-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org >
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00am and Sunday night at 6pm (NEW!)
The drive-through at McDonald's!
One of my favorite commentaries says this:
"In 28:19, Jesus reveals the inner power of God in three names. The three are listed together (expressing the unity of God) and as equals (expressing the all-powerful nature of each). When believers are baptized in the name of the Trinity, they become intimate with all that God is: God above them (Father), God beside them (Son), and God within them (Holy Spirit). With God so close to the faithful, they become God's instruments."
Whoa! So while the celebration of the Blessed Trinity is all about God we can see that the Blessed Trinity is all about the church. The church is called in the second Vatican Council "the universal sacrament of salvation". So the church is a sacrament! There are eight sacraments then?! I was discussing this with the seventh grade last month. The drive through window at McDonald's became for me the best and most accessible image to discuss what I mean and the church means and what the Trinity is celebrating today. The drive through window at McDonald's is the hole in the wall through which we pass all that is good and valuable(i.e. our money and McDonald's food).
A sacrament is that hole in the wall of reality between this world and the next. If the church is sacrament then we need to apply and understand this definition to the life of the church that we share. The sacrament of the church is the encounter place with God and God's people. We then are members, friends, and instruments of this encounter place - this rendezvous..
So this grace filled communion of the faithful: head and members, announcing the gospel and celebrating the sacraments, is the pass-through or drive-through opening in the wall of reality by which and through which God, divinity, heaven and earth, humanity, you and me encounter one another.
The individual members of the church created in the image and likeness of God, joined in communion with Jesus Christ risen from the dead, and empowered and possessing the Holy Spirit of God (the Blessed Trinity Whom we celebrate today ) are the icons or windows through which God breaks into the world and through which the human family can reach into heaven.
That's a blessed and powerful challenge and mission for us and for each individually. Is that your experience of life in Christ?
2 comments:
WOW! I'm thinking I do hear and understand what you are saying, but I am struck anew by the HUGE responsibility of each of us individually to give and to live our ALL, and also to work as a community in the same whole-hearted way. The petition that I hear week after week...that we may become a CIVILIZATION of LOVE starts here, within me, so that each of us can "infect" (ha ha!) each other.
Seems the daunting challenge, and then almost unbelievable, like this little speck called ME in union and communion with Jesus is essential to the building of the Church.
Reminds me of a billboard I saw that said
"CH RCH"
"U" are missing
And that the "U" are missing can be read a couple different ways, individually and as community. WOW!
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