TRINITY SUNDAY May 31, 2015 GATHERING TIME (10-15 minutes)

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1 Contributed by Father Frank Reitzel, C.R. Father Frank was ordained in June of His Resurrectionist ministries have included teaching at St. Jerome s High School in Kitchener, Scollard Hall, North Bay, Resurrection College, Kitchener, St. Mary s College in Kentucky and University of Calgary. Father Frank also participated in Teaching and Pastoral Work at University of Calgary and the University of Western, Ontario. After serving as pastor at St. Francis Parish in Kitchener and St. Patrick s Parish in Bermuda, Father Frank retired to the Manor in Waterloo in He continues to do ministry when he receives requests from parishes. TRINITY SUNDAY May 31, 2015 GATHERING TIME (10-15 minutes) Introduction to the Word: Trinity! The very word tends to move us immediately from our familiar world of concrete experience to another world to the world of OZ, a world of imagination, a world of the eternal and the abstract. For persons of a certain age the notion of three distinct persons in one God brings to mind images of shamrocks and triangles scribbled on blackboards by well-intentioned teachers trying their best to help grade school students understand how there can be three persons in one God. The word Trinity evokes abstract philosophical concepts foreign to most of us, e.g. two processions, three persons, four relations etc. etc. The word "Trinity" tries to move us from the heart to the head, and away from prayer and our common experience and understanding of the words Father, Son and Holy Spirit. On the other hand, these same three names (persons) bring to mind distracting arguments about whether or not our God is male or female, or somehow a combination of both. And how helpful is it when we refer to our God as He/She, as we try our best to image in human terms an unimaginable God? Mercifully, our Scripture readings for this feast remind us that the most helpful knowledge and experience of God for us humans must necessarily be derived from a this-world-experience. We must leave it to the theologians to delve into the mystery of three distinct persons in one God. What we are able to learn about our God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit has been revealed to us in the story of Israel the story of our salvation the story beginning with Abraham and leading up to the person of Jesus, the Son of God: to his life, death and resurrection. It is accurate to say that Jesus is the primary medium for the message our God has chosen to reveal God s self to the world and to all creation. This one and the same Jesus is fully present to us in today's Word just as surely as He was present to His first disciples. His Word today is proclaimed in today's three readings Deuteronomy, Romans and Matthew. And it is God's empowering Spirit that animates our prayerful reflection and dialogue. In so doing, our gathering as a faith sharing community becomes "a sacred and life giving communal activity" that brings us closer to Jesus and to the 1

2 Father, thanks to God's empowering Spirit a grace-filled experience of the Trinity, the significant feast we celebrate today. Warm-up Activity Life has been called "a waiting game," and yet the constant irony is that most of us are not too sure who or what we are waiting for. We feel that our faith-life should be giving us much more than we are receiving or experiencing. 1. Based on your own faith-life and faith experience, would you tend to agree with a common notion that There s got to be more! to the faith-life of the Christian than we commonly experience? 2. If you were asked directly, What do you want from your Christian faith that you are not receiving? Who or what is missing? What is your restless longing?, how would you best articulate an answer to that question? Share that response. The Table of the Word The Trinity: the life of a triune God and creatures coming together as one. Belief in the triune God is fundamental to the life of every Christian. We begin every Eucharist invoking the name of the Trinity, and we are sent forth with a blessing from Father, Son, and Spirit. God as three persons shapes every aspect of our faith, from liturgy to social justice. The deepest meaning of the Trinity, as rooted in Scripture, describes our God in a most distinctive way: our God is not one who is out there somewhere, or a God who is beyond us. He is, first and foremost a God For Us (the title of a major insightful treatise on The Holy Trinity authored by Catherine La Cugna, 1991). The way God comes to us is the same as the way we come to God and to each other: through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the sum and substance of our faith. Simply put, the Trinity expresses the essential truth that the God who saves through Christ by the power of the Spirit lives eternally in a community of persons in love. (cf. Collegeville Dictionary of Spirituality, edited by C. M. La Cugna and M Downey). This is the marvelous mystery and affirming truth today s readings help us reflect on and explore. And this is the very activity we are about to engage in as active participants in the Table of the Word. Leader: Guided by the Holy Spirit and called to be a Trinitarian community, we call upon the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for their presence and guidance. Lord Jesus, you reveal the love of the Father who fashions us as a chosen people, Lord, have mercy. Christ Jesus, Your Spirit breathes upon your Church the Spirit of adoption that makes us God s children and joint heirs with you. Christ, have mercy Lord Jesus, from the heart of our Triune God, You send us forth to make disciples of all nations and to give witness of your consummate love for all people, Lord, have mercy. Let us pray Lord our God, always present in our midst, whose face we have seen in Christ Jesus, and whose Spirit is always with us: Baptized in your name we embrace what Jesus has taught us. 2

