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Trinity Sunday Yr B

Have you ever wondered about the meaning of the word “god”? It’s not a name even if we do use it as one. It’s an ancient language word which means ‘the one who calls’. The one who calls to each of us in our hearts to experience perfect love and fullness of life. In our Catholic faith, it is to God that we raise our minds and hearts in worship and praise and petition. Today’s feast of the Trinity, God as three persons but one substance, is something we begin wondering about from an early age and then continue to do so into old age. At times we think we may have an understanding that will satisfy our search, only to start wondering again a little while later. None of us, including all the great theologians, will ever be able to give a complete understanding of the Trinity. We must be satisfied with using images to talk about the Trinity. After all, the Trinity, God, is forever calling us into a deeper experience of that perfect love and unity they have as Father, Son and Spirit.

For me, one of the best images I have for understanding the Trinity is that of the love of family – most of us have experienced the love of a mother, a father, grandparents, uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters. No one person in the family has all the love, but all the love is part of the one family. The family’s way of loving each other is so important for the wellbeing of all its members. And together, the family can face any challenge that life throws at them. I am very aware that some people have not had the best of experiences in their family life, but they still yearn for a good family, a loving family and can even work at making a family of love for themselves.

The Trinity is like the family, not one has all the love but all have love and make their presence felt in our lives. At the beginning of creation, God said let us make man in our own image and likeness, and so he did, he made them male and female. The result was that all God’s love, the love of the Trinity was showered upon the human race as a mirror of the Trinity’s love. All of us mirror the life and love of the Trinity, and it is our mission in life to shine that love onto others and our world.

St John says it perfectly in three words in one of his letters – God is love. Let us always examine our loving to ensure that we are continuously loving like the Trinity – the parental love which calls out the best in every person, the sacrificial love which always puts the other first and the animating love that empowers all of us to seek the ways of God in every situation we face each day.

God calls us continuously to experience his love for us and God empowers us to love as he has loved us. The Trinity have watched over the human family since our first parents. They have seen us in all the good we have done as well as in all the evil we have chosen. The Trinity’s love for the human family has given us Jesus Christ who lived his humanity perfectly and then made the perfect sacrifice to redeem all of us. And God , the Trinity, is still calling us today to live that redemption in order that every human being can say that God is love.

Let us pray to Father, Son and Spirit for the courage to live our lives as witnesses to the Trinity’s will for each of us. May we desire always to conform our will with God’s will for us and our human family.

Feast of Corpus Christi Yr B

The Body and Blood of Christ

1^st 2^nd June 2024

Fr Mick’s Homily 

Almost immediately after the return of Jesus to the Father, the Apostles and other disciples of Jesus began to break bread in honour of him. Those taking part would recall Jesus’ teachings, ask for his intercession in their prayers and then break the bread and share the cup, experiencing a new type of presence of Jesus in their lives. He was with them because they did what he asked them to do, in remembrance of him. Jesus became present to them and walked and talked among them still. The real presence of Jesus that we talk about today in relation to Holy Communion was never in doubt. He is truly present in his body and blood, veiled in the bread and the cup of wine.

It didn’t take long at all for the early Church to proclaim that Jesus’ blood, which he shed in his passion and on the Cross was truly the new and everlasting covenant that God had established for all people no matter what tribe or tongue or nation they came from. As early as the 100’s we have examples of the teaching about the Eucharist – Holy Communion, the different rituals that were used and even some of the prayers they prayed. The second Eucharist Prayer dates to this time.

For us today we celebrate Mass for three reasons – it unites us to Jesus and to one another, it reveals to us God’s will for each of our lives and it gives us Christ to share with our world. What are some of the special moments you have had in all the Masses you have celebrated in your life so far? Can you point to various miracles you have experienced in some of those Masses? The Mass itself is a miracle for all of us. What would we do without it? What must we do with it?

As a priest, it is a great privilege to be able to lead you in the worship and praise of God and to allow the Holy Spirit through the actions and words of the Eucharistic Prayer to effect the changes in the bread and the wine to become the living body and blood of Jesus. It is also for priests, a serious challenge to always welcome others who wish to partake of Christ Jesus.

Our Scripture readings for this feast concentrate on the meaning behind this precious gift to us. The blood of the old covenant, from sacrificed animals, was used by Moses to bind the people to the laws of God revealed to them at Mt Sinai after their freedom from slavery in Egypt. Christ’s blood, shed at Calvary not only sealed a new relationship between God and his people, it became the way for all of us to know we can be forgiven of our sins and made new creations to take the love of God out into our world and transform it into a world of peace and justice. All of us, from the youngest to the oldest, are asked to be agents of that transformation. Christ’s perfect sacrifice becomes a pathway for us into a new existence.

In two weeks time at all of the Parish Masses we will initiate eighty-five young parishioners into the Eucharistic life – a life where they work to transform, with the presence of Jesus in them, their world. Let us celebrate with them and renew our own commitment to the Eucharistic life.

The response to our Psalm this weekend can be a prayer and a commitment to this life – I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord. The salvation of course is the salve, the ointment of God’s healing love for all the troubles in our world. Let’s spread it thickly on our world so it can have its effect in the lives of all people.