Holy Trinity Homily

Post date: May 31, 2021 3:12:38 AM

May 30, 2021 Homily by Bishop Joseph Cassidy and Fr. Karl Schray

After our Gathering Hymn, how do we begin Mass?—with the Sign of the

Cross. Is it rote, maybe even without thinking?

It still is a simple and very important prayer.

God revealed to us the mystery of the Trinity. I say as revealed to us

because we wouldn’t have a clue about the Trinity

if Jesus didn’t tell us about it. He talked about his Father in heaven,

about himself as the Son, about going back to heaven and sending us the

Holy Spirit. It is a divine dance. Like a water wheel with three buckets

gladly emptying themselves into one another because

they know they will be filled again. With creation they do the same for us.

The Catechism we learned:

“In God, there are three Divine Persons, really distinct and equal

in all things, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

All I want to do for the rest of this homily is make a slower sign of the cross.

In the name of the Father…, I think of the golden California poppies

that sprang up everywhere without being planted in our front yard in GP

and on the hillside around the parish here. We all saw the full moon

this last week and the thousands of varieties of trees and flowers—

the grandeur of creation reveals your presence, O Lord! The Father is the

Creator of a beautiful world of which we should be always aware

and which should make us marvel at his nature.

And I leave my finger on the forehead because I am reminded

that our Father is so totally in love with us that he sent his only Son

to draw us back into his embrace.

And so we move to the chest, to the place where the heart is.

And as I do, I think of the love the Son of God showed us

when he multiplied the loaves for the hungry, when he reached across

the racial barriers to the Samaritans, when he made room at his table

for social outcasts and sinners, when he chased the hypocrites away

from the woman caught in adultery, when he gave the ultimate and

agonizing proof of his love for us on the Cross at Calvary.

And so we move to the shoulders, and as we do I think of the Holy Spirit.

I think of him as a free spirit, giving of himself so widely that it takes

the full span of the shoulders to remind us of that—left and right,

from one side of the world to the other. And I think of God’s desire to be

intimate with everybody, to have the freedom of the wind, to be your friend,

and my friend, to be in your heart and my heart,

to be in Myrtle Creek and Mozambique (Glendale and Gaza Strip)

at one and the same time. And I think of the Holy Spirit as a power

in my life, as a great force for good, as one to turn to when decisions

are to be made, as one who consoles me when I make mistakes.

With the Holy Spirit around, none of us is alone. May we be conscious

of the fact that God in his Holy Spirit is always with us.

And that what we span in blessing, he strengthens in life so that we may

better shoulder our responsibilities and burdens we bear.

And so we come to the end of the blessing and the concluding “Amen”.

And I reminded myself that the word ‘Amen’ is an expression of assent,

an act of faith in the words we have just prayed.

In the name and power, peace and love, of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen!