The Unfathomable Mystery of Love and Communion

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

The Father glorified his obedient Son through the Resurrection. The Son returned to his Father and sits at his right hand. From the throne of the Father, the Son sent the Holy Spirit to complete the work of salvation. Now, the revelation of the true God being completed, we honor this great God, three Persons and yet united in Divinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “This Sunday of the Most Holy Trinity, in a certain sense sums up God's revelation which was brought about through the Paschal Mysteries: Christ's death and Resurrection, his Ascension to the right hand of the Father and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.” (Benedict XVI, Angelus, 30 May 2010.)

For many, today is a very difficult feast to celebrate inasmuch as our tendency today is to be very “heady” or “conceptual” about the Trinity. To many Catholics, the Holy Trinity is some idea which we memorize through our catechism. We study, discuss, and even debate on the Trinity to the point that we fail to keep in mind that the when we speak of the Trinity, we speak of 3 Persons in 1 God. I think that this is the key to appreciate the Trinity: He is 3 Persons. What is a person? A person is someone who knows and loves. A person is not a something but a someone. I am a person. Each angel or each demon is a person. But God…He is not a person but 3 Persons. Far from being simply an idea that tickles your intellect, God is a Communion of Persons who live in a relationship among themselves and also with us. The interior life of the 3 Persons is very much a mystery to us. This much we know: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live in mutual self-giving. The mystery of the Blessed Trinity is very much the unfathomable mystery of Love and Communion. The 3 Divine Persons are not mindless and stoic figures. Their personal names, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, tell us that they are in a relationship. The 1^st Person’s name is Father because he has a Son. The 2^nd Person’s name is Son because he is born of the Father. The Holy Spirit is the mutual love that Father and Son share with each other. The Holy Trinity is a perfect communion of 3 Persons in life and love. In mutual sharing, the Persons of the Trinity glorify each other: “(The Holy Spirit) will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine…” The 1^st reading from the Book of Proverbs has an even more moving insight into this relationship between the Father and the Son. The Son (the Wisdom of God) speaks of the creation of the world: “there was I beside him as his craftsman, and I was his delight day by day, playing before him all the while, playing on the surface of his earth; and I found delight in the human race!”

The Trinity invites us to enter and share in this communion of life and love. The 3 Persons know us and wish to be known by us. The 3 Persons love us and wish to be loved by us. We enter and share in the communion of the Blessed Trinity through the Holy Spirit who began to dwell in us through Baptism. Being the Spirit of Truth who guides us to all truth, he makes the Blessed Trinity known to us. Being the love of God who is poured into our hearts, the Holy Spirit makes us experience the Trinity’s love for us and transforms our will to love the Trinity who reveals himself to us. The Holy Spirit brings us to encounter the Blessed Trinity. Our Christian Faith is born out of this encounter. We do not encounter an idea, or a concept. We encounter the living Persons of the one God: the Father who adopts us and makes us his children; the Son who redeems us and affiliates us into his mystical Body which is the Church; and the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us and who is our closest and most reliable friend and Sanctifier. Our Christian life on earth should be a lifetime of knowing and loving and serving the Blessed Trinity. How wonderful is our Catholic faith! By this faith, “we have gained access…to this grace by which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit vs. Demonic Possession

As we are in the Octave of Pentecost, it is good to continue meditating on the Indwelling of the Holy

Spirit. We said that God could not have made another way to be closer to us than what he does in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He does not come to stand above or below us. Nor does he stand before nor behind us nor beside us. he dwells in us.

As we talk about the Holy Spirit, we have to clarify what we mean by "spirit". Ordinarily, people associate "spirit" with ghosts. And we can partly agree with this for in former times, we used to refer to the 3rd Person of the Trinity as "Holy Ghost." But on account of the fact that English is a living language, the nuance of "ghost" has changed for the frightening. And so we now say "Holy Spirit".

But what do we mean by "spirit"?  A spirit is a disembodied being that knows and wills. Angels and demons are spirits. The Holy Spirit is obviously a spirit. The difference between them is that angels and demons are created spirits (they are creatures) while the Holy Spirit is uncreated (He is God). The difference between angels and demons is that the angelic mind is oriented towards the Truth while the demonic mind is oriented towards a Lie. The angelic will is inclined towards the Good while the demonic will is inclined towards evil. Of course, the Holy Spirit's mind is the Truth (He is the Spirit of Truth) and His will is the Good (He is Holy). 

The Holy Spirit dwells in our souls. We received him on the day of our Baptism. He dwells in our souls to transform our minds and orient them to the Truth (who is God). He dwells in our souls to transform our will and orient it to the Good (who is God). 

On the other hand, in a demonic possession, the demon takes over (dwells) in the human body and not in the soul. His objective is very simple...he wants to kill and destroy. The father of the possessed boy said to Jesus: "It has often thrown him into fire and water to kill him." (Mk. 9 - Monday 7th Wk in Ord Time). But of course, while the devil can make the body of the possessed his plaything, he cannot enter the soul where the Holy Spirit dwells unless...the person opens the door of the soul and lets the devil enter. The devil is like a roaring lion in search for someone to devour. But he stays outside the heart until the door is opened from within and he is invited to enter. This happens in the person's willful cooperation with the devil in mortal sin. And when the door of the soul is opened to let the devil in, the person closes his heart to the Holy Spirit and rejects Him. Jesus himself said, "No one can serve two masters. He will love one and despise the other..." In mortal sin, the person loses the indwelling of the Holy Spirit whom he rejects and drives away. Losing the Holy Spirit who is the Giver of Life, the soul dies. Thus, the plan of the devil is accomplished because he came to kill and destroy. This is the reason why mortal sin is called "mortal" - it kills the soul.

The only way to revive the dead soul is by the sacrament of Confession. In the Sacrament of Confession, the Holy Spirit returns to his dwelling in response to the contrition of the penitent. the Holy Spirit brings about the forgiveness of sins and also he infuses the Divine Life into the soul. Thus, He restores what sin has taken away and once again He transform the person's mind and heart unto the mind and heart of Christ.

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is God's most precious gift to us. Let us take care of this gift. Let us preserve the Divine Life in us through regular confession and frequent communion.

The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

Pentecost, which celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit, completes the Easter mysteries which we have been preparing for 40 days of Lent and have been celebrating for 50 days of Easter. And this is indeed a fitting completion. We have to keep in mind the very reason for both the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery of our Lord. The Creed says: for us and for our salvation… The work of the Son of God was to restore to us everything that was robbed from us by sin and this is basically the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. When God created man from the earth, man did not become a living being not until the Creator breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. This Divine Breath is the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life. (“Breath” is Latin is “Spiritus”) The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the manifestation of the intimate relationship which man enjoyed with God at the beginning. Sin destroyed this intimate relationship. Man closed his heart to God. The Holy Spirit, the Giver of Life, was driven away. And so St. Paul says: Sin entered into the world, and together with sin entered death.

Thus, the Son of God became man, suffered, died, and rose from the dead. His purpose is to reconcile us to God…to restore our broken relationship with the Father. And the coming of the Holy Spirit marks this restored relationship. “I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always…and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our dwelling in him.” The Lord clearly speaks of a relationship: “Whoever loves me will keep my word and my Father will love him.” Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection restored us to a loving relationship with God. We are no longer in enmity with God. God loves us and we love him by keeping the Lord’s commandments. But this love does not consist simply in exchange of words. It is something deeper: “We will come to him and make our dwelling in him.” This love involves the indwelling of God. God could not be any closer to us than this. He does not come to stand above us, before us, behind us, or beside us. He comes to dwell IN us. He dwells in us as in a temple. The indwelling of the Holy Trinity is brought about by the dwelling of the Holy Spirit in our souls. The Holy Spirit is “sent from the Father and the Son as the seal of their love for me…” That the Holy Spirit once again dwells in our souls already is the sign that the damage caused by sin is now being restored. The coming of the Holy Spirit brings about the forgiveness of sins. He once more breathes the Divine Life into our souls. His light dispels the darkness of ignorance in us. But most of all, He assures us of God’s love and friendship. The Holy Spirit is the love of God poured into our hearts. As we have said, the Holy Spirit, who is the Power from on high, is the Power greater than what the world recognizes as might. The Holy Spirit is the Power of Love. This Love is now dwelling in us. He assures us that we are never alone. He assures us that we are not despised. Our Companion and Friend, the Holy Spirit will never fail us, nor abandon us. 

“The soul’s most welcome guest, sweet refreshment here below; in our labor, rest most sweet; grateful coolness in the heat; solace in the midst of woe” “O most blessed Light divine, shine within these hearts of yours, and our inmost being fill” Alleluia.

