Priests are fond of reminding everyone on this particular Sunday, if they choose to actually preach about the Trinity, how hard it is to avoid heresy. The secret is to keep it short. I’m sure that appeals to most of the people in the pews, but we could end up living our Christian lives as though the Trinity was some sort of enormously complicated and “risky” mystery that we had better not try to understand. Now while it is true that we will never understand the Trinity (even in heaven!), we shouldn’t let that stop us from having our hearts and minds expanded if not blown away while we are still here below. Jesus’ whole mission coming in the flesh was to make the whole mystery of God – the Trinity – accessible to us. When Philip complained about just wanting to be shown the Father, Jesus didn’t respond, “Sorry Philip, I know it’s hard to understand, there are a lot of Theological complexities involved, and you’ll never understand anyway so just believe it and don’t worry that it doesn’t mean anything to you.” Jesus actually said, “Do you still not know me Philip? Whoever sees me has seen the Father.” Fortunately, the key to a meaningful encounter with the Trinity has nothing to do with understanding it rationally.
Saint Philip Neri, Priest
St. Philip certainly had a rare gift. He was filled with the love of God to such a great extent that he became irresistible to all those whom he met. He had a great desire to love people for who they are because he experienced the love of God in an extraordinary way. He gives us the consoling example that our religion is not first about a form or practice of piety but rather about a heart that burns to love and meet people as they are, and burns to love God as He is. Sometimes we hear ourselves saying, “if only this person was <blank>” or “if God is so good why doesn’t He <blank>.” We extinguish the fire of love in our hearts by requiring God and others to conform to the way we would prefer them to be. The secret to Philip Neri’s heart was how it would burn through all expectations and requirements He could have put on others and on God.
Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Today we celebrate venerable Bede, one of our most prolific ancient commentators of Sacred Scripture. His reflections have inspired Christians for centuries.
Christ certainly does not leave any ambiguous points about divorce. The tradition of the Catholic church also does not give any indication that divorce is an acceptable solution to a sour marriage. Marriage has been weakened in modern times because of the general lack of spiritual formation – people don’t have a very deep sense of the meaning of human existence. Many people have found themselves caught in a situation where the decisions they have made in a state of immaturity or imprudence have set their lives on a course they would like to somehow alter for the sake of the possibility of happiness. In general, we have lost faith in the fact that happiness is not for this life but for eternal life. The idea that marriage is what is supposed to finally make us happy feeds the illusion and expectation that there is some way of life here on earth that we should not gladly trade for eternal life. There are many goods that a marriage between virtuous people affords, and great experiences of mercy and forgiveness between Christian spouses – the human experience of marriage is only for this earth however, there is no marriage in heaven.