. Do you have a special scripture text that helps to describe God’s love for you?

CARING-PRAYING TIME: (15-20 minutes)

1. Word for the Week: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

2. Suggestion for the week: The following thoughts are from Scripture scholar Alice Camille's Exploring the Word: "The Holy Spirit, indwelling and available, is how God comes to live in us and act through us. So if you want to view an accurate and up to date portrait of God, just follow the love that touches us each day. God cannot be seen in acts of aggression or selfishness, or in relationships that withhold affection until the other ‘earns’ or ‘deserves’ it. Think of where you're welcomed just for showing up. God is there. Think of when you've been forgiven because you needed to be. God is there."

3. Intercessions: (Response: Lord, hear our prayer) 5

Leader: To the God who provides for the needs of all creatures and who delights especially in the human race, let us pray now on behalf of all.

For the Church, to whom Jesus promised the Spirit: May we be eager for wisdom of the Holy Spirit as the mystery of faith continues to unfold, we pray… For all the peoples of earth, in whom their Creator rejoices and delights: May we learn to live at peace with one another as the beloved children of one God, we pray… For married couples, for parents and children, for those who live in religious or service communities: May their love reflect the image of the Triune God, we pray… For the sick and for suffering members of our community: May their afflictions not lead to despair but to glory, we pray… For all of us, baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity: May the love of God be poured forth into our hearts, we pray… For all the dead whose lives were sealed with the sign of the Trinity: Justified by faith, may they be at peace and enjoy the fullness of eternal life as they share in the glory of God, we pray… For the countless victims of all natural or human-made disasters causing suffering, pain and loss to people, we pray... That Jews, Muslims and Christians all over the world, mindful of a common God and common ancestors in faith, Abraham and Sarah, may not give up on their quest for justice and peace, but find ways to live life together with mutual acceptance, forgiveness and love, we pray…

How can we help you in prayer this week?

Let us pray (together):

We glorify you, O God, as we ponder the mystery of the wisdom by which you created the world in wondrous beauty and order. We, your church, your new creation, reconciled in your Son and sanctified by your Spirit, ask you to lead us through endurance into hope, and from hope to full knowledge of you, who are love itself, fullness of truth, and undying life. This we ask this through Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever. Amen.

With hands and hearts united in gratitude for God’s favors on us today, we pray that all those in our influence be moved to be open to your Word and your Spirit, as we now pray,

OUR FATHER…

“If God seems far away, who moved?” (Roadside Church Signs, 2001)

Celebrating the Word: A Ministry of the Congregation of the Resurrection Ontario-Kentucky Province (including the former Resurrection Centre), 265 Westmount Road North, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G7. (Celebrating the Word was founded by Father Frank Ruetz, C.R., deceased 2012). For information: Toll Free: 1-877-242-7935. website: www.resurrectionists.ca E-mail: [email protected] The Scripture version used in this commentary is the New Revised Standard Version (copyrighted by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA)

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