SOLEMNITY of the HOLY TRINITY

Posted on by Cassie

God’s fundamental attitude toward the world is love, because God is love(1 John 4:8).  God would have been justified in condemning the world for its sins.  But instead He sent His Son so that we might have eternal life rather than perish.  All who accept Jesus receive eternal life.  Those who reject Jesus are rejecting their only escape from eternal death.

God “gave” His only Son  in two senses: gave Him as a gift to us through the Word becoming flesh, and gave Him up to death for us on the cross.  That is the measure of God’s love for us.  God does not seek to condemn us, but to give us eternal life through His Son. Those who accept Jesus as God’s revelation receive eternal life; those who reject Jesus reject the eternal life He brings, and thereby condemn themselves to the death which is the fate of all those born of flesh alone.

Deciding for or against Jesus therefore has eternal consequences, but it also has consequences here and now.  Rejecting Jesus and His message is the way to eternal damnation.

God wants us to have eternal life with Him.  If we ask His help to accept Jesus and not reject His message, God will give us the grace we need to accomplish His holy will.

God Bless

Msgr. Powell

 

Pentecost Sunday

Posted on by Patrick Leyden

The apostles were frightened in the upper room.  They heard from Peter and John about the empty tomb, but they were afraid.  We are a bit like them as we believe in the resurrection but still often feel intimidated by difficulties and opposition.  Now Jesus reveals Himself to His disciples and their fear melts away in joy.  Jesus’ gift of peace to them was not for themselves only.  Peace is the effect of Jesus’ presence in the Church, His lasting peace to us.

In the beginning of human existence, God breathed into Adam.  By blowing on His followers, the risen Jesus now signals the beginning of a new human existence.  A new way of being human has come into existence in Him, for He is the  Word of God become human; in Him, human nature has  been renewed by being united to God.  Jesus Himself is human life made new.  Through His death, resurrection and ascension, He now draws us into His divinely renewed human existence.  He breathes on His disciples: He gives them the Spirit of God.

The disciples expected resurrection and a new creation at the end of time.  Now they see Jesus already risen, and they themselves begin to experience  a new creation.  The wind that will blow in the new heavens and new earth already begins to gust in their minds and hearts.  Through them Jesus will now continue His mission of bringing reconciliation with God to people everywhere.

We are called to be disciples of Jesus.  We have received the Holy Spirit at Baptism, Confirmation, and every time  we receive Holy Eucharist.  May Jesus breath the Spirit of God once again on Pentecost Sunday.  May the breath of God help us to bring the fire of God’s love to all we meet this day and everyday.

God Bless

Msgr. Powell

 

 

Seventh Sunday of Easter

Posted on by Patrick Leyden

Jesus concludes the Last Supper in prayer.  Now that His mission is about over and He is going to return to His Father, He reflects on His mission.  He has glorified His Father by carrying out His mission, which was to reveal His Father to men and women and thus give them eternal life.

Jesus’ work has borne fruit.  Through His words, His disciples have finally come to understand Jesus as the one sent by God—this is the key component of Christian faith in John’s gospel.  This does not mean their faith is perfect, or that they will never waver.  Therefore Jesus prays for them. He asks the Father to protect and care for them just as He has cared for them while He was with them.

The purpose of Jesus’ mission is to give us eternal life.  This life is not just the fact that we live forever; more importantly it is a new quality of life for the believer.  Eternal life is God’s own life.  He wants us to share this life because He loves us.  Jesus describes this life as “knowing” the Father and the Son.  This knowing is a personal, experimental union with God, an experience that is entered through the gift of faith when we surrender to God’s incomparable love.

 

God Bless.

Msgr. Powell