Blog & Pastor Letters

On the first Sunday after Pentecost of each liturgical year, the Church bids us celebrate in a special manner “the central mystery of the Christian faith and life,” the mystery from which “all the other mysteries of the faith flow” (CCC 234). The mystery in whose name we sign ourselves with the sign of the cross and receive the Sacrament of Baptism. The mystery of God in Himself. That is, the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. The mystery that God is one in three and three in one. One in essence and three in persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “One God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity” as the Athanasian Creed tells us.

The Church is very wise in the planning of the liturgical calendar. It seems like we are always in preparation for the next big thing in the cycle. As you will no doubt recall, the liturgical year begins with the season of Advent, a time of preparation for the coming of Christ. However, even in Advent, this holy time can be viewed as a kind of two-part season. Beginning with about the first three weeks, the focus is on the figure of Saint John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord Jesus, and the coming of Christ in glory at the end of time. Following this remote preparation for the Lord, from December 17 onward, we kick into high gear with the proximate preparation for the recalling of the events of the Incarnation and Birth of the Messiah, marked with the use of the “O” antiphons in the Liturgy of the Hours.

On this Seventh Sunday of Easter, the last before the great Solemnity of Pentecost, we find ourselves with the nascent Church as she patiently and prayerfully awaits the “promise of the Father,” who is the Holy Spirit in whose power the disciples would burst forth from the upper room, like the blood and water that burst forth from the heart of Christ, to sanctify the nations, gathering them into the Kingdom of Heaven through their witness to the risen Christ.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another . . .” In our readings on this Sixth Sunday of Easter, we hear much about Our Lord’s commandment to love. Yet this seems a strange thing to modern ears: a commandment to love. For many in our society today believe that love is simply a feeling, an inclination caused in us by encountering someone or even something outside of us. And so, some may ask, “How can we be commanded to love?” More than this, though, even if we can will ourselves to love, what kind of love is Jesus commanding us to give?