Now that the Easter Season has concluded, we once again find ourselves back in “Ordinary Time.” This season gets its name, not because it’s “ordinary” or “boring,” but rather because the Sundays of the year are numbered ordinally (first, second, third, and so on).
When we re-enter Ordinary Time after Easter, the first two Sundays are devoted to two special Solemnities, which focus on two of the great mysteries of our Faith. The first is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, which we celebrate today. The second is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (also known as the Feast of Corpus Christi), which we will celebrate next week.
This Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity invites us to ponder more deeply the truth that we recite in our Creed every Sunday- that we believe in one God, who is a Trinity of persons. While each person in the Trinity is distinct, they are all of the same divine substance. This certainly is not an easy concept to grasp, which is why it took the Church close to 400 years to fully formulate the profession of faith found in the Nicene Creed!
While it is easy for us to recite the words of the Creed, and profess our faith in the triune nature of the one God, it’s a lot harder to try and understand how it all works. And the truth is, we as human beings will never be able to comprehend the full nature of the Trinity. This is why the Trinity is considered a mystery: because we can know and grasp what has been revealed to us by faith and the teachings of the church, but we cannot see beyond that. It’s almost like standing on a beach and looking out at the horizon- you know that there is more to the ocean beyond what you can see, but you cannot perceive it all at once, unless you were to change your viewpoint.
And in a way, that is what God invites us to do, by revealing to us the mystery of the Trinity. He invites us to contemplate that mystery while on earth- even though we cannot fully grasp it, so that we can be drawn more fully into the mystery of the Trinity when we enter God’s Kingdom in Heaven.
In many ways, the lesson of the Trinity is a lesson that we are learning from the prolonged isolation caused by the pandemic: that human beings are made for relationship. We are destined for heaven, where we will be united for all eternity with God and the Communion of Saints. The question we are challenged to ask is this: How can we, as people of faith, begin to live out this reality on earth, so that we are prepared to live in eternal relationship with others in heaven?
As we enter into June, the staff of our Family of Parishes will be participating in a virtual workshop with the Diocese of London, which aims to look at how we as a Church can more effectively carry out the work of evangelization. I ask you for your prayers, that these meetings will bear fruit in the life of our community.
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Steven Huber, CSB