ONE GOD, THREE PERSONS
GOD THE FATHER, LOVER, GOD THE SON, THE BELOVED
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT, LOVE ITSELF
Many of us ask that question, WHERE IS GOD, perhaps daily as the world seem to crumble around us, natural disasters, human disasters, the world calling evil good, and rebuking what we know is good as petty and meaningless. For many of us it seems like a disaster, a train wreck and why doesn’t God intervene?
Has God forgotten us? Is He away on Sabbatical? No, that Sabbath day happened a long time ago. “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished. Genesis 2:3 God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good. GEN. 1:31
Today we live more in a world of man’s making. God created everything GOOD! Man messes things up from the very beginning and we keep repeating the same mistakes due to our pride and willfulness. Who made us God? All we have to boast in are gifts from God. Has God just thrown his hands up in the air wiped them clean of us?
Is God done with us? No, in the Old Testament, He appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Moses among others. It is not that God is not involved. He watches. He sees. He cares. He heard the cries for deliverance of Israel, enslaved in Egypt, in the Book of Exodus. Ask yourself this question, why would God who put so much care and love in creating you just walk away from you before you reach your heavenly home? You don’t do that with your children or even your pets.
The better question to ask, is WHERE ARE WE, TODAY? God has been pushed to the margins, denied, ridiculed, mocked and suppressed by man-made laws and moral relativists who make up their own truth. Is it any wonder that we who abandon God suffer the fate of our ancestors in the Old Testament?
When the “chosen” people in the Old Testament turned away from God, the result of going on their own was famine, slavery, and exile. We are in the same mess as our ancestors with climate disasters, migration, pandemics, enslaved to our sins…
God never gives up on us. God loves infinitely and eternally. He loves the sinner. His love created us. He had no need for us but wanted to share his life with us. “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.” Isaiah 49:15
When our Old Testament ancestors didn’t get it right, breaking one covenant after another, God promised a Messiah, a Savior, through the Prophets. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26 Jesus is that heart of flesh, that Word Incarnate, who took on our human nature that we might share in His divine nature.
JESUS BECOMES HUMAN THAT WE MIGHT BECOME DIVINE
God is present in our prayers today. God is present in our neighbor today. God is present today in the sacraments to be ministered through the Church Jesus founded. In the Sacrament of Baptism He adopts us and makes us heirs of heaven, in the Eucharist, we abide in Jesus and share in divine life. “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. “ John 6:54 In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, God forgives our sins, “whose sins you forgive are forgiven” John 20:23 And the healing words from the priest in the person of Christ (persona Christi) I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Wow, Is God present in this world or what! But some will say they have given up on the Church and all the bad shepherds. There have always been bad shepherds, even in Jesus’ time, but that never stopped Him from spreading the Good News. Jesus had plan for this also after He ascended into heaven. He would send His Spirit upon His Church. “…I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” John 16:7
The Holy Spirit of Truth unveils Christ to us. Union with God is impossible for anyone except through participation in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sinfulness, helps restore us from corruption to God’s likeness and glory. The Holy Spirit is the Sanctifier. He makes us Holy. And only the Holy will see God. Strive for…. that holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14
We are asked to place our faith in the Church because, for Catholics at least, the Church is not a merely human enterprise. She is the Bride of Christ: divinely instituted, sustained, and destined. “I saw a new heaven and a new earth… a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race.c He will dwell with them and they will be his people* and God himself will always be with them…. Revelations 21:2-3
Just as God chose Israel to be a light to the nations in the Old Testament, God formed a new people in the New Testament. God loved the world so much, he joined himself to our human nature in His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and in so doing, formed a new people, a chosen race, a holy Church.
The Church of Christ would have collapsed centuries ago if not for the Divine underpinnings and support of the Holy Spirit. Think about that. Pray about that! If you have left the Church, come home to Christ’ Mystical Body. When we say AMEN at the reception of the Eucharist, we are acknowledging we are the BODY OF CHRIST! Jesus calls us all to REPENT AND BELIEVE IN THE GOSPEL! MARK 1:15
HOLY SPIRIT, SANCTIFIER AND ANIMATOR OF CHURCH, THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you shall renew the face of the earth.
O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful,
grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise
and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.