Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
Trinity Sunday
June 3, 2007
The love of God has been poured out into our heart through the Holy Spirit, that has been given to us.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
Today is Trinity Sunday. Ah hah! Trinity is not found in the Bible; they got us! We can all stop being Catholics now. Do you know how many people, who are Catholics, have heard that and their faith is in peril because they can’t find the word Trinity in the Bible? You can find the Doctrine on the Trinity in the Bible.
As you look at the Readings in your bulletin, you see that beautiful preface. There is the official Latin, the ICEL translation and then the literal translation, which is very beautiful.
You can view translations HERE
The teaching that God the Father is God, God the Son is God, and God the Holy Spirit is God, Three Persons in One God, is in the Gospel today and it is a teaching that we profess in the Creed. The word Trinity is shorthand for God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Creed begins with, “I believe in One God”, but we believe in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Look at the picture on the front of your bulletin. The color is not an exact replica because the marble should be pink. This is from the Baptismal Font here at St. William’s. I remember when I got here it was just below the baby Jesus on the other side of that wall and down a step and a half. It was in the basement. I asked the men to bring it up and they put it on a dolly and took it another step and a half down, rolled it outside, down the sidewalk, into the front door of the Church and come up one step to place it where it is right now. It must weigh 8,000 pounds. It is beautiful. The font was brought to the Church at the same time the Altar was and in fact, the pink marble surrounding the Pelican on the front of the Altar, which symbolizes Jesus’ Charity, appear to be leftover pieces from the construction of the Altar and were taken and inlaid into the marble of the font.
At the bottom of the picture you see the words in Latin, “Ego Baptizo in Nomine Patre er Filii et Spiritus Sancti. If you were Baptized before 1970, more or less, those were the words that were said over you and me when we were Baptized. It is interesting how the Baptismal font was on the other side of that wall, out of sight and out of mind.
The formula for Baptizing is Trinitarian.
I Baptize you in the Name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
In his beautiful book, Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict says this in the first chapters.
This is indeed the question. On the opposite page the pope writes,God is the issue. Is He real, reality itself, or isn’t He? Is He good or do we have to invent the good ourselves? The “God question” is the fundamental question and it sets us down right at the crossroads of human existence.
Hum…so God is secondary if not actually superfluous and annoying. We are approaching Father’s Day. I know we just celebrated Mother’s Day but now we are moving on. Jesus claimed that He is the Son of God. This is what is promoted in Baptism, is it not? To be Baptized is to become a brother or sister of Jesus, an adopted son or daughter of God the Father. But fathers can be treated as if they are secondary, superfluous and annoying. The same can be applied to GodAt the heart of all temptation as we see here is the act of pushing God aside because we perceive Him as secondary if not actually superfluous and annoying in comparison with all the apparently far more urgent matters that fill our lives.
This new book by Pope Benedict begins in the first chapter with the Baptism of Jesus, the first three years of His public life until His death on the Cross. He starts with the Baptism but it all hinges on the issue of being a Son of God. Many people before Jesus and at the time of Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. I just turned forty-eight and have heard the Passion all my life.Is He real, reality itself, or isn’t He? Is He good or do we have to invent the good ourselves.
Crucify Him, give us Barabbas
Father says this with a Texas drawl.
I am from Dallas; I can say it. Anyway, the pope points out things in this book that are so beautiful and things that are overlooked or have never been learned. He brings up the figure of Barabbas and also mentions St. Peter on the next page. There were those harsh words that Christ spoke to St. Peter.
Get thee behind Me Satan! You are not judging as God judges but as man judges.
Those were probably the harshest words that Jesus could say to anyone. Jesus had asked His friends,
Who do people say that I am?
They answered,
Some say you are John the Baptist, other Elijah and other say you are one of the prophets.
Then Jesus goes from the general to the specific and asks,
Who do YOU say that I Am?
In an instant Simon Peter replied,
You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
In earshot of all the Apostles, Jesus turns to Peter and says,
Blessed are you Simon bar -Jona, for no mere man has revealed this to you, but My Father in Heaven.
Later on come the harsh words,
Get thee behind Me, Satan!
