OT XII [A]: Jer 20:10-13; Rom 5:12-15; Mt 10:26-33  

In the first reading, we have the prophet Jeremiah bewailing his pitiful situation where he is being persecuted and hemmed in from all sides by his detractors, some of whom had been his friends. He complains that the Lord had ‘seduced’ him so that he cannot stop prophesying disaster. His suffering, pain and anxiety are real - there is no doubt about this. He understands that if he stops proclaiming the truth, the persecution will stop, his friends will return, and the situation will normalize. But then, instead of giving up and giving in, Jeremiah proclaims his faith: “The Lord is at my side, a mighty hero …Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hands of evil men.”

 

Rather than allowing his emotional and physical torment to move him to abandon his mission, Jeremiah doubles down on his resolve to remain faithful, and to persist in trusting God, despite all the challenges that are thrown at him. His story is a lesson for us too. When our hearts align with God’s values, we will view the dangers around us differently. Death, discomfort, and dire circumstances don’t have the same sting when we have God’s eternal perspective.

In the last Sunday's gospel, we heard Jesus choosing the twelve and sending them out to preach. Today we hear him warning them about the persecution they may likely suffer and advising them on their attitude: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna”(Mt 10,28).

 

Jesus' speech is paradoxical: on the one hand, he tells us “Do not be afraid”, and he presents us with a providential Father who cares even for sparrows; on the other hand, he does not tell us that this Father will save us from troubles, rather the opposite: if we are his followers, we are likely to share his fate and that of the other prophets. So, how can we understand this? God's protection is his ability to give life to our person (our soul), and to provide happiness even in tribulations and persecutions. He is the one who can give us the joy of His Kingdom —which we can already enjoy here— and is our hope of eternal life: “Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father” (Mt 10,32).

Do not be afraid of speaking the Truth; do not be afraid of intimidation from those who wish to silence us: do not be afraid of opposition, persecution and even martyrdom at the hands of our enemies; do not be afraid because we are of great worth in the eyes of God. At the end of the day, do not be afraid of proclaiming the gospel.

 

There is no denying that it is tempting to stop preaching the gospel or to soften the message in order to make things easier and protect ourselves from suffering and opposition. It may seem for now that whatever the Truth may be passed off by society as a lie, but we are assured by the Lord that those who bravely proclaim and defend the Truth will experience vindication one day.

 

Therefore, despite all the opposition and vilification that we will receive, Christians must continue to speak “in the daylight” and proclaim the gospel “from the housetops.” Such bold proclamations may lead to martyrdom; there is no denying that. But our Lord reminds us that the goal of a Christian witness is not just survival and personal safety but salvation. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” Therefore, we should fear God more than our persecutors. Tell the truth and risk the wrath of the mob. But tell a lie or deny to speak the truth and risk the wrath of God. We should prefer the former to the latter. The martyrs whom we have encountered will testify to this.

This past week we had the memorials of Sts John Fisher and Thomas More. Both of them dared to face the ire of king Henry VIII for refusing to acknowledge the royal divorce and the king’s declaration of himself as the head of the Church of England. Both were not afraid to lose their lives for standing up for the truth of the Catholic faith.  Like them, the real motivation for our decisions, our actions and our speech should not be the fear of public reaction but rather, the judgment from God. These days more people are worried about what others may think about their decisions, and they are least bothered about what God would think about them.

 

Pope Francis said:" There is no Christian mission marked by tranquillity! Difficulties and tribulations are part of the work of evangelization, and we are called to find in them the opportunity to test the authenticity of our faith and of our relationship with Jesus."

“The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it… Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for salvation…” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1816).

In closing, let me reflect with you the words of St. John Chrysostom: "I have his promise; I am surely not going to rely on my own strength! I have what he has written… What message? Know that I am with you always, until the end of the world!"

 

 

 HOLY TRINITY: Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9; II Cor 13:11-13; Jn 3:16-18

Last Sunday, we celebrated the feast of Pentecost, the feast of the Holy Spirit and this Sunday, we celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, the one God in three persons. The mystery of the most Holy Trinity is a basic doctrine of Faith in Christianity, understandable not with our heads but with our hearts. It teaches us that there are three distinct Persons in one God, sharing the same Divine Nature, co-equal and co-eternal. Our mind cannot grasp this doctrine which teaches that 1+1+1 = 1 and not 3. But we believe in this Mystery because Jesus, Who is God, taught it clearly, the Evangelists recorded it, the Fathers of the Church tried to explain it, and the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople defined it as a dogma of Christian Faith.

