My brothers and sisters, we celebrate Trinity Sunday, and we worship the Three Divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We delve into relationality and we learn about how to be in relationship. The Act of Faith in the Catholic tradition begins with the words: O my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Also, whenever we make the Sign of the Cross, we are reminded of the Holy Trinity. The Catechism teaches us that, "The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself". (Catechism, 234) Let us ponder the readings to help us reflect upon this mystery.
The first reading, from the Book of Proverbs, speaks of the wisdom of God, the wisdom that was with God at the moment of creation. The reading speaks of God the Creator establishing, fixing, bringing forth, making firm, setting limits. There is a grand majesty to the work of creation and an order, which we need turn, and keep in mind, as we go about our human affairs.
In the second reading, from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans, we heard that we have peace with God through Jesus. Peace with God means peace with the Father, through Christ – this is key – if we have peace in our relationship with God, the difficulties of life are easier to endure; to have peace with the Father, we need to respect the order of creation. All around us we see the wonder and beauty of the created world, and we are called to responsible stewards of this beauty. We are also called to be responsible stewards of our own bodies. Pope Francis puts it this way in his encyclical letter Laudato Si': "The acceptance of our bodies as God's gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home, whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation....valuing one's own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a healthy attitude which would seek 'to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it'" (Laudato Si', 155).
In our time, we are facing the efforts of some people to cancel out, to erase, to stamp out, the sexual differences between man and woman, between male and female. These efforts are part of a broader plan to impose an ideology upon families, educational systems, cultures, and entire nations. Oftentimes, these efforts are branded as going against discrimination. However, as this past week's document from the Congregation of Catholic Education warns, "In fact, the generic concept of 'non-discrimination' often hides an ideology that denies the difference as well as natural reciprocity that exists between men and women" (Male and Female He Created Them,21) . The document goes on to state, "This ideology inspires educational programmes and legislative trends that promote ideas of personal identity and affective intimacy that make a radical break with the actual biological difference between male and female" (Male and Female He Created Them,22).
My brothers and sisters, the love between God the Father and God the Son is so rich, that it generates another Divine Person – the Holy Spirit. This is a reminder for us that the love between a man and a woman, united in marriage, has the potential to generate new life. Fertility is a great gift. Parents bring children into the world, and they are and remain the first and primary educators of those children.
Teaching, learning, and allowing oneself to be shaped, is task which is at the same time great and challenging. Yet this is our work, and we too need to "involve each person in a process of learning 'with perseverance and consistency, the meaning of his or her body'...in the full original truth of masculinity and femininity" (Male and Female He Created Them,35). Yes, sometimes we will go through hard times. But the second reading reminds us of the fact that "affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint" because the Holy Spirit lives in our hearts. We are also grateful for the signs of hope that too are around us: this weekend, in the civil calendar, we observe Father's Day. Christ has given us peace with God the Father – let that peace abundantly flow to the relationships with our earthly fathers, those living, and those who have gone before us in the sleep of Christ.
Finally, the Gospel reminds us that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. Jesus says that "He will guide you to all truth". We ask for the Spirit of Truth to descend upon our nation, our opinionmakers, policymakers, and all Canadians, that we may be open to the truth about the human person, made male and female, in the image and likeness of God. We do so in the context of the deepest mystery of our faith – God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
(Fr. Pawel Ratajczak, OMI, June 16, 2019)
