RBWords

     On the first night of a parish mission, I ask the people what is the first thing they do when they walk into a Catholic church?  Usually I can get someone to remember that making the Sign of the Cross with holy water is that first thing.  Our right hand seems to automatically reach for that water! It's part of our Catholic conditioning.  Parents bring babies to the font and teach them to make the gesture!   Then I ask how many remember to say the words that are supposed to go with that gesture?  The sheepish looks on faces are a pretty good indication that the words don't get mentioned unless they are part of introducing another prayer, or concluding a prayer!  Notice at the celebration of the Eucharist, we usually begin with the Sign of the Cross and end with it. If I am asked to "offer a prayer" and don't begin with the Sign of the Cross, people will still make it!   And while we're at it, why do we call this the "Sign of the CROSS?"  Shouldn't it be the "Sign of the Holy Trinity?"   We have a complicated relationship with the words, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!"  I remind everyone that the words are those with which we were baptized!  Water and the Sign of the Cross at the entrance to the church should remind us that we are first baptized before we enter the church!  

     We celebrate today the feast of the Most Holy Trinity!  Scripture scholars warn us that the words in today's gospel are not meant in the same sense that they are used in the sacrament of Baptism.  The profound theological significance of the Trinity has its roots in scripture, but took a long time to grow in the Christian understanding of God.  No one can claim to understand it fully.  St. Augustine said, "It's not a lie but a mystery!"  St. Patrick legendarily used a shamrock to teach about it.  Theologians who spend lifetimes pondering the mystery speak of the "economic Trinity" (how it works in the world and in us) and the "immanent Trinity" (what it's like in itself)!  I think today we can just be glad that we have a very portable and easily remembered expression of the faith!  If we had to say the Creed each time we touched the Holy Water, it would take too long to get into church!   AMEN