The Most Holy Trinity (15.06.14)<\/p>\n
True Love Is A Mystery\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Everybody loves a good mystery or so it is said. The sort that challenges us to discover the identity of the \u2018goodie\u2019 or the \u2018baddie\u2019. In other words, it\u2019s a temporary mystery. All will become clear at the conclusion of the film, play, book or story.<\/p>\n Then there are mysteries in the process of being unraveled in the realms of science, astrology, human physiology and the like. We who live today have lived and continue to live through enormous discoveries and development that our forebears would never have contemplated.<\/p>\n There are other mysteries that are understandable to a degree. The mystery of love would be an example. What is it that enables one person to declare his or her love for another person? At the point of declaration, the speaker voluntarily embraces emotional, indefensible vulnerability! Why? Even after decades of a loving relationship one partner may say they remain, to some extent, mystified as to their partner\u2019s choice of them.<\/p>\n Someone wrote that it was Jesus himself who taught us one of the deep secrets inside the very DNA of love namely, that only when the private ego is crucified does real love, community and character emerge.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s return briefly to the analogy of the established married couple. Some friends are shortly to celebrate their 57th<\/sup>\u00a0wedding anniversary. There will be the customary parade of sepia-tinged photographs and treasured paraphernalia. The real celebration is not of the past but of the present, of the living relationship that has come through the rigors of decades to be, today, as loving and generous as it was 57 years ago. This is the mystery of true love, the sustained sacrifice of personal ego for the wellbeing of the other.<\/p>\n The ultimate category in mysteries is \u2018Mystery of Faith\u2019 which asks believers to believe in God without the possibility of tangible, visible evidence of the Person of God for as long as this world continues. However, as we know there are clues as well as secondary evidence.<\/p>\n For example, when the Baptised gather for Mass, the past is the backdrop for the present and future. The Mass is about our individual and collective present and future relationship with Jesus the Christ. Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation sacramentally initiate in us a living transplant of faith, with the emphasis on the word \u2018living\u2019. Hence people speak of a \u2018living faith\u2019 or a \u2018dead\u2019 or \u2018dying\u2019 faith.<\/p>\n This is exemplified in the revised Acclamations with which a congregation responds to the Consecration. The Acclamation is our communal greeting to him\u00a0\u2018whom the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard\u2019\u00a0<\/em>(1Cor: 2.9). A personal declaration of faith, made communally, in the Mystery of the Eucharist that emphasizes the uniqueness of the words of Consecration. The congregation\u2019s Acclamation is part of a personal conversation, made in unison, with Jesus our Lord because the Words of Consecration have effected a unique change in the celebration namely, the Real Presence of Jesus!<\/p>\n In the new translation, the congregation\u2019s words are addressed to Jesus in the present tense, not in the past tense as heretofore. Jesus is with us, now, in the Eucharist, under the appearance of Bread and Wine, in his Word of Scripture and in the gathered community.<\/p>\n In the Eucharist we almost always address God the Father, not God the Son. The Mass is the prayer-in-action of the Baptised, the Body of Christ in this world, to God the Father through Jesus His Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is in Jesus, present among us, that we worship the Holy Trinity.<\/p>\n So when the celebrant or deacon announces, \u201cThe mystery of faith\u201d, we address Jesus directly through the saving grace of his Cross and Resurrection in one of three formulae: The previous popular acclamation, you may recall, \u2018Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again\u2019, was a statement not a conversation.<\/p>\n Our newly translated Acclamations demonstrate how the Mass, while set against the backdrop of Calvary and Easter Day, is not about the past but about the present and the future.<\/p>\n In accepting the Mysteries of our Faith we also are accepting our limitedness and acclaiming God\u2019s infinite nature. We acknowledge that we are, and forever will be, the created not the Creator, though we bear his image and likeness. This mystery of faith is not a puzzle to be solved. It is a reality to be believed in because we cannot possibly comprehend it by reason. What is true of the Son is true of the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Mystery of Faith requires the assent of the heart, intellect and will to be not for a moment but, like a sacramental marriage, for a lifetime.<\/p>\n Pope Francis’ catechesis, at the General Audience on 30 April 2014 at the Vatican, drew attention to the gifts of the Holy Spirit:<\/p>\n The Pope explained. \u201cBelief is a grace, a gift, that only the Holy Spirit may infuse in us, when we ask for it with the right intentions. It awakens in the Christian, as well as the potential Christian, the capacity to go beyond external appearances, to scrutinise the depths of God’s thought and His plan of salvation\u201d.<\/p>\n Pope Francis recalled the apostle Paul\u2019s address to the Christians at Corinth describing the effects of this gift: \u201cWhat no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived, the things God has prepared for those who love him \u2013 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit\u201d (1 Cor. 2:9)<\/p>\n The Pope continued: \u201cThis obviously does not mean that a Christian can understand everything, and have full knowledge of God’s plans. However the Holy Spirit\u2019s gift does permit our intellect, as the word itself suggests, to ‘intus legere’, to ‘read within’ to comprehend to a degree things as God does, within the framework of God’s will. It is a gift intimately linked to faith. When the Holy Spirit abides in our heart and enlightens our mind, it allows us to grow, day after day, in our understanding of what the Lord has said and is doing\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Most Holy Trinity (15.06.14) True Love Is A Mystery\u00a0 Everybody loves a good mystery or so it is said. The sort that challenges us to discover the identity of the \u2018goodie\u2019 or the \u2018baddie\u2019. In other words, it\u2019s a … Continue reading
\n– \u201cWe proclaim your Death, O Lord, and profess your Resurrection, until you come again.\u201d<\/em>
\n– \u201cWhen we eat this Bread and Drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again.\u201d<\/em>
\n– \u201cSave us, Savior of the world, for by your Cross and Resurrection you have set us free.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n