Trinity Sunday and the Corpus Christi Procession

05-27-2018Weekly ReflectionRev. John C. Granato

My Dear Friends,

Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday. The Trinity is a central dogma of our Christian faith; one God and three Persons. When we say the words, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we are calling upon the very name of God. He has revealed Himself to mankind as a Trinity of persons, but that revelation as Father, Son and Holy Spirit demands the faith that what we know of God is He is one. That is why when we baptize someone we baptize in the very name of God, by calling upon Him as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is a relational term as opposed to functional terms such as Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. These functional terms were popular in the 1980's and in some Christian denominations still are popular because they do away with "sexist" masculine terms for God.

The problem with this is that God does not exist to perform functions on His people. God exists to have a relationship with His people, a relationship that was revealed by His very Son, Jesus Christ, who called upon Him as Father. And since the Trinity is still one God and cannot be separated, by using functions for the three persons of the Trinity, we are separating the Godhead into modalism, a heresy that was condemned centuries ago in our Catholic faith. For all three persons are Creator, all three are Redeemer and all three are Sanctifier because the Divinity of God cannot be separated.

This Divinity of God, which is consubstantial to all three persons, also means that when we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, we receive His Divinity, a Divinity that is the same Divine spark as the Father and Spirit. So even though we receive the flesh of the Second Person of the Trinity, we also receive the fullness of Divinity of all Three Persons of the Trinity. We celebrate this feast of the Body and Blood of Christ next Sunday. One traditional way that we honor the fullness of the Trinity in the worship of the Body and Blood of Christ is by having a Eucharistic Procession with Christ present in the Monstrance. Next week, beginning at 2 pm, we will meet at St. Mary's Church and begin our procession to Sacred Heart Church, then move onto St. Francis Church and finish at St. Peter's Church for benediction. It is a sign of our faith that we bring Christ to the streets of Torrington as a witness to the love our God has for us by giving us His Son to receive and to adore in the Blessed Sacrament. Our witness of the Real Presence of Christ is meant to be evangelizing. If you cannot physically process from church to church, then please meet us at the entrance of each Church for readings or at least come to St. Peter Church where you will receive the many blessings that are associated with benediction. If you are able to participate in the procession, you may be granted a plenary indulgence as long as you fulfill the requirements.

May God bless you.
Fr. John

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