Bulletin, June 7, 2020; Most Holy Trinity

Dear Friends at Saint Frances Cabrini and Saint Mary’s Immaculate Conception Parishes:
 
Praised be Jesus Christ!  This year on this first Sunday of June, and the first Sunday following Pentecost, the Church around the world celebrates the Solemn Feast of the Most Holy Trinity.  On one level this may seem a bit of a redundancy since it is true that every single celebration of Mass, indeed every single prayer, is both made possible by, and centers on the Holy Trinity.  Why devote a celebration just to it?
 
One reason is that it can be easy at times for us in the Western Latin Catholic Church to become almost exclusively mindful of Jesus in our prayers and devotions to the point where we may be less focused on the reality that Jesus does not exist in isolation.  He is the only begotten Son of God, and with the Father he sends and gives the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is Lord as one of the co-equal persons of the communion of the Holy Trinity.  Eastern Orthodox Christians tend to be much more mindful than we are of the trinitarian mystery in their liturgies and prayers because of how the prayers are written.  This Sunday’s feast is something of a nod in the Western mindset to a dogma that we might otherwise not pay much attention to, which seems odd since it is at the heart of our faith.
 
Having this Solemn feast land now, after Pentecost, seems especially fitting in light of what the Church has recently prayed its way through:  Lent and Easter.  Among so many other things, Lent and Easter are deep meditations on the revelation of the Father, through the willing sacrifice of the Son, who is raised and glorified by the Father.  As the Son enters, in union with the will of the Father, into death, and is raised again from death, and returns to the Father in the Ascension, the Holy Spirit is given to the world in a permanent and abiding manner.  Pentecost is something of an exclamation point on what has been already proclaimed for weeks now: that the love and presence of God rushes forth from the heavens and into the earth.  
 
After all of those beautiful liturgical mysteries are laid open for us, the Church summarizes it all, so to speak, with this weekend’s celebration.  Praised be the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and for all eternity.  Amen!