A REFLECTION FOR THE TRINITY SUNDAY Trinity, Community and Mutual Support The French philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre, once wrote, Hell is the other people. There are times in our lives when we might find it easy to sympathize with that sentiment. If we have had a negative experience of other people over a period of time, we can long to be on our own, away from the troubles that others seem to bring us. We can begin to think of heaven as a state of glorious isolation. Yet, even the greatest loners among us long for human company and human companionship, from time to time. At some deep level we sense that we are only complete when we are in relationship with others. In the context of a prison, solitary confinement is a cruel form of punishment. It is the frustration of a deep need in all of us to be present to others and to have others present to us. We all long for some form of communion with others. If we were to call to mind the happiest moments of our lives, we would probably discover that they involved some element of communion or community, some experience of relationship. Even in our age of great individualism, we know instinctively that no one is an island. Todays feast of the Trinity reminds us that what is true of ourselves is even truer of God. At the heart of Gods own life is a community, what we call a communion of persons, a set of relationships. In the gospel reading this morning, the risen Jesus makes reference to the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Within God there is a relationship of profound love between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Those relationships of love within God became visible to us all with the coming of Jesus into the world. In particular, the death of Jesus on the cross reveals the love that the Son has for the Father. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead reveals the love that the Father has for the Son. The fruit of that love of the Son for the Father and of the Father for the Son was Pentecost, the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the church, upon each of us. The love that is within God could not be contained within God, but was poured out upon us through the sending of the Holy Spirit, so as to draw us into that life of love that is God. In that sense, the community that is within God is not a closed community. Rather, it is a community to which we are all invited to belong. We are not only invited to belong there, we are drawn there by God. Jesus draws us to the Father. The Holy Spirit draws us, leads us, to the Son, reminding us of all that Jesus said to us. St. Paul, in todays second reading, tells us that the Holy Spirit, in leading us to Jesus, thereby enables us to have the same relationship with God the Father that Jesus has, moving us to cry out Abba, Father, as Jesus himself does. If God is a communion of love, a community of love, and we are made in the image of God, then our task, our calling, is to create communities of love, communities that somehow reflect the community of love that is God. The first community of love that we experience is our family. We are born into a family. None of us have perfect families. We will always struggle with our families in one way or another. Yet, the family has the potential to be a communion of love that reflects and gives expression to something of that love that is within God. Beyond the family, the church is called to be a community of love. Jesus, on the night before he died, said to his disciples, As the Father has loved me, I have loved you... Love one another as I have loved you. Jesus wanted the church to be a loving community that was a reflection of the loving community that is God. We know that the church, the gathering of Jesus disciples, has frequently fallen short of this vision of Jesus. Yet, the Holy Spirit reminds us of what Jesus said to us, keeps on reminding us of what we are called to be as church. With the Spirits help we need to keep on trying to live that calling. The parish is the local church, and every parish is called to be a reflection of the loving communion that is God, that is within God. If we look around us we will find examples of communities of love that are not specifically church related. Like the people who gather in Brazil from around the world for the World Cup. It is a great privilege for Brazil to do so. They would not have happened without the presence over time of various communities of love that sustained the vision of the Special World Cup and that have helped to make that vision a concrete reality there despite all the problems the People are faced with in Brazil, for a month they will try to forget everything and be a community of love, joy and happiness. Many other life-giving communities can be identified in our midst. There are a whole range of support groups for various categories of people. Whenever we act to make such communities possible we are acting in a Trinitarian way, even if we have no awareness of the Trinity when we are doing it. Every time we bring people together in ways that affirm them and build them up, we are living in the spirit of the Trinity. That is the call and the challenge of todays feast. Although the feast of the Trinity might initially seem remote/far from us, it is, in reality, a down to earth feast, because it reminds YOU AND I of what we need to be about in our day to day lives. May this Eucharistic celebration re-mold us into communities and families of love, into genuine relationships that are constructive in faith just as God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, is bound in a relationship of love. You and I are a reflection of that relationship. I wish you all a happy and joyous Sunday, based on the loving relationship of God who is love!
Posted on: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 10:03:29 +0000