{"id":2473,"date":"2008-05-17T14:06:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-17T14:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/05\/homily-for-may-17-2008-trinity-sunday.html"},"modified":"2008-05-17T14:06:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-17T14:06:00","slug":"homily-for-may-17-2008-trinity-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/05\/homily-for-may-17-2008-trinity-sunday.html","title":{"rendered":"Homily for May 17, 2008: Trinity Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>I can\u2019t quite believe it, but it was one year ago this weekend that I was ordained a deacon. <\/p>\n

Incredibly, I\u2019m still here. <\/p>\n

Periodically, people ask me, \u201cWhat is your favorite part of being a deacon?\u201d Well, first, I think, is preaching. I\u2019m fortunate to have a lot of opportunities to do that here.<\/p>\n

But my second favorite thing\u2026is baptisms. <\/p>\n

There is a small green book that priests and deacons use for the rite of baptism. It has everything spelled out in there, all the readings and prayers. On the last page of my own copy, I have written \u201cMargaret Flanagan, July 1, 2007.\u201d That was the first baby I ever baptized. A little Irish girl. I don\u2019t know why, but Irish women keep coloring my life. I married one, and then, miraculously, for my first baptism, I baptized one. Little Margaret, I should add, was very well behaved. <\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t cry. I was bawling. But she was very calm and quiet. <\/p>\n

Baptisms are typically joyous occasions. It\u2019s a day of tremendous possibility and hope \u2013 even more so, I think, than weddings. At a wedding, more often than not, it\u2019s all about the dress and the cake. But at a baptism, it\u2019s all about the baby. A new life being welcomed into God\u2019s church. <\/p>\n

And there is something very particular, very specific, about the baptism ritual. It is in the words that are spoken. We call it the Trinitarian Formula. Which is: I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It\u2019s not considered a valid baptism unless those words are used. When people come to us for RCIA and want to convert, one of the first things we need to check is if that person was baptized, and how. If those words were not a part of the ritual, the Catholic Church does not recognize those baptisms. <\/p>\n

On this Trinity Sunday, if you want a reminder of how important the Trinity is, THAT is it. From the very beginning of our lives as Christians, we are sealed in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Without it, it doesn\u2019t count. It signifies the extraordinary importance the Church places on this singular belief, this one great dogma: one God, in three persons. <\/p>\n

It all comes down to Trinity. <\/p>\n

That is one of the reasons we celebrate this glorious feast, one week after Pentecost \u2013 the Trinity has been revealed to a waiting world, Father, Son and Spirit, and we mark this great gift. <\/p>\n

You may have noticed that the words in the second reading are very familiar. From that letter we get the words the priest uses at the beginning of mass. He invokes the Trinity in a beautiful and meaningful way \u2013 God\u2019s grace, Christ\u2019s love, the Holy Spirit\u2019s fellowship. He offers it to us, and we proclaim it back to him. <\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the first time we have mentioned the Trinity at this mass. This morning, it began with something that most of us probably take for granted, and hardly think about. We do it so often.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the sign of the cross. <\/p>\n

In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just a gesture that we use to punctuate prayer. It\u2019s not just a sign of our Catholicity. <\/p>\n

It is a re-statement of our baptism. <\/p>\n

The words I said over little Margaret Flanagan\u2026the words a priest said over each of us as water was poured over our heads\u2026the first words that made us members of the Body of Christ. Those words we speak again, and in effect, re-Christen ourselves. We brand ourselves with God in His three persons. And whatever we do or say after is in the name of the father\u2026and the son\u2026and the Holy Spirit. <\/p>\n

We become icons of the Blessed Trinity. <\/p>\n

What an incredible gift. <\/p>\n

What an incredible responsibility. <\/p>\n

Just think of what that simple gesture means. <\/p>\n

We touch our heads for the Father \u2013 the one whose mere idea, whose smallest thought, created us. This is where we began, in the mind of God. <\/p>\n

We touch our hearts for the Son \u2013 the one whose unceasing love took him to the cross, and the one who taught us, as well, how<\/i> to love through his own Sacred Heart. <\/p>\n

We touch our shoulders for the Holy Spirit \u2013 the one who gives us strength, and who carries us on His shoulders — on His wings if you will \u2013 and who enables us to be God\u2019s arms, working on earth. <\/p>\n

When we make the sign of the cross, and pray the sign of the cross with those words, we make of ourselves an offering, and a prayer. We embody what the Trinity represents. And we seek to bring that with our lives and with our actions to all those we meet. We do it in the name of God \u2013 all that He is, all that He does. <\/p>\n

We do it in the name of the Trinity.<\/p>\n

Near the end of the baptism ritual, there is a beautiful moment when the parents receive a lit candle. The priest or deacon says to them \u201cReceive the light of Christ.\u201d Thinking about that moment, I\u2019m reminded this Sunday of something the great Anglican preacher John Wesley once said about the Trinity. He explained it this way: as three candles, giving off one light. <\/p>\n

Let us pray to live in that light \u2013 to always be drawn to it, and to always strive to give it to others. In the name of the one God in three persons \u2026in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can\u2019t quite believe it, but it was one year ago this weekend that I was ordained a deacon. Incredibly, I\u2019m still here. Periodically, people ask me, \u201cWhat is your favorite part of being a deacon?\u201d Well, first, I think, is preaching. I\u2019m fortunate to have a lot of opportunities to do that here. But…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homilies"],"yoast_head":"\nHomily for May 17, 2008: Trinity Sunday - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/05\/homily-for-may-17-2008-trinity-sunday.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Homily for May 17, 2008: Trinity Sunday - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I can\u2019t quite believe it, but it was one year ago this weekend that I was ordained a deacon. 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