Today
we celebrate the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, and the word I want you to
remember from today’s Feast is “Communion.”
Communion is defined as a mutual participation in a relationship, a
mutual sharing, a fellowship if you will.
We speak of the marriage of husband and wife as a “communion of
persons.” We speak of the Church as a Communion. And today we celebrate that our God, who is
One and three, is a Communion. A
Communion of persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. An intimate union, in eternal relationship,
an eternal relationship of life-giving love.
For
much of our 2000 year history, Holy Mother Church has been trying to come up
with an adequate way of explaining this mystery of Divine Communion, this
mystery of Trinity. St. Patrick famously
used the shamrock leaf. There’s a Greek
word perichoresis used to describe the Trinity – it means roughly “to dance
around with” – so we have the image of the three persons in an eternal,
ecstatic dance. Pope St. John Paul II and others have used the metaphor of
marriage - a man and wife whose love is so intense and life-giving that a third
person is generated.
That’s
great – what does that have to do with you and me? Well, it’s this – you and I are invited into this Communion, this
eternal Divine love relationship. God’s
love is so extravagant, so overflowing that you and I, while created beings,
not ourselves Divine, and while we are still sinners, by no merit of our own, are invited to enter in
to this Communion. That’s the very definition of heaven, isn’t it? – to eternally
share in the Divine love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To eternally share
their love, their joy, their bliss. To eternally enter into that ecstatic
dance.
That,
sisters and brothers, is what you and I were created for. That’s the
reason for our existence. It’s what we
should long for, ache for, live our entire lives for. The goal of human life, wrote Pope St. John
Paul II, is “fullness of communion with God,” “…a living relationship with the
Holy Trinity.”
The
cool thing is that that Communion, that sharing in the Divine life, which we
also call grace - starts now – actually it started at our baptisms when we were
baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Now
we don’t experience the complete bliss of heaven here, to be sure, for here we
experience sin, suffering and death.
Those are the very things that Our Lord came to save us from. Not so that we wouldn’t experience them, but
so that we would transcend them. “God so
loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in him
might not perish but might have eternal life.”
But
here’s the thing. Contrary to what you
might think after reading the book or watching the movie “The Shack,” not
everyone goes to heaven. Not everyone
believes in Him. And many who claim
belief in Him live lives far from that belief.
You
see, you and I as baptized Catholics have an obligation to remain in
Communion. Communion with our Trinity
God, and Communion with the Church as His instrument of our salvation. We must submit our minds, hearts and wills to
God and the teaching of His Church. “Incline
my heart according to your will, O God.”
And
to stay in Communion means to stay in a state of grace, meaning not conscious
of the stain of grave sin - mortal sin - sin so serious that it fractures our
relationship with God, puts us outside, if you will, that Communion.
Mortal
sin - probably haven’t heard that term in awhile. Three things make a sin mortal
–serious or grave matter, it must be done with full knowledge (yes, I know this
is a sin and I’m going to do it anyway), and it must be done with complete free
consent. Serious matter, knowledge, free
consent. That kind of sin is kind of an “in
your face” to God, a rejection of relationship with Him, cuts off Communion
with the Trinity, cuts off sanctifying grace.
Examples
of grave matter – murder, theft, abortion, false witness, sexual sins like
adultery, contraception, pornography, fornication – any sexual intimacy outside
the confines of Christian one-man, one-woman marriage. Jealousy, greed, blasphemy. Those are sins of commission. Our Blessed Lord in Matthew’s Gospel lists
grave sins of omission – failure to feed the poor, give drink to the thirsty,
care for the sick, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger.
Another
mortal sin is receiving Our Lord’s Sacred Body and Blood in a state of mortal
sin. The Church teaches that we ought
not approach the altar if we’re conscious of grave sin, for to so we “eat and
drink judgment on ourselves,” as the Apostle Paul teaches.
As
an aside, Bishop Matano announced this week that next Sunday, the Feast of
Corpus Christi, will begin a Year of the Eucharist, in which we the Church of
Rochester will focus with renewed zeal and love on the magnificent gift our
Lord has given us in His Sacred Body and Blood, the source and summit of our
Faith. One aspect of his pastoral letter
concerns the necessity of our approaching the altar worthily. While Pope Francis has written that the
Eucharist isn’t to be a prize for perfect people, and who is perfect? but,
indeed, we believe that if by our serious sins we have severed our relationship
with our Triune God, we should come forward for a blessing but not receive.
Now
if heaven is eternal Communion with Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we have a word
for what it’s called to be eternally outside that Communion – hell - another
word we seldom talk about. Pope Francis regularly preaches about it - hell is
real, and if you or I die in a state of mortal sin, outside a state of grace,
tragically that’s where you or I will spend eternity, separated from God.
The
very good news of the Gospel ,the very good news of THIS Gospel, is that God desperately loves us, desperately
wants for that not to happen. God so loved the world that He sent His only Son
so that we might not perish but might have eternal life – heaven.
How
desperately does God love us? Look upon
the crucifix, look at what Jesus suffered for us, to save us. That is how much He loves us and wants to
spend eternity with us, doesn’t want to lose any of us, that any of us ever be
outside that Communion. He loves us with
a father’s firm hand and a mother’s gentle, tender, compassionate love. He knows that we simply can’t do it on our
own, that we need to be saved, and that is why the Father sent His only Son, to
suffer, die and rise again so that you and I may be saved, healed, restored,
sanctified, made holy.
The
world out there tells us there’s no such thing as sin.
But if there’s no sin, then there’s no need of a Savior. No need of Jesus Christ. I don’t know about you, but I desperately need
a Savior!
The
confessional, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, is the specific place He gave us
for being restored to saving grace, the place where we experience the Lord’s exquisite
loving mercy. Where if I approach with a
contrite heart and firm intent to amend my life, to “go and sin no more” as Our
Lord gently commanded the woman caught in adultery, then I hear those beautiful
words of absolution - that He has forgiven me, restored me to grace, restored
me to Communion with Him and with His Father in the Spirit. So let’s get to
confession before coming to Holy Communion if we are ever conscious of grave
sin, if we are ever outside a state of grace.
Why?
You might remember eight years ago a plane crashed just outside Buffalo,
killing all fifty or so on board. One of
the victims worked for a man I know, and I called this man once the victims’
names were announced to offer my condolences, and this man, a faithful
Catholic, said words to me that I’ve never forgotten. Ed, he said, “state of grace, just in
case.” Meaning, we don’t know the hour
we’ll be called from this life.
Brothers
and sisters, let us pray, let us ask Our Lord for the zeal and deep desire to
spend eternity with Him. And to allow
Him, in the confessional and here at the altar of His Sacred Body and Blood, to
strengthen us in holiness, preparing us for that glorious day when we enter
into the mystery of the Trinity, when we fully enter into the eternal, joyful,
blissful Communion of love with our God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
