{"id":3239,"date":"2008-05-18T09:51:53","date_gmt":"2008-05-18T09:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2008\/05\/solemnity-of-the-most-holy-tri-1\/"},"modified":"2017-06-12T05:56:18","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T04:56:18","slug":"solemnity-of-the-most-holy-tri-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2008\/05\/solemnity-of-the-most-holy-tri-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cascades of Jubilation<\/strong>
\nT\"Trinit%C3%A9%20Bellegambe%201510-1520.jpg\"<\/a>he Office of Lauds this morning was a torrent of undiluted praise. The Church gives us doxology upon doxology. She expresses her adoration in great cascades of jubilation. In some way, today\u2019s Divine Office is a preview and foretaste of heaven. How is heaven described in the book of the Apocalypse? It is an immense and ceaseless liturgy of adoration. Angels and men together doxologize ceaselessly. In the presence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all created things become an utterance of glory. Eternity\u2019s ceaseless doxology begins here on earth. If this is apparent anywhere, it should be so in a monastery.<\/p>\n

The Doxological Life<\/strong>
\nIn today\u2019s First Reading Moses exemplifies the doxological life. He rises \u201cearly in the morning\u201d (Ex 34:5). You recall what God had said to him: \u201cBe ready to come up to Mount Sinai in the morning, and there thou shalt stand before me on the mountain top\u201d (Ex 34:2). God asks for readiness in the morning. He bids us come up in the morning to Mount Sinai. He asks that we present ourselves to Him on the mountain top. How are we to understand God\u2019s commands to Moses? Christ himself is our morning. You know Saint Ambrose\u2019 marvelous hymn for the office of Lauds, Splendor Paternae Gloriae:<\/em><\/p>\n

Thou Brightness of Thy Father\u2019s Worth!
\nWho dost the light from Light bring forth;
\nLight of the light! light\u2019s lustrous Spring!
\nThou Day the day illumining.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If Christ Be Your Morning<\/strong>
\nFor the soul who lives facing Christ it is always morning. For the soul who lives in the brightness of His Face it is always a new day. If Christ be your morning it is never too late to start afresh.<\/p>\n

Christ the Mountain<\/strong>
\nGod summons us to the mountain top. Christ Himself is our mountain. Christ is the high place from which earth touches heaven; Christ is the summit marked on earth by the imprint of heaven\u2019s kiss. If your feet are set high on the rock that is Christ you are held very close to the Father\u2019s heart, for Christ is the Son \u201cwho abides in the bosom of the Father\u201d (Jn 1:18). \u201cI am in the Father and the Father is in me\u201d (Jn 14:11). \u201cStand before me on the mountain top\u201d (Ex 34:5), says God. What is God saying if not, \u201cOffer yourself to Me there through Christ, in Christ, and with Christ.\u201d God\u2019s three commands to Moses are fulfilled for us in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.<\/p>\n

Christ the Sun of Justice<\/strong>
\nThe Eucharist is the light of the Church\u2019s day. Mother Marie-Ad\u00e8le Garnier<\/a>, the foundress of the Tyburn Benedictines in London, called the Mass \u201cthe Sun of her life.\u201d Without the Eucharist we have neither warmth nor light. Without the Eucharist there is no new day, no morning, no possibility of starting afresh. That is why the Christian martyrs of Carthage when interrogated by Diocletian\u2019s proconsul could only answer, Sine dominico non possumus<\/em>, \u201cWithout Sunday,\u201d that is without the day of the Eucharist, \u201cwe cannot go on.\u201d So long as we have the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass we have a new day. So long as we remain faithful to the Eucharist we will have before our eyes Christ, \u201cthe Sun of justice who rises with healing in His wings\u201d (Mal 4:2).<\/p>\n

Ravished Upward<\/strong>
\nThe Eucharist is the mountain top. Holy Mass is the descent of heaven to earth. It is the summit of the Church\u2019s life; it is from the rock of the altar that the Church is ravished upward into the love of things invisible. In the Holy Sacrifice we are certain of standing in the presence of the Father; Christ, the Priest and Victim of every Mass, says, \u201cNobody can come to the Father, except through me\u201d (Jn 14:6). The Father waits for us in the Mass even as He waited for Moses on the heights of Mount Sinai. He \u201ccomes down to meet us hidden in cloud\u201d (Ex 34:5) that is, in the Holy Spirit, to reveal to us His Name and His mystery.<\/p>\n

Stand Before Me<\/strong>
\nGod calls us to the mountain in the morning that we might stand before Him. \u201cThere thou shalt stand before me\u201d (Ex 34:2). We go to the mountain to be offered. We go to Christ our Altar to be offered upon Him. We go to Christ our Priest to be offered by Him. We go to Christ our Victim to be offered with Him.<\/p>\n