Jesus, I trust in you. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Pope Francis to the Confraternities

In Zenit is the translation of the Holy Father's Homily on the Day of Confraternities celebrated in St. Peter's Square on 5 May 2013:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

It is brave of you to come here in this rain … May the Lord bless you abundantly!
As part of the journey of the Year of Faith, I am happy to celebrate this Eucharist dedicated in a special way to confraternities: a traditional reality in the Church, which in recent times has experienced renewal and rediscovery. I greet all of you with affection, particularly the confraternities which have come here from all over the world! Thank you for your presence and your witness!

In the Gospel we heard a passage from the farewell discourses of Jesus, as related by the evangelist John in the context of the Last Supper. Jesus entrusts his last thoughts, as a spiritual testament, to the apostles before he leaves them. Today’s text makes it clear that Christian faith is completely centred on the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Whoever loves the Lord Jesus welcomes him and his Father interiorly, and thanks to the Holy Spirit receives the Gospel in his or her the popular piety of which you are an important sign is a treasure possessed by the Church, which the bishops of Latin America defined, significantly, as a spirituality, a form of mysticism, which is "a place of encounter with Jesus Christ". Draw always from Christ, the inexhaustible wellspring; strengthen your faith by attending to your spiritual formation, to personal and communitarian prayer, and to the liturgy. Down the centuries confraternities have been crucibles of holiness for countless people who have lived in utter simplicity an intense relationship with the Lord. Advance with determination along the path of holiness; do not rest content with a mediocre Christian life, but let your affiliation serve as a stimulus, above all for you yourselves, to an ever greater love of Jesus Christ.

heart and life. Here we are shown the centre from which everything must go forth and to which everything must lead: loving God and being Christ’s disciples by living the Gospel. When Benedict XVI spoke to you, he used this expression: evangelical spirit. Dear confraternities,

The passage of the Acts of the Apostles which we heard also speaks to us about what is essential. In the early Church there was immediately a need to discern what was essential about being a Christian, about following Christ, and what was not. The apostles and the other elders held an important meeting in Jerusalem, a first "council", on this theme, to discuss the problems which arose after the Gospel had been preached to the pagans, to non-Jews. It was a providential opportunity for better understanding what is essential, namely, belief in Jesus Christ who died and rose for our sins, and loving him as he loved us. But note how the difficulties were overcome: not from without, but from within the Church. And this brings up a second element which I want to remind you of, as Benedict XVI did, namely: ecclesial spirit. Popular piety is a road which leads to what is essential, if it is lived in the Church in profound communion with your pastors. Dear brothers and sisters, the Church loves you! Be an active presence in the community, as living cells, as living stones. The Latin American Bishops wrote that the popular piety which you reflect is "a legitimate way of living the faith, a way of feeling that we are part of the Church" (Aparecida Document, 264). This is wonderful! A legitimate way of living the faith, a way of feeling that we are part of the Church. Love the Church! Let yourselves be guided by her! In your parishes, in your dioceses, be a true "lung" of faith and Christian life, a breath of fresh air! In this Square I see a great variety: earlier on it was a variety of umbrellas, and now of colours and signs. This is also the case with the Church: a great wealth and variety of expressions in which everything leads back to unity; the variety leads back to unity, and unity is the encounter with Christ.

I would like to add a third expression which must distinguish you: missionary spirit. You have a specific and important mission, that of keeping alive the relationship between the faith and the cultures of the peoples to whom you belong. You do this through popular piety. When, for example, you carry the crucifix in procession with such great veneration and love for the Lord, you are not performing a simple outward act; you are pointing to the centrality of the Lord’s paschal mystery, his passion, death and resurrection which have redeemed us, and you are reminding yourselves first, as well as the community, that we have to follow Christ along the concrete path of our daily lives so that he can transform us. Likewise, when you express profound devotion for the Virgin Mary, you are pointing to the highest realization of the Christian life, the one who by her faith and obedience to God’s will, and by her meditation on the words and deeds of Jesus, is the Lord’s perfect disciple (cf. Lumen Gentium, 53). You express this faith, born of hearing the word of God, in ways that engage the senses, the emotions and the symbols of the different cultures … In doing so you help to transmit it to others, and especially the simple persons whom, in the Gospels, Jesus calls "the little ones". In effect, "journeying together towards shrines, and participating in other demonstrations of popular piety, bringing along your children and engaging other people, is itself a work of evangelization" (Aparecida Document, 264). When you visit shrines, when you bring your family, your children, you are engaged in a real work of evangelization. This needs to continue. May you also be true evangelizers! May your initiatives be "bridges", means of bringing others to Christ, so as to journey together with him. And in this spirit may you always be attentive to charity. Each individual Christian and every community is missionary to the extent that they bring to others and live the Gospel, and testify to God’s love for all, especially those experiencing difficulties. Be missionaries of God’s love and tenderness! Be missionaries of God’s mercy, which always forgives us, always

awaits us and loves us dearly.