When Jesus is telling his Apostles that He will be handed over, arrested, tortured and crucified, St. Peter takes Him aside and explains to Jesus that this is not his vision of God, not his vision of a Messiah. Before Jesus rebukes St. Peter he says to him,
Blessed are you, Simon bar-Jona
This translates to, “Simon son of John.”
“Bar” means “son of”…”blessed are you son of John.”
The Pope then tells us very beautifully about the Passion and Barabbas. Barabbas was there with Jesus, standing before Pilate. The pope writes,
That is what I have heard all these years. Ok, so Barabbas was a robber, but the Greek word for robber had acquired a specific meaning in the political situation at the time in Palestine. It had become a synonym for “Resistance Fighter.”The alternative that is at stake here appears in a dramatic form in the narrative of the Lord’s Passion. At the culmination of Jesus’ trial, Pilate presents the people with a choice between Jesus and Barabbas. One of the two will be released. But, who Barabbas was is actually the words of John’s Gospel that come to mind here.
Barabbas was a robber
So, he was a resistance fighter who took part in an uprising and was a murderer. It still doesn’t dawn on me! The Holy Father has to spell it out. This is evidence that Barabbas was one of the prominent resistance fighters, in fact, prominently the actual leader of that particular uprising. In other words, Barabbas was a messianic figure; people thought he was the Messiah…a messianic figure. The pope goes on.In St. Mark’s Gospel, Barabbas had taken part in an uprising and furthermore, he had been accused of murder.
Last week when Fr. Andrew was here he mentioned that Abba means “Father” and bar means “son of.” Bar abbas…”Son of the Father!” Barabbas was called this and he was representing himself as son of the Father. Standing there in the presence of Pilate and opposite of Jesus when the people vote, and people put so much confidence in voting. American Idol seems to be all the rage. Well, they voted during the Passion of Jesus and said,The choice of Jesus versus Barabbas is not accidental; two Messiah figures, two forms of Messianic belief stand in opposition. This becomes even clearer when we consider that the name, Barabbas, bar abbas means “Son of the Father.”
Give us Barabbas! Give us THAT son of the father and NOT that Son of the Father!
Barabbas means “Son of the father.” What a bad voting choice. What Jesus had claimed all along was that HE IS the Son of the Father. How fitting for the pope to start his book, Jesus of Nazareth, at the Baptism of the Lord, because there present at that Baptism is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; the Most Blessed Trinity.
To get us to understand the baptism of the Lord, we have to look at how the Baptism of Jesus was viewed at the time. First of all, the pope writes in his book a very revealing detail and something that came to mind this morning and last Wednesday when we had those great rains. I thought the flood of Noah was here again. The pope writes,
The kind of rain we saw last Wednesday and in recent days kind of gives you a window into what it must have been like during the great flood. Of course for a people who lived in the desert, the desert is the exact opposite of living near the water. We have lakes all around us here. We drive across water all the time; we are used to water, but for the ancient mind at the time of Christ, the Jews saw the ocean as a symbol for death and destruction and by extension, the Jordan River. The pope writes,The actual ritual of Baptism symbolizes this; on one hand, emersion into the waters of Baptism is a symbol of death, which recalls the death symbolism of the annihilating destructive power of the ocean flood. The ancient mind perceived the ocean as a permanent threat to the cosmos, the earth. It was the primeval flood that might submerge all life.
Where was St. John the Baptist Baptizing? It wasn’t on the beach but at the Jordan River. People would go down there and they weren’t just trickling down but going in great numbers. In the same chapter the pope says,The river Jordan could also assume this symbolic value for those who were immersed in it.
So Jesus went to the Jordan River to be Baptized. Now, the Baptism of St. John the Baptist could only be conferred once. Isn’t that interesting that so many non-Catholic Christians believe that Baptism can be repeated? In the very end of the Creed we state that we believe in “ONE Baptism” for the forgiveness of sins. This is not “fly-over” country and it is actually Biblical. St. John the Baptist had a Baptism, which could be conferred once and this is exactly in keeping with the Doctrine of Baptism in the Catholic Church. One is all!The whole of Judea and Jerusalem were making the pilgrimage to be Baptized.
