Most Holy Trinity 2013

ANTIPHON

“Blest be God the Father, and the Only Begotten Son of God, and also the Holy Spirit for He has shown us His merciful love.”

COLLECT

God our Father, Who by sending into the world
the Word of Truth and the Spirit of Sanctification
made known to the human race Your wondrous mystery,
grant us, we pray, that in professing the true faith,
we may acknowledge the Trinity of eternal glory
and adore Your Unity, powerful in majesty.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM (click for full Psalm)

O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8 :2).

SCRIPTURE EXCERPT (Click for all Readings)

“Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,
he will guide you to all truth.
He will not speak on his own,
but he will speak what he hears,
and will declare to you the things that are coming.
He will glorify me,
because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.
Everything that the Father has is mine;
for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine
and declare it to you.” (John 16:12-15)”

REFLECTION

What happens when you hear the phrase, ‘the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity’? Is there a particular word that captures your mind? Many of the undergraduate students that I have in class often get hung up on the word mystery. Many have heard from childhood that the Most Holy Trinity is a mystery and therefore one will never completely understand the reality. The more practical students in the class then say, “so we won’t be studying this and it certainly won’t be on the test! Correct?” “Not so fast,” I caution because the Divine Community of love and life, the singular Divine Unity of three distinct, divine Persons is the very grounding of all reality, all life and all love.

Andrei Rublev's icon of the Holy Trinity in Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Part of the ‘problem’ lies, not in the word mystery itself, but how the word is grasped in Western culture. Mystery was used in the Eastern world to describe a particular way of living. In the Hellenistic world of antiquity, one was ‘initiated into the mysteries.’ Once one’s life began ‘in the mysteries,’ one’s life was different. Mystery in this original Greek context was not primarily focused on the unknowable, but on living what was known of the particular reality that now captivated one’s life. In other words, mystery was a word used to describe a very active and particular way of living life. Sure there were aspects of this living that were unknown, unclear and uncertain. The person living the mysteries knew however that deeper insights and the occasional resolution of the unknown, unclear and uncertain came only by living deeply that which is known.

Consider though how mystery is popularly understood in the West. Mystery is practically synonymous first and foremost with ‘unknowable’ or ‘can't be figured out.’ Further complications arise when these (and others) descriptions of mystery hit the pragmatic and utilitarian approach of Western culture: ‘why bother,’ why waste time trying to figure out the unfirgurable,’ etc. I'll simply take ‘it’ on faith and believe, even though I may have absolutely no idea of what I am saying.

Along with ‘taking the Holy Trinity on faith,’ Christians often try to engage theological algebra: how can 3 be 1, how can 1 be 3? We attempt an explanation with Saint Patrick's shamrock (1 leaf with 3 petals), or water (ice, liquid, steam) or a candle (wax, wick, flame). Early Christianity had its struggles with articulating an acceptable expression of the Incomprehensible. In fourth-century Constantinople, Saint Gregory of Nyssa quipped, “The whole city is full of it, the squares, the marketplaces, the crossroads, the alleyways; rag dealers, money-changers, food-sellers, they are all busy arguing. If you ask someone to give you change, he philosophizes about the Begotten and the Unbegotten; if you inquire about the price of a loaf, you are told by way of reply that the Father is greater and the Son inferior; if you ask, “Is my bath ready?” the attendant answers that the Son was made out of nothing.”

Far from an abstract, heading teaching, the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is an invitation to live life in a particular way, a way that always leads to an intensification of live and love. Saint Gregory of Nyssa in the Life of Moses summed it up this way: “May life thunder loud and pure in the proclamation of the Most Holy Trinity and may life imitate the fruit of the pomegranate!”

PREFACE

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvations,
always and everywhere to give You thanks,
Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God.

For with Your Only Begotten Son and the Holy Spirit
You are One God, One Lord:
not in the unity of a single person,
but in a Trinity of one substance.

For what You have revealed to us of Your glory
we believe equally of Your Son
and of the Holy Spirit,
so that, in confessing of the true and eternal Godhead,
You might be adored in what is proper to each Person,
their unity in substance, and their equality in majesty.

For this is praised by Angels and Archangels,
Cherubim, too, and Seraphim,
who never cease to cry out each day,
as with one voice they acclaim:

A prayer for the people of Oklahoma

As our sisters and brothers deal with the agonizing aftermath of a devastating twister in Oklahoma, may the memory of a storm on the Sea of Galilee (Mark 4:35-41) be an occasion to experience Jesus’ peace and comfort.

