Sunday Homilies by Fr. Rudolf V. D’ Souza

  Click here for other Sunday Homilies 

TRINITY SUNDAY - 2007
June 3, 2007
Year: C
Prov 8:22-31; Rom 5:1-5; Jn 16:12-5
Honouring the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

A little girl walked daily to and from school. Though the weather this particular morning was questionable and clouds were forming, she made her trek to the elementary school. As the afternoon progressed, the winds whipped up, along with thunder and lightning.

The child's mother, concerned that her daughter would be frightened and possibly harmed by the storm got into her car and drove along the route to her child's school.

As she did so, she saw her little daughter walking along happily but at each flash of lightning the child would stop, look up, and smile.

Stopping the car, the mother called to the child to get in with her. As they drove toward school, the girl continued to turn toward each lightning flash and smile.

The Mother asked, "What are you doing?"

The child answered, "Well, I must do this, God keeps taking pictures of me."

REFLECTIONS

God the Father – Creator
The creative action of God should always be reflected in our communities. It is the work of creation. Any community should be creative and not stagnant. If our communities are not creative, then they will become static, dull, melancholic and depressive. There is need for renewal and refreshment. Look at the world around where there is such a lot of creativity. We experience the seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. There is this cycle of seasons to break the monotony. There ought to be creativity in our communities. Well, the seasons themselves contribute to a kind of change in our life but then when we speak of the spiritual life we need to keep an eye on creativity, being energetic, enthusiastic and lively, finding out ways and means of making the community a reflection of God’s creative act. We need to learn something from the creatures around us, how they get themselves adjusted to all the changes. They know that life can be interesting when they keep themselves abreast with all the changes around. We are called to be creative in our thinking, approach to life, people, situations and circumstances. This will enhance our capacity to be like God the Father as Jesus has invited us to “be ye perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect.”

Jesus the Redeemer
He redeems. He redeems us daily through our contact with him. The whole task of Jesus was to redeem others. He redeemed people from their ignorance through his teaching and preaching; he redeemed people possessed by demons. He redeemed them from their selfishness and slavery to money and passions (Zaccheus and the Samaritan woman).

We ought to become redeemers. This ought to be the vocation of every consecrated person in the community. Redemption begins at home more than in society. If our communities are not free from all the infirmities we cannot expect to free our society. Redemption begins first at home. It ought to start every day when the day begins. At the end of the day we must see that some evil from our community is eliminated. This is the proof that we really work at redemption of mankind and participate in the very mission of Christ our Lord.

Holy Spirit Sanctifies
The Holy Spirit does not sanctify us without our willingness to be sanctified. He respects our freedom and expects our generous hearts to be open for his operations. Hence we need to be open and generous. The Spirit of the Lord operates whenever we are kind, gentle, peace-loving, patient, compassionate, forgiving, and sincere. You cannot expect others to be kind to you if you have never shown kindness. How can the Spirit of God enter into you when you yourself are not kind? Well, if you have the habit of losing patience at every moment and with everyone you meet, how can you expect to experience patience from others? If you have never been compassionate with your community members can you expect compassion from others? The work of the Holy Spirit begins within you and you need to prepare yourself so that the fruits are seen, visible to others.

We ought to become sanctifiers. This signifies that evil must be cast out and good must be allowed to grow. This is easily said than done. Well, there are ways of how you can sanctify your life as well as the life of others. You can open your eyes and your whole person to your environment. You will find innumerable opportunities to sanctify others and yourself. How? See for yourself. When you see that things are not in order, it is a simple act of putting them in order, arranging the table, cleaning a dirty corner, adjusting the hanging curtain, picking up a piece of paper from the floor and trying to keep the surrounding neat and clean. You have already participated in the work of sanctification. Working for others, doing anonymous service is a participation in the work of the Holy Spirit. This will give you opportunities to experience peace, joy and happiness in your heart.

When we speak of community life, we must speak in terms of ‘life’, which is dynamic and not stagnant. In anything dynamic there ought to be changes and there is need for movement towards love and service.

Life Is a Movement from One to the Other
God created the human person. He moved everything to create life.  Life is God’s masterpiece, which cannot be replicated by any person or creature in any laboratory. It is a pure gift of love. It is life that really gives interest and satisfies. Look at a fluffy bird or a well-fed puppy moving and jumping around. You would spend a lot of time with those lively creatures. That is life. We see life in something and we become curious about it. Scientists and astronomers are interested in finding whether there is life in outer space as if there is not enough life on our planet. It is only by our movement towards the other that life in the community becomes interesting. This movement should be the ultimate concern of everyone in the community. If you do not move towards the other, you cannot expect that the other will move towards you. This is what we call movement of the Holy Spirit.

Community Is Unity and Solidarity
The true spirit of unity is seen in the Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, working together for one sole purpose of glorifying the human person created in their own image. Where brothers or sisters live together and become one body in Christ. There is absolutely no reason for us to feel lonely and isolated. It’s all a question of becoming aware of our origins, our family and our surroundings. God has provided us with richer environment to experience his love. This could not without difficulty have been possible if we had continued our existence in our own family. God has called you to be an instrument of unity and solidarity.

