Since it is my last weekend here, I'd like to begin with a few thank you's. First, I want to thank Fr John for agreeing
to have me join Blessed Sacrament during my intern year. Taking on a rookie like me was a risk! Ten years ago, I began to explore my faith
beyond simply attending Mass on Sunday and for me it began with Franciscan
priests. So it was only fitting that in
my final year of study, I was able to complete the process with a Franciscan
priest. I have been tremendously blessed
to be able to serve at Blessed Sacrament with Fr John. He has been a wonderful and valuable guide and mentor to
me during my year here and has provided me great support, feedback
and the opportunity to grow in service and experience
while serving with him.
Next I want to thank Sr Marjorie, Sr Anne, Sr Joan,
Lisa and the Pastoral and Finance Councils.
I was so fortunate to work closely with each of them throughout the
year. They are a wonderful blessing for
the Parish.
Most of all, I want to thank all of you, the
parishioners. You are what makes a
Parish family. I truly have never
encountered a more welcoming parish than Blessed Sacrament. My family and I felt like we belonged here
from the moment we arrived and we thoroughly enjoyed serving you throughout the
year. It is always difficult to embrace
change, and leaving Blessed Sacrament Parish is more difficult because of all
of you. So thank you for being such a
welcoming, faith filled parish.
If you happen to be visiting Blessed Sacrament
today, I trust you will find the parish as welcoming as I have.
Today is the Feast of The Most Holy Trinity. It is also Father's Day. So Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out
there.
I've spoken before of God putting things in our life
that make Him evident to us, but we need to be looking to see it. Today is another of those examples. The Most Holy Trinity. When I was a child in grammar school, I
remember the nuns teaching us about the Trinity. Whenever the kids asked too many questions,
we were told "it's a Mystery!"
When I looked at the readings today and thought about preaching on the
Most Holy Trinity, I was tempted to follow their lead and say "It's a
Mystery!" which it is. But that would be taking the easy way
out. God wants us to try to reach Him,
to try to understand Him. And Jesus
provided us the relationship that allows us to attempt to understand God a bit
more and deepen our relationship with Him
Jesus spoke often of God, and when He did, he called
Him Father. With today being Father's
Day, it reminds us even more of the relationship that Jesus was talking
about. In the first reading today, God describes
Himself to Moses when he cried out "a merciful and gracious God, slow
to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity"
Even before Jesus taught us to
pray the "Our Father," the book of Exodus gives us a glimpse of God
as a Father figure. Jesus deepens this
relationship referring to himself as the Son.
Jesus is the Son who walked among us.
As the beginning of John's Gospel says "The Word became flesh and
made His dwelling among us." Jesus,
our mediator, one in being with God, dwelt among us. Lived with us. Lived like us in all things but sin. And after rising from the dead, before
returning to the Father, as we heard in the Gospel a few weeks ago, He knew He
had to leave something with us, connecting us forever with Him. Last weekend we celebrated that something -
Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit.
I still struggle to wrap my head around all
this. Just as the early Church fathers
did. It's easy to fall back on
"It's a mystery!" but God doesn't want that. He wants us to reach out to him, to try to
understand this. It's similar to just
trying to explain God to someone who has no concept of God.
We can't fully understand something that is beyond
us. In science I liken it to attempting
to understand the vastness of the universe.
We can see it when we look at the stars at night, yet it's just too big
to completely understand. But scientists
still try to understand it, study it, observe it. God is asking us to do the same. To understand Him, study Him, observe Him in
each other.
Why does he want this from us? Because he loves us. In today's Gospel reading, John tries to tell
us this. In John's attempt to describe
why Jesus came among us, the only word he could use was love. But even that wasn't sufficient. So John underscored and emphasized that love
by saying "God so
loved the world." And how much did
he love the world? So much he gave His
only Son for our sake. One writer summed
it up differently. He reworded it to say
God so loved the world that God gave God's self. Our closest comparison is marriage. Giving one's self to the other out of love.
Now I'm not sure I completely cleared up the Trinity
for you. And one thing I have found about
Homilies after being ordained is that they get longer! But I will leave you with something that I
think will stay with you. My brother and
I like to attend rock concerts.
We go to several throughout the year, both large and
small. My brother enjoys making signs to
hold up to the performers during the show.
Many performers have singled him out for his creativity in his
signage. When I read today's gospel I
knew immediately that I had to use his talent for sign making as a reminder for
all of us.
Being in New England, with the success of the
Patriots, I'm sure there are some football fans out there. Anyone who has watched football for years
would have seen this sign in the end zone during a field goal or point after
attempt. If you haven't, I expect if you
are watching football this year, you may see one and you will think back to
this day, the Most Holy Trinity, if you see this sign. I'm sure it's shown in the crowd in other
sports, but I have seen it most in the end zones at football games.
For anyone who hasn't made the connection, this sign
references the beginning of today's gospel reading. "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him might not perish, but might have eternal
life."
May God give you peace.
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