Holy Trinity Sunday 2023

“My sister Joann has a crush on you.”

I was in the sixth grade, and my interest in girls was beginning to develop. One day, my sister Bridget’s friend told me her younger sister Joann, my classmate, had a crush on me. I can remember being quite surprised. Joann sat on the other side of the room, and I didn’t know her very well. But knowing I was being admired from afar felt quite flattering. In the following days and weeks, we tried to get to know each other better by passing notes, shy conversations, and in different childish ways. The relationship obviously never went far, but knowing that a girl liked me was nice. Relationships are so crucial for our lives. Whenever we hear that someone finds us attractive and appealing, we naturally want to get to know them better. We try to develop a strategy to help the relationship grow and to get to know each other better.

Today, on Trinity Sunday, we celebrate God as a God of relationship. We honor God as three divine persons, but all in one sacred relationship, which God invites us to be part of.

Today’s scriptures tell us that God loves us and wants to have a relationship with each one of us. They reveal that “God so loved the world that He sent His only Son so that we might not die but have eternal life.” Today the scriptures tell us God so wanted to have a relationship with human beings that He sent Jesus into our world as one of us. He sent Jesus as a human to experience our human nature in all things but sin.

The Exodus reading reveals God desires a relationship with us even after we sin and are unfaithful to our relationship with God. God is willing to renew our covenant with Him when we ask for pardon and forgiveness. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians tells us our relationship with the triune God needs to be lived in a community of faith with other Christians.

Several years ago, in a parish survey, many of you responded that you wanted the parish to help you have a more personal relationship with God and to help you experience spiritual growth. Even if you didn’t make that your response, I pray you are here today not just out of a sense of obligation, but from a desire to be known by and to get to know God better.

Over the last few weeks, in my homilies and the parish publications, I have spoken about making plans for a spiritual renovation of the parish to accompany the physical renovation of our church set to begin in a few weeks. I told you that I plan to develop a small group of parishioners this summer to help me evaluate certain parish renewal programs to find one that best fits our parish situation.

My vision is to use that program as an outline for an in-house weekend retreat to help start reinvigorating and renewing the faith of parishioners. From that retreat experience, I hope to form small groups of six to ten members who will meet to deepen their faith together. These groups will allow our larger parish to experience faith on a smaller, more personal level. Parishioners often find it hard to find people with whom they are comfortable sharing their faith. I hope our spiritual program will make it easier for them to find like-minded people with whom they can grow in their relationship with God.

We intend for these small groups to offer the opportunity for parishioners to share their faith and deepen it together. Groups will be provided with materials to help them focus their discussion on reflecting on the weekend Mass scripture readings or an article of our Christian doctrine.

Your first reaction might be that you are a little frightened about joining such a group or think you don’t have the time. Plans are for the sessions to last from an hour to ninety minutes. I ask you not to have a closed mind but to start praying for the courage to join the program. We will organize the groups to meet at different times during the day and week. Hopefully, a time and day will fit everyone’s schedule. Start praying to find out how to say yes to being involved in our spiritual renewal program.

I know many parishioners are seasonal, but that need not be an excuse not to participate. We will plan to form groups for seasonal residents or distribute them among the different groups so you know you are welcome when you are in the parish.

After Mass last week, a parishioner told me he belongs to a similar group in his seasonal parish in Hawaii. He participates in his group through Zoom when he is half a world away. We can use that option with seasonal parishioners who are not in the parish for a meeting day.

I hope our spiritual renewal program will serve as a tool to help us evangelize. Parishioners often say they wish they saw more young adults and families in the church. The median age in our parish is seventy-five. The truth is our year-round population in the parish has many more retirees than young families, but we still need to make reaching out to all age groups and people of all backgrounds our priority.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at the library. An elementary class from our local school came marching through on tour. Looking at them, I didn’t recognize any from Mass or our religious education program. Last fall, we started a Children’s Liturgy of the Word as part of our education program. The program’s design is to take the children downstairs to the parish center, where they can hear the Mass readings using a simpler translation and reflect on them on a level they can relate to better. This Children’s Liturgy also allows their parents to listen to the Liturgy of the Word and sermon without being distracted by squirming children needing to go to the bathroom. Since there are often more children at our Masses during the summertime, I’d like to see this children’s liturgy conducted year-round and both here at Holy Redeemer and Our Lady of Grace Chapel. To do that, we will need many more volunteers. Perhaps you would like to help? Let us know.

Evangelize is a word that often frightens Catholics. Sadly, we Catholics believe that since Catholics are obligated to obey the Third Commandment and worship God each week, they should automatically join us at Mass. Unfortunately, we live in an age with too many competing interests for the attention and time of people, especially the young. To grow as a church, we must share our faith and reach out to others, especially fellow Catholics who are lapsed or are indifferent to religion. Our proposed spirituality program will teach us to be more comfortable sharing our faith and eventually help us evangelize for God in non overbearing or aggressive ways.

We can begin our efforts at evangelization by thinking of fellow Catholics we want to invite to participate in our spirituality program in the fall. To begin, Reach Nearby. Think of four or five people you know who are lapsed or marginal Catholics. They can be people in your family, your neighbors, and friends. Think of people you know who are already Catholics but are not attending Mass regularly for whatever reason.

When the Covid pandemic hit, churches had to close to prevent contagion, and some parishioners already on the participation margins stopped coming to Mass. That was in addition to people disillusioned by the sexual abuse scandals or confused by some Church doctrines. Many of them only need an invitation or the knowledge that their concerns will be listened to, and they will return to church. 

Next, Reach Up. Today begin to pray for these people. Include them as an intention in your daily prayers. Ask the Holy Spirit to change their hearts and bring them closer to God. We can all evangelize in that way, can’t we?

Then start Reaching Out. Reach out to these people you are already friends with. They are people you already love and want the best for. Strengthen relationships with them. Invite them to dinner to help build the bonds of trust. Be interested in what is going on in their lives. There is no need to start talking about heavy-duty faith issues, but be yourself and show interest in them.

The next step is to Reach Forward. Once we announce our retreat dates, invite your candidates to it. It will be better if you feel a little awkward and skeptical about what will happen on the retreat too.

Finally, Reach After by supporting the people interested in joining a small group. Try to answer their questions and fears. Offer transportation to small group meetings if they need it.

Yes, God so loves us that God wants a personal relationship with us. In the Liturgy of the Eucharist, God will soon offer us the Real Presence of His only Son Jesus Christ to strengthen and affirm that relationship as a sign of that love. As we come forward to receive the Eucharist today, pray that you will allow your heart and soul to be open to your renewed relationship with God.