 

We don’t have to clearly know the Trinity before we can believe in Him. Thomas Edison, the inventor, once remarked: “We don’t know what water is. We don’t know what light is. We don’t know what electricity is. We don’t know what heat is. We have a lot of hypotheses about these things, but that is all. But we don’t let our ignorance about these things deprive us of their use.” — The truth of that statement is real. Most of us do not know how an electric light works or how a telephone or a TV works, but this does not prevent us from using them. The same principle may be applied to the doctrine of the Trinity. We can believe it before we can understand it.

 

A good illustration of the Trinity comes from world-renowned scientist Dr. Henry Morris. He notes that the entire universe is Trinitarian by design. The universe consists of three things: matter, space, and time. Take away any one of those three, and the universe would cease to exist. But each one of those is itself a trinity. Matter = mass + energy + motion. Space = length + height + breadth. We do not have anything in this world which has only length without height or width; or only width without length or height. That is not possible. Time = past + present + future. Thus, the whole universe witnesses the character of the God who made it. Therefore, it is not just man who is created in the image or likeness of God. Even the whole creation is patterned in God’s nature: trinitarian.

St. John of Damascus, a great Eastern theologian of the eighth century, said we should think “of the Father as a root, the Son as a branch, and of the Spirit as a fruit, for the substance of these three is one.”  He also said, “Think of the Father as a Spring of Life, begetting the Son like a River and the Holy Ghost like a sea, for the spring, the river and the sea are all one nature.”

 

With this doctrine, God has revealed to us that He is not infinite loneliness but infinite love, the infinite relationship of self-giving. If God was only one person, how would He be infinite love before He created the world? Because there was nobody else other than the God who exists in one person. Whom is He going to love, if there is nothing outside of Himself? This is where we can say the Islamic concept of one God in one person is not sensible. Such a God existing in one person cannot be Love. He had no one to love other than Himself. He would have been infinite loneliness and infinite monotonous. But if He is one God in three persons, he would be a community and be infinite love.

Richard of St. Victor said: If God is Good, He has to be one. (There is only one Good, i.e. God.  Jesus said to the young man who asked Him: Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Why do you call me Good? There is only one who is Good).

If God is LOVE, He has to be two. Because love has to go out of oneself to another. If God is joy, He has to be three. Joy is what originates when two people share a love for each other. Just like when a young loving couple shares their love, a new child is born. Father and the Son love each other so intensely that their love becomes a Person, Holy Spirit. They love each other and give each other.

We say in the creed that the Son and the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father: We can think of this procession like light and heat, two different things coming out from the one source: a flame. But all three are different things, not one thing. Flame is not heat; heat is not light, and vice versa. In the same way, Father is not the Son, not the Son the Holy Spirit or the Father. God's eternal dynamic happiness flows from that communion of love. The one divine nature exists fully and simultaneously in three divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 A triangle is made of three angles or corners. Without these three, it won’t make a triangle. In the same way, the without the trinity, God cannot be called God. God will not have all the existential qualities. God’s presence is everywhere. But He has to be in heaven in a more forceful and powerful presence than He is here or present in any particular thing. God is immanent, meaning present in everything. God Immanuel. But He is also transcendent, meaning transcending everything in this world. He is otherworldly. Therefore, we say heaven is primarily otherworldly where God is. Though heaven starts here because God is already here.

The Trinitarian doctrine says that the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are different from each other, yet one God. Those who have been through high school know that the basic component of any “thing” is an atom. Atom has three things: electrons, and in the nucleus, there are Neutrons and Protons. This is the basic combination of anything. Just like we now have Father and the Son in heaven as in the nucleus, and the Holy Spirit with us, like the electrons. So, everything is created in the likeness of God.

The importance of this doctrine lies in this:  we are made in the image of God; therefore, the more we understand God, the more we can understand ourselves. Jesus revealed God to us. No one can really reveal God to us other than someone who claimed he came from God. The Father and I are one, he said.  

Just as God is God only in a Trinitarian relationship, so we can be fully human only as one member of a relationship of three partners.  The self needs to be in a horizontal relationship with all other people and in a vertical relationship with God.  In that way, our life is Trinitarian like that of God. The love, unity, and joy in the relationship among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit should be the supreme model of our relationships within our Christian families.  Our families become truly Christian when we live in a relationship of love with God and with others.

May God, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit shower their blessings on us and help us to strengthen our bond of unity, love and peace.