JUNE 15/16, 2019
4:30 (SAT), 9:00 AM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES
Released in November of 1967, and having the distinction of being both #1 and #2 on the British singles chart simultaneously due to being released on both a single and an EP, the Beatle’s song I am the Walrus was written by John Lennon the previous summer.
The lyrics are a combination of poetry, nursery rhymes, and nonsense syllables and phrases – the result of three failed attempts at songs that when joined together is the iconic tune known to us over 50 years later.
It was the first studio recording made after the accidental death of their first manager, the recording featured orchestral accompaniment that included violins, cellos, horns, and clarinet as well as a 16-voice choir of professional studio vocalists.
Today is Trinity Sunday.
While many aspects of the Roman Liturgy have included the Trinity – namely in doxologies, Sunday prefaces, a particular Sunday honoring the Trinity was not included in the calendar until Pope John XXII (the twenty-second) in the early 14th century.
The feast was elevated to the highest solemnity by Pope Saint Pius X (the tenth) in 1911.
Now, anytime we speak of Theology – which is the study of God (theos = God, logos = study) … whether that be the Trinitarian theology, Christology (the theology of the Person of Jesus Christ), Pneumatology (the theology of the Holy Spirit), or Theology proper of itself … we run two difficulties.
What you say can either come out sounding like jibberish. That’s the first risk. When you start bandying about with words like perichoresis in the Greek, or circumincession in the Latin – both are words referring to the relationship and the interpenetration of the three Persons of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then there are the theological distinctions between the Immanent Trinity and the Economic Trinity.
Even the disciples are constantly confused by all of the things Jesus is trying to tell them.
Even the disciples are constantly confused by all of the things Jesus is trying to tell them.
Or else you may find yourself spouting heresy … and all the big heresies revolve around mistakes about the Trinity or the Persons of the Trinity.
So, Trinity Sunday can be a bit of a theological minefield.
But the Trinity should not be unfamiliar to us.
We are baptized into the Divine life of the Trinity – as we are baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
The Mass – the Divine Liturgy of the Church – is a sacrificial offering of the Son to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit.
We begin our prayers with the Sign of the Cross – proclaiming Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We end our liturgical prayers with a Trinitarian formula.
And we memorize the Glory Be – which is a minor doxology to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Not to mention the Gloria and the Creed which again are Trinitarian in structure.
The difficulty, of course, is that God is beyond our comprehension – making the Trinity a mystery.
And a mystery is best expressed in silence, prayer, and song.
As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ – let us remember that we are children of God the Father, redeemed in Christ His Son, and have received an outpouring of the power of the Holy Spirit.