Those going to be Baptized by St. John the Baptist would also confess their sins. At the Jordan there was probably some arrangement like we have here at St. William’s. If you look at the first stained glass window over to your right at the front of the Church, there is usually a sign under it that says, “Do Not Go Beyond This Sign”. If the sign wasn’t there…you see the Vatican flag there right next to that door? There would be people there. I would be hearing confessions inside the confessional and someone would be hearing confessions outside the confessional. Or, they would at least hear the penitent’s sins. The sign is there for a reason.
I would bet, human nature being the same no matter what the era or where in the world you are, that if St. John the Baptist were Baptizing in the Jordan River, there was probably a line and everyone in line would be proclaiming to everyone else that they are sinners. I bet there would be a distance between the line and where St. John was Baptizing. During the Baptism people would confess their sins and by being baptized, pray for their sins to be washed away so that they could turn from that life to a new life, following God more intensely
St. John is Baptizing over there and the people are lining up over here and of course, we read in the Bible that Jesus came to be Baptized. Do you remember the part about how Jesus cut in line? No, I don’t either; He was in line with the rest of the people.
“But Father Paul, He is without sin! Why is He putting Himself there? Doesn’t that look bad for Jesus, to be getting in line with all the sinners?”
When Jesus goes down to be Baptized, the Holy Father, in his book writes about what Jesus did during His Baptism. What did He do during His Baptism? Jesus prayed and as He prayed the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove above Jesus. Then the clouds parted and a Voice from the heavens declared,
This is My Beloved Son on Whom My favor rests.
So…here we have the Trinity. We have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, but the word “Trinity” is not there. At the Baptism of Jesus the Trinity demonstrates Its presence in the Voice from Heaven, and Jesus being Baptized in the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. This is what the Holy Father says about the act of Jesus descending to be Baptized.
He tells us that Jesus was praying while He received Baptism. Luke, chapter 3.The act of descending into the waters of this Baptism implies a confession of guilt and a plea for forgiveness in order to make a new beginning in a world marked by sin, then this “yes” to the entire Will of God also expresses solidarity with men; men who have incurred guilt but yearn for righteousness. What did Jesus do through this same situation? St. Luke, who throughout his Gospel is keenly attentive to Jesus’ prayer and shows him again and again at prayer in conversation with the Father.
Getting in line! Isn’t it amazing how we don’t get in line because we are ashamed, but Jesus got in line with all of us sinners!Looking at the events in light of the Cross and Resurrection, Christian people realize what happened; Jesus loaded the burden of all mankind’s guilt upon His shoulders. He bore it down into the depths of the Jordan. He inaugurated His public activity by stepping into the place of sinners.
The pope makes a reference here to the Old Testament figure of Jonah.Jesus, as it were, the True Jona.
Sin city, right? Or if you will… Las Vegas or just pick any city today. Jonah was told by God to go and preach to the people of Nineveh and he didn’t want to and so he got on a ship and headed in the opposite direction. Again, here is Jonah, who is a Jew and not a happy man because the ocean is a symbol of death and destruction. It is like giving a cat a bath; they don’t take to it. Jonah was going to run away from his mission as a prophet and then what do you know, there is the sea about to sink the ship and the men are trying to figure out what is going on. Jonah finally recognizes that he is the cause of what is going on.God saw the terrible sins of the people of Nineveh. Nineveh is to the ancient what New York City Time Square is to our present day.
Now getting back to what the pope writes in that chapter.
Jesus takes our sins all the way back to Adam and Eve and all the way forward to the last man, who will ever live and sin, loads them on His shoulder and takes them down to drown them in a sense; to put them to death. The Baptism is connected to the Cross because Jesus allows Himself to be nailed to the Cross to put sin and death to death on the Cross. So the Baptism of the Lord is intimately connected with the Passion of the Lord. It is so beautiful, especially in light of Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God.Jesus is, as it were, the true Jonah, who said to the crew of the ship, “Take Me and throw Me into the sea.” The Baptism of Jesus is an acceptance of death for the sins of humanity.