Evangelical spirit, ecclesial spirit, missionary spirit. Three themes! Do not forget them! Evangelical spirit, ecclesial spirit, missionary spirit. Let us ask the Lord always to direct our minds and hearts to him, as living stones of the Church, so that all that we do, our whole Christian life, may be a luminous witness to his mercy and love. In this way we will make our way towards the goal of our earthly pilgrimage, towards that extremely beautiful shrine, the heavenly Jerusalem. There, there is no longer any temple: God himself and the lamb are its temple; and the light of the sun and the moon give way to the glory of the Most High. Amen.

(May 05, 2013)

Transfer the Feast or Have an External Solemnity...that is the question

In the ordinary form of the Roman rite, the celebration of the Solemnity of the Ascension of our Lord may be transferred to a Sunday if it is not observed as a holy day of obligation in a certain region. I find this rule strange because the Scriptures say that the Lord ascended into heaven on the 40th day. If the Ascension is celebrated on Sunday, it would not be the 40th day but the 43rd. I may sound very petty but I have just been thinking that with regards Christmas, there is no rule that allows us to transfer the celebration of this feast to a Sunday if this were not observed as a holy day of obligation in a certain place. And yet, we all know that the date of the feast (December 25) is not indicated in Scriptures (unless there is something from Apostolic Tradition that I am unaware of). The Ascension event is different. The Acts of the Apostles really mention the 40th day. 

Of course, in the extraordinary form, the celebration of an external solemnity on Sunday is allowed. However, even with an external solemnity, Ascension is still celebrated on a Thursday, which is the 40th day. Besides, the novena to the Holy Spirit begins on the Friday after Ascension Thursday. Even if the Feast is moved to Sunday, the novena should still begin on the Friday before that Sunday in order to have complete 9 days for the devotion (or else it could not be called a "novena"). Sometimes, I am amused by people who say, 'We will have a 7 day novena.' I find it strange that the novena to the Holy Spirit should begin before Ascension is celebrated. Did not Our Lady and the Apostles begin praying after the Ascension? 

Witnesses of Divine Tenderness

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

 As our Lord ascends into heaven in order to be seated at the right hand of God “far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but in the age to come,” he tells his disciples: “You are my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  His disciples are to testify that in fulfillment of the Scriptures, the Christ suffered and rose from the dead and now, repentance for the forgiveness of sins is to be preached to all nations. In other words, the disciples are witnesses of the tenderness of God whose mercy was revealed in the incarnation and in the Paschal Mystery of Jesus his Son. God calls all to hope and not to despair. The message that we, his disciples, bear is that of love and mercy. Pope Francis tweeted: Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she bears witness to God’s love. Be witnesses of God’s tenderness.

In order to make us witnesses of Divine tenderness and love, the Lord promises to send the Holy Spirit whom he calls “Power from on high.” This promised Power is unlike the power that the world uses to dominate and to oppress. Rather, this Power is one that uplifts through forgiveness. This Power from on high is the Power of Love. The Holy Spirit is the Love of God poured into our hearts. Thus, the disciples are told to wait for the Holy Spirit to come down. They are not to leave Jerusalem until they are clothed by Power from on high. How can they bear witness to Divine love and tenderness unless they themselves experience it? How can they speak of forgiveness of sins unless they themselves be forgiven? When they receive the Holy Spirit, their sins will be forgiven. Then will they be convinced that they are loved even in spite of their sins. Then they will be convinced that God is a tender and loving God.

This is the Power by which all things will be put beneath the feet of Christ. It will be a dominion of love. It will seek to establish in the world a culture of mercy. Even as he sits at the right hand of the Father, Jesus continues to be the servant who will not break a reed or put off a smoldering wick. The humility that he manifested during Holy Week continues to be his even until now. By this humility, his mercy becomes an invitation to all to repentance. And people will come to him for they will be attracted by his gentleness and mercy. We look at him and we realize that we have mistakenly desired the wrong power that dominates and oppresses. We realize that there is an even superior power – the power that loves and forgives. This is the power that builds. This is the power that truly lasts forever. And his kingdom will have no end.

Jesus, I trust in you. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!