Community Is for Sharing
God has abundantly blessed mankind with so many good things in life. He saw that the human person could grow and mature only through sharing. He gave us his life and he gave his only Son to be the mediator and redeemer. God found that everything he created was good. He was happy. Where does our unhappiness spring from? Our relationships precisely mirror our satisfaction, or lack of it, with life itself. When we are unhappy, most often it's because we don't have satisfying relationships. The act of sharing means that we are beginning to let go of our clinging and greed; we are loosening our tendency to hang on to whatever we have. There are many different kinds of things, both outer and inner, that we can give. We can learn to let go on many levels; some of our most valuable gifts, of course, are inner gifts "of spirit and love”, which are best enjoyed by being shared. The more we have, the more we have to give. And the more we can give, the more we receive, as everyone knows.

When Jesus, for example, preached the Beatitudes and spoke to people about God’s kingdom, he simply made clear issues like friendliness and loving-kindness, positive intentions, ethics, wise speech, right livelihood, forgiveness, justice, and right action. This has everything to do with relationship. The spiritual path isn't just about explicit religious formalities, rites, and rituals. Nor is it exclusively about mystical experience and meditative epiphanies. Most of it is all about learning how to live an enlightened, loving life, day-to-day. The day-to-day antidote to alienation and loneliness is connection. The day-to-day practice or exercise that brings this about is reaching out and making genuine contact—touching and being touched. 

Jesus’ life was a life of movement, sharing, prayer, solidarity, communion, and love. You can take any page of the Gospels and you will always find always these values vibrant and clear. 

Trinitarian Life
Hence, first of all the life of the community, first of all should be trinitarian. This dimension must exist in each community and spread its fragrance everywhere in the community, in the dining-hall, in the chapel, in the recreation hall, in the library, in your yard, corridors, kitchen, garden, roof and floor of your community. At the end of the day all the members must feel united in the bond of the Trinity. Whenever we begin a day with “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” there is a desire or there should be a desire to begin the day with the spirit of unity and end the day with the same prayer means that we let ourselves to enter into the unity of the Trinity so that our life is always united with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

Warmth of God
Don’t we all need to feel the light and warmth that emanates from others? Don’t we all want true love? Don’t we all hunger for genuine communication, and deeper and more authentic connections? Don’t we all recognize that the quality of our individual lives is determined by the quality of our relationships both external and internal? When our relationships are superficial, we feel as though we are leading superficial lives; when our relationships reflect our deeper commitments and aspirations, we feel as though we are walking a more meaningful and satisfying path. 

Some of our relationships seem deep and meaningful; others are merely casual. But on the spiritual level, they are all important; they can all be deepened and improved on. Relationships are essential for ongoing growth and development. They help us find meaning and purpose; they help us experience love – human as well as divine. Learning to love is the first lesson in spirituality. The connections we make as we live our personal lives offer us the opportunity to acknowledge and connect to the divine in ourselves as well as in others. Ask yourself: Whom did I love today?

My brothers and sisters in Christ, in recognition of your presence here today to celebrate the Feast of Trinity Sunday, may the grace of God shine on you abundantly.

Trinity Sunday, the first Sunday after Pentecost, was instituted to honour the Most Holy Trinity. The early Church did not honour the Trinity by a special Office or day. When the Arian heresy was at its height, an Office with canticle, responses, a Preface, and hymns was composed by the Fathers, and recited on Sundays.

Regarding the Arian heresy, known as "Arianism," it was a heresy propagated by Arius who denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ. He regarded the Son of God as standing midway between God and creatures; not like God without a beginning, but possessing all other Divine perfections, not of one essence, nature, substance with the Father and therefore not like him in Divinity. In 325 A.D., the Council of Nicea adopted the Doctrine of the Divinity of Christ which expressed the identity of the Son in essence, nature, substance with the Father. 

In view of all this, Trinity Sunday is celebrated once a year, during which time the readings from the Holy Scriptures place emphasis of the Three Divine Persons of the Blessed Trinity.

Today's Gospel from St. John reaffirms the three fold action of the Blessed Trinity in our lives. Both, the Father and the Son have sent the Holy Spirit in the world as the Spirit of truth to guide us into the truth. As Jesus did not speak of His own, but spoke of what He heard from the Father, the Holy Spirit also will not speak on His own, but he speaks of what He hears.

We heard Jesus say, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." From these words, we learn that while "Revelation is already complete in Jesus Christ, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries." (CCC. No. 66)

My brothers and sisters, before proceeding with the celebration of the Holy Mass, I would like to ask you to take the time this week to reflect upon the Blessed Trinity. Take any event in your life, be it related to your faith, your marriage, your employment, or even the birth of a child, and ask yourself the following question. "How was the love of God manifested in this event through the Blessed Trinity?" "What was the role of the Heavenly Father?" "What was the role of Jesus?" "What was the role of the Holy Spirit?" And when you come to perceive the individual roles of each Person of the Blessed Trinity, take a moment to thank God for His priceless involvement in this event of your life. Of course, life itself is the most precious gift from the HOLY TRINITY to us.

  Click here for other Sunday Homilies