Rejoicing in Love

“Brothers and sisters, rejoice. 
Mend your ways, encourage one another,
agree with one another, live in peace,
and the God of love and peace will be with you.”

2 Corinthians 13:11

The first Sunday following Pentecost Sunday the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. We will perhaps hear homilies at Mass about the essence of the Trinity, about how our God is three divine Persons in One God, and many different analogies explaining the life of the Trinity and how each of the three Persons are distinct yet one. We may hear how St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Trinity, explaining each of the leaves to be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yet all held together by the one and same stem. Or maybe we will hear how St. Augustine described the Trinity as a community of love where the Father is the Lover, the Son is the Beloved, and the Holy Spirit as the Love that is present. Whether we prefer the theological explanation of the Oneness of the Trinity or the emphasis on the personal attributes of the distinct Divine Persons of the Trinity, at the core of why we celebrate Trinity Sunday is to remind ourselves of one very simple but profound truth: that God is Love and that we were created in that love, for that love, and so we rejoice.

Let’s not treat the Trinity as a concept to be grasped or a problem to be solved, but rather a mystery to be appreciated and experienced. God is love and we who are made in His image and likeness and are baptized share in this very love. Just as the Trinity is a community of love we, the Church, should also be a community of love for we ought the reflect our Creator. So, are we people of love? In order to truly love, we must first allow ourselves to be loved by God. It is only in encountering God in His love and mercy will our hearts be able to beat not simply for ourselves, but for God and His people.

Brothers and sisters, I pray you will allow God to love you today. I pray that you know and believe that you are loved. When we have come to encounter this love — in prayer, in the sacraments, in our daily living — our lives will be changed. Our fears will be calmed by faith. Our hatred will be washed over by mercy. Our selfishness will be undone by the sacrifice of the Cross. Our despair will be lost in hope. Our darkness will be scattered by the Light. In other words, as St. Paul said, it will truly be Christ who lives in us. And, when we know that it is Christ — Love and Life itself — who lives in us, how can we not rejoice?

Living in the Spirit

“All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. You did not receive a spirit of slavery leading you back into fear, but a spirit of adoption through which we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’”

Romans 8:14-15

The fiftieth day after Easter the Church celebrates Pentecost Sunday. It is on this day that the Church is born. In other words, Pentecost is the “birthday of the Church.” I have always found it interesting that some other feast or solemnity is not the “birthday” of the Church, such as the Annunciation or Easter. However, it is most fitting that Pentecost Sunday is the birthday of the Church for on this day, the Holy Spirit, the promised Advocate, descended upon the Apostles and all those gathered with them and all were able to understand what each other was saying in their own language. You see, it was on this day that the Holy Spirit broke through the barrier that separated the people, liken to undoing the effects of the Tower of Babel, where now they all spoke one language, a language that transcends words, a language that is rooted in THE WORD, a language that is love and God Himself.

In God, all are one. Jesus prayed “that all might be one,” and it is the Holy Spirit that will guide all peoples to this reality. Just as Jesus appeared to the Apostles in the Upper Room despite the doors being locked, the Holy Spirit breaks through the barriers that keep us from experiencing the love of God. Our fallen human nature keeps us from allowing God to love us because it is prone to believing in the lies of the Enemy that we are not worthy or that God simply cannot love us in our sinfulness. But we must remember that though that may be true, Our Lord has assumed our human nature and has redeemed it! Jesus restored to us the likeness after which we were created. We are not just another creation of God, we are His sons and daughters.

St. Paul reminds us that if we are truly to live as sons and daughters of God, we must be led by the Spirit. We must be honest with ourselves. What are the spirits or voices we allow to dictate our daily lives? Do we pay attention to the voices that cause division and that breaks us down or do we find comfort in the voice that says, “You are my beloved and with you I am well pleased”? Do we listen to the voice that calls us by our sins or the Voice that calls us by name? How about our actions? Do our actions show that we are followers of Christ or do they show that we are still enslaved to the world?

Brothers and sisters, we must reclaim our identity in Christ. We must remember that we are co-heirs with Christ, we are sons and daughters of the Father. We have been made new the blood of Jesus Christ and washed clean in the waters of baptism. We ought dwell no longer in the shadows cast in darkness. It is time for us to live in the Light, to live in the Spirit, that which animates us, that breath that God breathed into us that makes us living. The Spirit comes to us today once again. The Lord breathes on us. He breathes into us His very life, His very Spirit. May we cry out today, “Abba, Father!” and choose to live as beloved sons and daughters of the Father. When we choose to live as such, then truly there can be no barriers, for then we are truly free in our love and we become one in Christ, one in the Spirit.

The Good Shepherd

“I am the good shepherd,
and I know mine and mine know me,
just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.”

John 10:14-15a

First published as “Do You Know The Lord” on April 21, 2024.

On the Fourth Sunday of Easter the Church celebrates “Good Shepherd Sunday,” because we hear the Gospel in which the Lord says He is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. There exists between the shepherd and the sheep a unique bond and relationship. The sheep relies entirely on the shepherd. They know the shepherd will be there to protect them. The shepherd loves his sheep. As Christians, we are the sheep of the flock of the Good Shepherd. Do we know Him?

Jesus says that He knows His [sheep] and they know Him, but do we really know Him? Do we really know the voice of the Good Shepherd? Perhaps the more important question is do we see ourselves as the sheep of the Good Shepherd? Only when we see ourselves as sheep will we acknowledge the need for a shepherd. As Christians we are called to follow the Lord, to walk in His footsteps, and to live out our lives so that others might come to encounter Him in us. We must bear the face of Christ in our lives. We must remember that who we are and who we are called to be is rooted in Jesus, the Christ, the Good Shepherd. How well do our lives reflect Jesus Christ?

In order to follow the Good Shepherd we must learn to hear His voice. There are many voices that call out to us in our daily lives — the voice of God, our own voice, the voices of those whom we love, the voices that lead us to sin. In today’s world the voices that tell us to seek what gives us pleasure and to do what we please is quite loud, drowning out not just the voice of reason in our hearts, but also the Voice of the Good Shepherd that seeks to bring us peace. When we attune our hearts to the frequency of this world and its fleeting pleasures, we forget who we are, that we are the sheep of the One who cries out to us.

The voice of the Good Shepherd and the voice of the world do not exist on the same wavelength. We must choose to turn the dial to the frequency that speaks truth and love and peace. Only then will we be able to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. When we finally hear His voice, we will be able to know Him more and more intimately. When we hear His Voice, we will be led to His Word; when we come to read His Word, we will come to know Him, and when we know Him, He will lead us to His heart, which beats for love of us. The Good Shepherd calls out to you. He knows you. Do you know Him?