The offering takes place under the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit who, \u201clike a bright cloud\u201d (Mt 17:5), covers the mountain. For this we pray in every Mass, asking to be assumed into heaven, begging God to command our quick transport \u201cto his altar on high in the sight of his divine majesty\u201d (Supplices te rogamus<\/em>, Roman Canon). \u201cThere thou shalt stand before me\u201d (Ex 34:5), says God. This is the posture of the sacrificing priest before the altar. Saint Paul explains it, saying, \u201cAnd now brethren, I appeal to you by God\u2019s mercies, to offer up your bodies as a living sacrifice, consecrated to God and worthy of his acceptance; this is the worship due from you as rational creatures\u201d (Rom 12:1).<\/p>\n

The Lord Comes Down<\/strong>
\nOnly after Moses obeys the commands of God by rising early, by climbing the mountain, and by presenting himself there, does the Lord \u201ccome down to meet him, hidden in cloud and Moses stood with him there\u201d (cf. Ex 34:5). \u201cThus the Lord passed by, and he cried out, It is the Lord God, the ruler of all things, the merciful, the gracious, slow to take vengeance, rich in kindness, faithful to his promises, true to his promise of mercy a thousand times over\u201d (Ex 34:6-7).
\nThis too is a mystic foreshadowing of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Holy Mass is the Lord passing before us. It is the Lord revealing himself merciful and gracious. In the Eucharist God makes himself known. In the Eucharist He comes down hidden in cloud to meet us. In the Eucharist He lays bare the merciful love of his heart a thousand times over.<\/p>\n

Adoration<\/strong>
\nHow does Moses respond to God\u2019s revelation of Himself? \u201cAnd Moses making haste, bowed down prostrate unto the earth, and adored\u201d (Ex 34:8). He adored. Adoration is the only response worthy of God\u2019s self-revelation. For the believer it becomes the only response possible. Out of adoration flows all else. Only adoration allows us to take in the mystery of the Lord passing before us.<\/p>\n

The text says that Moses \u201cmade haste, bowed down prostrate unto the earth, and adored\u201d (Ex 34:8). Why does he make haste to adore? Adoration cannot be delayed. Adoration is urgent at every hour. \u201cThe hour is coming and now is,\u201d says Our Lord to the Samaritan woman, \u201cwhen true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For such the Father seeks to adore him\u201d (Jn 4:23). We make haste in going to adoration because the desire of the Father precedes us there. We cannot arrive a moment too soon. The imperative of adoration once understood brooks no delays, admits of no excuses. \u201cMartha went, and called her sister Mary secretly, saying: \u2018The Master is come, and is calling for you.\u2019 She, as soon as she heard this, rose quickly, and came to him\u201d (Jn 11:28-29).<\/p>\n

In bowing down prostrate with his face to the ground Moses discovers something about himself and about his people. \u201cThis is indeed a stiff-necked people\u201d (Ex 34:9). In adoration we discover just how stiff-necked we are, how unbending we are, how proud, and how resistant to grace.<\/p>\n

Compunction<\/strong>
\nAdoration \u201cin spirit and in truth\u201d (Jn 4:24) leads to compunction. Compunction in turn leads to the prayer of contrition and to conversion of life: \u201cGuilt of our sins do thou pardon,\u201d says Moses, \u201cand keep us for thy own\u201d (Ex 34:9).
\nThis then is the experience of Moses. It is ours as well. We know nonetheless that after the morning there is the rest of the day, that after the mountain\u2019s height there is the descent into the plain, and that after the offering there is the sacrifice and the communion. In the Second Reading Saint Paul spells out the consequences of this for us: \u201cPerfect your lives, listen to the appeal we make, think the same thoughts, keep peace among yourselves, and the God of love and peace will be with you.\u201d (2 Cor 13:11-12). Thus does the Eucharistic life radiate from the morning Sacrifice into every hour of the day; from the mountain into every valley and plain; from the place of offering into every occasion for sacrifice and communion.<\/p>\n

Presence of the Trinity<\/strong>
\nThe word \u201cTrinity\u201d occurs nowhere in today\u2019s Lectionary texts; it occurs nowhere in the Bible. The adorable Mystery is nonetheless wondrously present: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, revealed in the morning light, shining on the mountain, summoning us into the Eucharistic life of offering, sacrifice, and communion. \u201cGod so loved the world that he gave up his only-begotten Son\u201d (Jn 3:16).<\/p>\n

Abba, Father <\/strong>
\nThe gift of the only-begotten Son is renewed in Holy Mass. With the Body and Blood of the Son comes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Today\u2019s Communion Antiphon is a ray of the morning light. Write it on the tablets of your memory. Let it accompany you from the mountaintop into every moment of the Eucharistic life. \u201cTo prove that you are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying out in us, Abba! Father!\u201d (Gal 4:6). And make haste! It is time to adore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cascades of Jubilation The Office of Lauds this morning was a torrent of undiluted praise. The Church gives us doxology upon doxology. She expresses her adoration in great cascades of jubilation. In some way, today\u2019s Divine Office is a preview and foretaste of heaven. How is heaven described in the book of the Apocalypse? It <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homilies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-Qf","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3239"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15745,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3239\/revisions\/15745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}