3 Remembering that He is with us always, we pray that our worship be acceptable and our witness effective through the power of the Spirit who makes us your children. We ask this through Jesus, your Son, one with you and the Holy Spirit, God forever. 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, is such that God s Spirit becomes present, and the gifts of the Spirit are experienced as empowering and life giving. It is a privileged time and calls for our fullest attention.) FIRST READING (Deuteronomy 4:32 34, 39 40) Moses spoke to the people saying, Ask now about former ages, long before your own, ever since the day that God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of heaven to the other: Has anything so great as this ever happened or has its like ever been heard of? Has any people ever heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire, as you have heard, and lived? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by terrifying displays of power, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you today for your own well-being and that of your descendants after you, so that you may long remain in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time. The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. SECOND READING (Romans 8:14 17) Brothers and sisters: All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption to sonship. When we cry, Abba! Father! it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. GOSPEL (Matthew 28:16 20) A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew. Glory to you, O Lord. The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ. COMMENTARY: Recent studies on the Trinity have focused on the Father, Son, and Spirit, not as abstract philosophical concepts, but as real persons in dynamic relationship with each other and with each one of us. The moving account of these relationships is revealed in the story of Israel, leading up to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. First, there was Israel s experience and encounter with the maker of the universe known to them as YHWH (Yahweh), who rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and then again from exile in Babylon. The first reading (Deuteronomy) is a masterful story, which marvels at the wonder of Israel s being a people uniquely loved among the nations by the unimaginable Creator of all. Moses, speaking on God s 3

4 behalf, asks questions of his people that we would do well to take to heart: Did anything so great ever happen before? Moses exhortations to his people showed that this, their God, not only had a voice, but was like a parent to them, as well as protector and nurturer and guide. In fact, Moses tells his people that they were actually adopted as God s own beloved children. In the second reading, Paul, writing to the Romans and would-be Christians, compares their status as Christians to what happens when a household slave becomes an adopted son. In the social world of Paul and those of his time, a childless couple desiring an heir would adopt a favoured servant. In this way a former slave actually became a member of the family, who then had a rightful share in the parental inheritance. Paul uses this familiar experience to explain to his readers that this is what happens when you find yourself as a son or daughter of God: you are automatically a brother or sister of the Son of God, and are empowered by His Spirit. As such, you are now privileged to address the source of all creation with the intimate language of the Son s prayer, Abba a term of respect, tenderness and endearment. We are not only a chosen people, we are children of God. For Paul, "Father" signifies: source of life, loving protector, attentive guide. These relational attributes are profoundly intimate. Furthermore, as heirs of God we are joint heirs with Christ. We enjoy a relationship that is both with God as Father and with Christ, who is now our brother. These relationships, by design, are intensely personal, and reflective of how intimately our God is connected with us. To say that all things come from a divine being is a claim common to most religions. But Christianity goes much farther than that. We say Jesus is Lord, the wisdom of God, the Word of God made flesh. This is a huge claim, to say God would and did become one of us, one among us, one for us. But we don t stop there. We go one step beyond and say that God is still with us, right here in our assembly, right here in your small group gathering, and in fact, dwelling in your innermost being. This is an unheard-of claim, one that no other religion makes in quite this way. Unfortunately, we have such a hard time believing this radical truth; we tend to react to it more as a fantasy than for what it really is, an incredible promise and statement of our personal worth. But there is a price that goes with the promise. It is actually a formal commission: The great commission we receive from Jesus through Matthew at the end of his gospel is to form communities of faith by living the life of the Spirit. In this way we are best able to respond to the love of God as revealed in Jesus. This commission Paul formulates into his beautiful Trinitarian prayer now used as an introduction to the Eucharistic meal: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you. Of utmost importance for today, therefore, is the essential Trinitarian nature of the life of all the Baptized. Upon them, as the Church Fathers liked to say, an exact likeness {Greek: character} or seal {Greek: sphragis} has irrevocably been placed. Trinity Sunday is the feast day of all who claim the name of Christian, in the midst of whom, as Church, the Spirit dwells. For all who are baptized are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (Allow 10 minutes to react to the Commentary. Identify a newly discovered insight or idea.) 4

5 Questions for Reflection and Discussion: 1. "The world is filled with the grandeur of God (Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1918)." It seems we need our gifted artists to help us to become aware of the obvious. Where in your life are you creative? Playful? Appreciative of the beautiful? Where are you most likely to find or experience the grandeur of God? Share. 2. (Romans) If only we suffer with him. Reflect briefly on the following situations then speak to one or two that is relevant for you. a. What lessons about suffering did you remember hearing in your childhood? Are these lessons appropriate for you now? b. What forms of suffering tend to bother you the most, whether personal or otherwise? c. Talk about a time when you have seen or experienced pain and affliction turn into grace? 3. Christianity is improperly termed 'a religion of the Book.' However precious and indispensable biblical testimony is with regard to Jesus, Christianity is distinctively a religion of a person: that person is Jesus. He calls all of us into a personal relationship with the Father and Jesus through the Spirit (Robert Imbelli, SJ, Reflections on the Synod ; online) Reflect briefly on the above quotation then share some of the meanings this startling truth contains. 4. (Matthew) all that I have commanded you. Which of God s commands do you treasure most? Which of God's commandments do you find most challenging? Which of your ministry responsibilities do you find most burdensome? Comment. Which do you find most affirming? Comment. CARING-PRAYING TIME: (15-20 minutes) (This time is reserved for quiet prayer as well as for an action-response to the communal reflections. The intent is to outreach to the larger community) 1. Word for the Week: Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has its like ever been heard of? (Deuteronomy) 2. Suggested Reflection for the week: (Quote from the October Synod of Bishops of 2008, Rome, Italy. Author: Rev. Robert Imbelli, SJ) Reflect on the following quotation a few times this week. It is foundational to the practice of our Christian faith For the Word of God is ultimately a person. It is Jesus Christ himself who is the full and final argument of God's Word. No biblical verse is more important in this regard than that of the Gospel of John: 'And The Word became flesh and dwelt among us' (1.14). In Jesus Christ, in his life death and resurrection, God's revelation receives perfect expression and achieves the world s reconciliation. 3. Intercessions: (Response: Lord, hear our prayer) Leader: Let us pray without fear as a people loved by the Lord, who has done mighty deeds for us. 5

6 FOR THE CHURCH For the church, sent to make disciples of all nations: May we teach what Christ has commanded in the Gospel of love, we pray FOR THE WORLD For all the peoples of earth, created in God s image: May the world find the way to peace in God s statutes and commandments, we pray FOR THOSE OPPRESSED, AFFLICTED OR IN NEED For those enslaved by human oppression or inner fears: May the Spirit within them lead them to the freedom of the children of God, we pray FOR THE NEEDS OF THE LOCAL COMMUNITY For married couples, for parents and children, for those who live in religious or service communities: May their mutual love reflect to all the image of the Triune God, we pray For the sick and suffering members of our community: May they find strength in joining their sufferings to those of Christ and hope in the assurance of being glorified with Christ, we pray FOR THE CHRISTIAN ASSEMBLY For all of us: May our love and service of others bear witness to the nearness of God s abiding love, we pray FOR THE DEAD For those disciples who have died in Christ: Heirs of God, may they live forever in the land God has destined for us, we pray For Jews, Muslims and Christians all over the world, mindful of a common Father-God and a common ancestor in faith, Abraham, that they 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... Let us pray O God most high, in the waters of baptism you made us your sons and daughters in Christ Jesus, your Son. Hear deep within us the cry of the Spirit, who calls out to you Abba, Father. Help us, we pray, to become committed partners in the mission you have charged us with, so that we may go forth to make disciples of all nations. We ask this through Jesus your Son, who lives with you in unity with the Holy Spirit, God forever. Amen With hands and hearts united in gratitude for God s favors on us today, we pray OUR FATHER Life is like a game of hide and seek: we are all either hiding from God or seeking him. Celebrating the Word, Resurrection Ministries 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: website: theword@resurrectionists.ca 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). 6