RBWords

     The one "Catholic" thing we do most often in our life is to make "the Sign of the Cross."  One could have a bit of fun and do some interesting reflection if one, along with others perhaps, asked how many different situations one makes the Sign of the Cross.  We begin and end formal prayer with it (even though it is a prayer itself!).  We step up to bat or make a free throw!  We drive past a church or cemetery.  We "bless" persons, objects and places with it.  More importantly, we baptize with it and remind ourselves of that baptism when we enter or leave a church by touching water in a container and making the Sign of the Cross.  When I mention these things at a parish mission, I ask a simple question.  How often do we remember to say the words: "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit?"  These words are necessary for a baptism to be complete and valid!  Today's feast is a reminder of our faith in those words - faith in a reality that, long after Jesus addressed the disciples on the mountain, came to be known as the Holy Trinity!

     This reality of our faith, which we profess every Sunday out loud in the Nicene Creed, took awhile to develop after much reflection by early Church theologians who started from scriptural hints and questions.  How can God be both one and three?  St. Augustine is famously known to have written, "It's not a lie but a mystery!"  The matter was decided in faith by the Nicene Council in the fourth century, but reflection has continued.  Some focus on the internal nature of the Trinity (the "immanent") and others on the action (the "economic").  Some focus on the community of love that this reality shows.  St. Patrick is said to have used the ordinary shamrock to illustrate this mystery.  

     The Holy Trinity gets into everything in our faith.  We cannot divide it up so as to exclude one or two of the three "persons."  If I may paraphrase an old song, "You can't have one without the others."  Next time you make the Sign of the Cross, do try to remember the words and be glad that the reality you profess holds you in being with every breath you take.  AMEN