SCRIPTURE

“He hushed the storm to silence, the waves of the sea were stilled!” Click for full Psalm.

COLLECT

(This prayer is taken from The Roman Missal, “Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Occasions, #37:  For an End to Storms”)

O God, to Whose commands
all the elements give obedience,
we humbly entreat You,
that the stilling of fearsome storms
may turn a powerful menace
into an occasion for us to praise You.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God,
for ever and ever.

Pray also for the first responders and all involved in locating and rescuing trapped people. If you desire to help with a donation, here is a link to Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.

Pentecost 2013

ANTIPHON

The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Spirit of God dwelling with us, alleluia. (Romans 5:5).

COLLECT

O God,
Who by the mystery of today’s great feast
sanctify Your whole Church in every people and nation,
pour out, we pray, the gifts of the Holy Spirit
across the face of the earth
and, with the Divine grace that was at work
when the Gospel was first proclaimed,
fill now once more the hearts of believers.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM (click for full Psalm)

Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth. Alleluia! (Psalm 104: 30).

SCRIPTURE EXCERPT (click for all readings)

“On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked,
where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them,
“Peace be with you (εἰρήνη ὑμῖν, eirene humin).”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again,
“Peace be with you (εἰρήνη ὑμῖν, eirene humin).
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained (John 20:19-23).”

REFLECTION

What comes to mind when you hear the word peace? Tranquility? Calmness? A serene mind and ‘quiet’ stomach? Absence of conflict, violence and/or war? The list, no doubt, can go on and on and each word or phrase offers insight into a facet of peace. Both history and contemporary life suggest an elusive quality about peace – we appear to work for peace yet if it happens, it seems to vanish quickly. Even our bodies work for peace (biologically termed homeostasis) in which all bodily processes and operations are ‘standing with each other in balance.’ Yet here again, each of us knows well that such a balance is often temporary.

So what are we to make of Jesus’ address, “Peace be with you”?

As with any of Jesus’ words or action, we must begin any study firmly rooted in the world of His day. As a devout practicing Jewish man, Jesus knew His Tradition well particularly in voicing shalom (peace, εἰρήνη eirene in the Gospel) in the Torah and in the Psalms. Biblically, shalom is about “well being” particularly when it comes to the material necessities of life (recall an earlier post describing salvation from a Hebrew perspective: ‘land that is wide, broad and spacious: so wide, so broad and so spacious that it provides all needed resources to live life). Shalom described the condition wherein all the needed resources for life existed in balance: the right amount of farmable land, a sufficient quantity of food and a proper supply of safe drinking water. When all of these (and other) necessities existed AND existed in balance among each other for the good of living, the condition (or state-of-being) of shalom enveloped life. While a number of cultures in the Ancient Near East would have shared some of this understanding of shalom, the Hebrew people knew that such a condition existed only as God’s gift to them. While they knew there was work involved to bring about and maintain the condition of shalom, no amount of work could bring such a condition into existence if God did not first provide the necessary means for shalom.

With the passing of time, many in Israel viewed shalom in a more political way. Shalom embodied a more immediate concern of ‘absence of conflict,’ particularly with another country. Like many of her contemporaries, Israel knew that when she was not engaged in war with another, prosperity often grew and changed the landscape of life for the better. Yet many of the Prophets reminded Israel of her greater call to live the covenant with God-Who-Is-One. Prophetic shalom instructed Israel that while cessation of conflict is good, there is much more to God’s peace than a practical prosperity. A shalom ‘beyond this world’ soon linked with Israel’s Messianic hopes and dreams to the point that the Messiah would eventually be called “He-Who-is-our-shalom.”

In bestowing peace upon the disciples with His address to them, Jesus brings the disciples into a new realm or way of living. The breathing of the Holy Spirit onto and into them not only recalls the “mighty wind sweeping over the waters (Genesis)” at Creation’s birth, but signals an entirely new creation. Imbued with the Holy Spirit, the disciples are drawn more deeply into Trinitarian life and love resulting in being equipped with the necessities for mission, and also to live in a state of “well-being” that unleashes new life, new order, new beauty and new harmony of the Holy Spirit because Jesus is risen and sits now at the right hand of the Father!

Easter, the Seventh Sunday

ANTIPHON

O Lord, hear my voice, for I have called to You; of You my heart has spoken: Seek His Face; hide not Your Face from me, alleluia. (Psalm 27: 7-9).

COLLECT

Graciously hear our supplications, O Lord,
so that we, who believe that the
Savior of the human race is with you in your glory,
may experience, as he promised,
until the end of the world,
his abiding presence among us.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM (click for full Psalm)

The Lord is king, the most high over all the earth. Alleluia! (Psalm 97: 1).

SCRIPTURE EXCERPT (click for all readings)

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:
“Holy Father, I pray not only for them,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
so that they may all be one,
as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
that they also may be in us,
that the world may believe that you sent me.
And I have given them the glory you gave me,
so that they may be one, as we are one,
I in them and you in me,
that they may be brought to perfection as one,
(ἵνα ὦσιν τετελειωμένοι εἰς ἕν, hina osin teteleiomenoi eis en)
that the world may know that you sent me,
and that you loved them even as you loved me.
Father, they are your gift to me.
I wish that where I am they also may be with me,
that they may see my glory that you gave me,
because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Righteous Father, the world also does not know you,
but I know you, and they know that you sent me.
I made known to them your name and I will make it known,
that the love with which you loved me
may be in them and I in them. (John 17:20-26)”

REFLECTION

‘The Week of Easter’ – the 7 Sundays of Easter – always draw to a close on the Seventh Easter with an excerpt from some part of Jesus’ ‘High Priestly Prayer.’ Each of these Easter Sundays has marked a particular aspect of the new creation of Jesus’ resurrection and the transforming power that Jesus, Who is Resurrection and Life, has unleashed in the universe to make all things new in His Father. As God the Creator rested on the seventh day of Creation, the One Who makes all things new rests on Easter 7 by defining the action of that rest: oneness with His Father. But as far as Jesus is concerned, nothing is ever about Him. As the One Who came to serve and not be served, His life is about drawing us as His disciples into the marvelous life He shares with His Father in the love of the Holy Spirit.

While one may get ‘caught up’ in the “I in You, You in me” sayings throughout the prayer, it is vital to recall what is looming on the horizon: the Cross. At the conclusion of the prayer, Jesus will go out across the Kidron valley to a garden and be arrested. He knew what was coming and yet entered deeply into prayer with His Father for us!

Of the petitions woven through the entire Prayer, similar to that of the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6, Jesus prays, “that they may be brought to perfection as one.” The Greek word τετελειωμένοι (teteleiomenoi) is translated here as “perfection.” The word is well worth examining this Sunday as ‘ideas of perfection’ often get us humans into quite a bit of trouble in the quest for the ever elusive ‘perfection.’ τελειόω (teleioo) is a Greek verb that means ‘to complete in a broad manner.’ In early Greek, τελειόω (teleioo) conveyed a sense ‘to accomplish’ or ‘to finish.’ This use of τελειόω (teleioo) often had a particular task in view that was clearly identified and one engaged in a series of steps or actions to bring a desired ‘end’ to the task. Gradually another ‘sense’ of τελειόω (teleioo) evolved epsecially when applied to human life, notably growth in the ‘life of virtue.’ “Accomplish” and “finish,” associated more often with specific tasks, became ‘being complete for living’ when dealing with aspects of human life.

So how is τελειόω (teleioo) to be understood in the context of Jesus’ prayer in John 17? Minimally, “perfection” is NOT attaining or obtaining something or some level and calling it quits. Minimally, “perfection” is NOT establishing a particular goal, setting a series of outcomes and then objectively assessing it through a properly devised rubric and congratulating oneself on meeting the goal or goals. Minimally, Christian “perfection” IS being given all necessary gifts to live radically the oneness of the Father. This flows directly from what Jesus did and said: “I have given them the glory you gave Me.” The question here is not ‘what’ is glory; rather ‘Who’? Saint Gregory of Nyssa’s words from his “Homilies on the Song of Songs” are worth pondering: “In giving “all power” to his disciples by his blessing, in his prayer here to the Father he grants many other favors to those who are holy. And he adds this, which is the crown of all blessings, that in all the diversity of life’s decisions they should never be divided greatly in their choice of the good. And so he prays that all “may be one,” united in a single good so that linked “in the bond of peace,” as the apostle says, through “the unity of the [Holy] Spirit,” all might become “one body and one spirit,” through the “one hope” to which they have all been called. But it would be better here if we would quote the actual words of the Gospel. “That they all may be one,” he says, “as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us.” Now the bond of this unity is glory, and no one who would consider seriously the Lord’s words would deny that this glory is the Holy Spirit. For he says, “The glory that you have given me, I have given to them.” He gave his disciples this glory when he said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And he himself received this glory when he put on human nature, though he had indeed always possessed it since before the beginning of the world. And now that his human nature has been glorified by the Spirit, this participation in the glory of the Spirit is communicated to all who are united with him, beginning with his disciples.”

Easter, the Sixth Sunday

ANTIPHON

Proclaim a joyful sound and let it be heard; proclaim to the ends of the earth: The Lord has freed His people, alleluia. (Psalm 33: 5-6).

COLLECT

Grant, almighty God,
that we may celebrate with heartfelt devotion
these days of joy,
which we keep in honor of the risen Lord,
and that what we relieve in remembrance
we may always hold to in what we do.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM (click for full Psalm)

O God, let all the nations praise you! (Psalm 67: 4).

SCRIPTURE EXCERPT (click for all readings)

“Jesus said to his disciples:
“Whoever loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we will come to him and make
(ποιησόμεθα, poiesometha) our dwelling (μονὴν, monen) with him.
Whoever does not love me does not keep my words;
yet the word you hear is not mine
but that of the Father who sent me.

“I have told you this while I am with you.
The Advocate, the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you everything
and remind you of all that I told you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives do I give it to you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.
You heard me tell you,
‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’
If you loved me,
you would rejoice that I am going to the Father;
for the Father is greater than I.
And now I have told you this before it happens,
so that when it happens you may believe.” (John 14:23-29)”

REFLECTION

Gifts abound in this Easter Sunday Gospel proclamation: an Advocate Who will teach and remind, Peace that is different from the world’s peace, an absence of trouble and fear because the departing Jesus will return. Any one of these Gifts is cause for a lifetime of reflective gratitude expressed in living a life of loving, generous service; but all of them? Yes – and, more as well. The more is a Divine action (making) resulting in a new way of living for humanity (dwelling).

The Greek verb ποιέω (poieo), translated “make” in verse 23, has a wide variety of meanings including “to do,” “to bear,” “to give,” “to hold,” “to put,” and “to work” to name only a few – there are many more! In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures often abbreviated LXX), ποιέω (poieo) is used to translate the Hebrew verb בָּרָא (barah), “to create” which includes actions of ‘speaking’ reality into existence and ‘speaking’ a transforming word to chaos resulting in cosmos, order, harmony and beauty. “To create” would certainly be an appropriate rendering of ποιέω (poieo) in this Sunday’s proclamation given the ‘new creation’ motif woven throughout the Gospel according to Saint John. But there is another aspect of the Text that deserves attention that requires another Greek grammar lesson (ugh!).

In addition to verb forms that at time border on the incomprehensible, another challenge in learning Greek involves grammatical voice. Voice is the term used to describe the relationship of subject and verb, of doer and action. In English, voice is either active or passive. But Greek has another voice that English does not have: the middle voice. Put simply, the middle voice expresses a subject doing a particular action AND a further relationship between subject and action wherein the subject ‘continues’ the action as opposed to an action that is done and over with, a ‘one shot deal.’ The use of the middle voice indicates that the ‘subject’ is not leaving and the work the subject is doing will not be finished anytime soon.

Thus the “dwelling (μονὴν, monen)” that God the Father and Jesus ‘will create’ is forever an active, energizing ‘work in progress.’ μονή (mone), translated here as “dwelling,” expresses a particular place used as one’s residence, a place to stay. As a noun, μονή (mone) is related grammatically to the Greek verb μένω (meno, “to stay”), a verb that has deep meaning in the Johannine Text. For the Evangelist, μονή (mone) is not simply a convenient place to live. Both μονή (mone) and μένω (meno) often indicate the realm of Divine living that – in the case of Jesus and His re-creative work – extends an invitation to humanity. Yet what is so notable is that humanity does not go to the Divine abode, the Divine comes to humanity … AND remains creating an ever richer dwelling place within the lives of all who keep Jesus’ life-giving and life-changing word.