Good morning/evening everyone, I am so happy to welcome you all for today's Holy Mass and our special welcome to all our summer parishioners, visitors and every one here today.
I am so happy to see so many fresh people. I remember calling summer parishioners 'fresh' I got into troule once, after Mass some people came to me and said, "So Father, you call the regular parishioners , 'left overs'.
Today the Holy Catholic Church celebrates 'Holy Trinity Sunday'. About hundred years ago, after Mass a little child pointed out me to her grandma and said, "Look...He is Jesus...He is Jesus". I was so horrified and looked at her grandma and said, "Please tell your grandchild, I am not the Son but the Father".
Dear friends, every time, we come to church, we deepen our faith in the Holy Trinity, we are given a special blessing to know the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Every time, we are abundantly blessed by the Tnity in whose neame we were all baptized.
Once a bishop went to a parish to do confirmation and as he looked at the children, asked, "Waht is holy trinity". They said, "God is one. The Father is God. The Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God but not three gods but one God.... one nature but three different persons". The bishop who was hard of hearing said, "I don't understand what you are saying". Then a man who was standing next to the bishop said, "Bishop, you are not suppossed to usderstand because it is a mystery".
When it comes with mystery...it is to believe not to analize and to understand. The classical story about a saint who tried to analize and try to understand was St. Augustine. As he was thinking about the three persons with one nature, one essence and one substance namely omoousis. As he walked by a seashore oneday, he noticed a child taking water from the sea pouring it on the shore with the seashell. He asked what the child was doing. The child said, "I am going to take all the water from the sea and pour it on the shore with this seashell" The saint was lauging at the child sayinng 'impossible'. Then the child looked at him saying, "then how is it possible with your limited mind to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity". The story is not only about the Holy Trinity but it is about the interest and spiritual intensity of the saint. As we deepen our faith in God, things will be revealed to us.
1. The Father is God who is our Creator:
Once a group of scintists said to each other, "We do amazing things these days. We make and remake. We shape things to perfection and we do not need God any more". So they called God and said, "God, we can do anything and everything and we do not need you any longer..." So God looked at them and said, "then you may go your way and by the way, can you make people like I did. They said, "Of course". So one of them, bend down and took a handful of dirt to make man and that time God stopped him saying, "that's my dirt and get your own".
God is the Lover who created everything and He made us in His own image and likeness, so that we may reflect Him in our words and actions and we may at last return home to be with Him for ever.
2. The Son is God who is our redeemer:
Once a woman came to St. John Marie Vienni and said, "Father, I am so afraid that my husband who jumped off the bridge is in everlasting punshment now because he killed himself and there is no salvation for those who do these things'. The saint looked at her and said, "Rememer... there was a space between the bride and the ground and your husband might have called on the name of the Lord and who are we to judge. Even at the last moment, there is salvation". Christ our Lord came to redeem and give us life. He has the same nature that of the Father. The Father and the Son are the same. The Redeemer expresses the Creator's love.
3. The Holy Spirit is God who is the Sanctifier:
Once a bishop went to little Island where three monks lived away from people. He noticed that they did not even know the Our Father prayer. So he spent some time with them teaching the our father prayer. But when his small boat leaf the island and was back in the open sea, he suddenly noticed ther three monks walking on water cried out to him saying, "Dear bishop, we forgot the Lord's prayer you taught us". The bishop overwhelmed by what he was seeing and hearing asked them, 'then how do you pray all these years? They said, "We just say, there are three of us and there are three of you, have mercy on us". The bishop who was so impressed by their simplicity then said, "Go and continue to pray like that, you are all already sactified".
Conclusion: God is one and He is our Father, He is our Redeemer and He is our Sanctifier. As we bless ourselves let us be concious of His presence. The Father...the Son and the Holy Spirit". Amen.
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