The Son of God is Jesus and we, by Baptism, are his brothers and sisters and adopted sons and daughters of God the Father. As someone put it the other day, we are all adopted. Do you have problem with adoptions? We are all adopted by God the Father and this happens through Baptism, which is the door to the other Sacraments. The Holy Father recently commented on some people who desire Holy Communion but without bothering to be Baptized. The pope said absolutely not!
Baptism is the configuration of the soul in such a way that the Spirit of God rests in my soul. And of course I know that once I am Baptized I will never have any ache or pain for the rest of my life. After Baptism I will never experience misfortune or problems. I know that after I am Baptized that everything will go my way. If you believe this then you needed to wake up! When has that been the case? Never! But isn’t that kind of like choosing Barabbas? Barabbas was seen as the political son of the Father, who can kick those Romans out and take over the country, running it the way it should be run. Isn’t that similar to what they did with Barabbas? They shouted, “Give us Barabbas.” And while they were shouting, over here was the Son of the Father, who is left to suffer and die for our sins.
Becoming an adopted son or daughter of God the Father, and being a brother or sister of Jesus Christ is possible because the Spirit has come to rest in our souls. Last Sunday was Pentecost; we become tabernacles of God. Pentecost is the Feast of Tabernacles, when the Holy Spirit came down to rest upon everyone. In St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans he says,
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
Later in that same chapter St. Paul says,
We know that all creation is groaning and in labor pains even until now. And not only that but we ourselves, who have the first Fruits of the Holy Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
Think about it! We want God to be Our Father all day long, just like we are about to pray in the Pater Noster, the Our Father. Oh yes, God is our Father but do you know how easy it is to think of God as secondary, annoying and superfluous as the pope said? We can deny His paternity and leadership over us and tell Him to get out of here while we work. Or we can say to God,
“Forget it, I am resting now and I am on vacation! Forget it! Yea, I am Catholic but right now I am watching TV”
Or how about the big one…on the computer or, the third rail…talking on the cell phone, right? But we want God to be our Father all the time except in the situations above and then we find Him very annoying, almost secondary, or superfluous. This is just some vision of God that isn’t found in the text of the Bible itself.
When we receive Baptism, we receive the Holy Spirit and we are to live according to that Spirit and it isn’t going to be a featherbed. As some of you know, some friends and members of the parish went to Dallas yesterday and delivered their child. Elizabeth Beatrice Marie lived for just over and hour and died. Before she died, something her father and mother were prepared for because they knew the baby was very sick, the father took water and said,
The baby passed from this life into the next and she is not a little angel. Rocks smash scissors and angels are beneath saints in Heaven. She is a saint. That family was open to having this child. There were many people along the way, who insinuated other things.I Baptize you, Elizabeth Beatrice Marie, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
“Wouldn’t it be better if…..”
Just fill in the blank, right? And, not all of those children that suffered the fate of “if” since Roe versus Wade did not receive such treatment as the parents of Elizabeth Beatrice Marie treated her in accepting her life, which caused them great pain. It will be a pain and suffering they will bear the rest of their lives but they have a saint in Heaven. It is not make believe or pretend but Catholic theology. That is why we are open to life. There are bittersweet moments connected with yesterday. One of the other daughters that is two or three looked at her new sister who’d died and said,
How beautiful and bittersweet, but you can see how other children in the family consoled their parents, even in the hour of such tragedy and difficulty.Her head is a little big but we will take her home anyway.
In the second reading St. Paul says it all.
We even boast of our affliction. If we are really adopted sons and daughters of God the Father and brothers and sisters of Christ, we boast of our afflictions, knowing that the affliction produces endurance and endurance proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint.
I have to say that I struggle with this; when I have an ache, pain, or disappointment, or something happens to someone that I love, I have a temptation to say
“I have been Baptized; I am in the club. I have the coffee mug, cap and t-shirt. Why am I suffering?”
I am looking up to God the Father with this face when His sinless Son suffered it all. We have to remind ourselves in prayer everyday and actually boast of our afflictions,
……. knowing that the affliction produces endurance and endurance proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen