“And when Jesus had been baptized, and just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and hovering over him. … And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” – Matt 3.16-17. Once, at a Knights’ potluck event, I asked people how they might define the Trinity. One person at my table said, “Well the best thing to do is to pray to the Holy Spirit, because he has all the energy and power and ‘know-how’ to get things done.” The person next to them said, “Well, I don’t know about that! I pray to Jesus, because he has always answered my prayers without fail. After all, he was human just like us. He knows the trouble we get into.” A third said, “Well, that’s all fine and good, but I just pray to God, himself, nothing fancy, in the same old way my parents and grandparents have for years!” Well, the discussion soon wrapped up, … because it was time to grab ‘seconds’! There’s nothing quite like a breakfast buffet hosted by our Knights of Columbus! Of course, the Trinity is one of the greatest mysteries of our faith, debated from the earliest days of the Church. The word, Trinity, itself, is not even in the bible, but was first spoken by 3rd C church father, Tertullian, who used the term, derived from the Latin word, Trinitas, to define the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit as the Trinity in his theological doctrine, though not completely accepted even in his own time. Meantime, like the poor, mystified disciples we, too, must mainly rely on the words of Christ himself who tried perhaps desperately to explain how God the Father is in him, he is in the Father, and the Holy Spirit is one with both of them. Still, the responses of my friends at the table are remarkable, because they support the belief of most theological scholarship today: that the three persons of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, are in ‘relationship’ with each other, and in relationship with each one of us in a very personal way. Maybe we do encounter God as our true Father who loves us as any loving father does, the parent from whom we came; or maybe we treasure Jesus, the Son, as our true brother, companion, and friend. It is he who gave us the life-giving principals which enrich our lives, who leads us to the Father; or maybe we lean on the Holy Spirit who sustains us and protects us, igniting spiritual fire in our hearts, while binding us together as brothers and sisters in his loving embrace. Whatever relationship we have with God, what I like to call “a divine friendship” we have with God, it has never been more important to pour our hearts into it, to cultivate it, to feed that joyful connection with him whom the psalmists call their rock, their refuge. … Because we may have never needed our father, our brother, our loving spirit, … our divine friend, so much as we need them now. It isn’t easy to bear the grim complexity and dark unknown of a global pandemic; to stand up to the perpetrators of violence and racial injustice which have injured either ourselves or the neighbours we love from different worlds and cultures; or to remain calm, resilient, and steadfast in the face of an economic crisis. But you and I have a friend, a divine friend, one with immeasurable power beyond our understanding. And he will take care of us, … because he loves us! “When Israel sought rest, the Lord appeared from afar. ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I continue my faithfulness to you.’” – Jer 31.2-3. But God will be bending his ear to hear if we are calling him. Are we seeking his help in silence, prayer, and meditation, asking him to quell our anger, to calm the waves of our impatience, to give rest to our panick-stricken hearts? Ps 37.4: “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Friends, the Trinity is about relationship. And so, the Trinity is Friendship. Especially now, in the mystical rooms of your vibrant, pulsating inner hearts, reach out to your Divine Friend who is love itself, and he will refresh you. Rev Fr Christopher Tracey, Pastor Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Parish Saugeen Shores, Ontario
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Father's Blog
Rev. Fr. Christopher Tracey
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