"You received a Spirit of adoption - "Abba, Father!"
Matthew 28: 16 - 20
The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/053021.cfm
Back in the first year of my priesthood, I had the chance to share with other priests a pilgrimage to Greece, Israel and Rome. I was excited of course by the whole journey and we shared much along the way. But one unexpected, yet I believe profound experience on a city bus in Jerusalem, gave me pause.
A couple of us were going to move on to the museum of the
Holocaust, Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem and so we caught a city bus, very crowded
with Israelis. As we squeezed through the crowd towards the back of the bus
suddenly I heard a loud cry from a little Jewish boy in front of me, I would
say around eight or nine years old, who was clearly frantic. He cried out, “Abba, Abba” which of course
means “daddy, daddy” as he reached out his hand in front of me. The little boy
had gotten separated from his Father in the crowd and he was desperately
looking for him down the packed isle of the bus. I remember the boy’s father was standing
behind me so he called his son’s name and he reached around me as I let the now
much calmer boy pass and they were quickly reunited.
Immediately what came to my mind were the words of Jesus,
mentioned by Paul in our second reading this Sunday from Romans: “. . . you
received a spirit of adoption through whom we cry, “Abba, Father!” Hearing that
little boy yell out for his Daddy made those words of Jesus all the more
personal and startling. God is like a
Father to us; we are reaching out to connect with him, to find him because we
are his adopted sons and daughters. And
so, this Sunday’s Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, I think in that simple
example, brings it home. Jesus used such an everyday word that was spoken even
in his own time to open up for us a window to the nature of what God is like.
Yet, after the wonder of Pentecost and the sound of wind,
the startling appearance of “tongues as of fire,” the bold proclamation of
formerly indecisive disciples, and the conversion of thousands, we are stopped
short in our tracks. We’re tempted to take our faith from the tangible to the
abstract and theological as we reflect on the meaning of the Trinity yet we
desire to wrap our head and heart around this great truth that all Christians
profess. It’s the stuff of shamrocks and
united triangles and circles in order to explain the unity of the Trinity.
How did we come to believe and profess this great, yet
mysterious, truth about the nature of God as three persons yet one? Well, it didn’t come about instantly. Sure, our Lord implied in his teaching of
what God is like and we are many centuries after the final composition of what
is called the “Nicene Creed” spoken each Sunday at Mass. But it was through the lived experience of
the Christian faith that the early Christians began to see and understand the
meaning of the words of Jesus in the Gospels.
By living out the teachings of Jesus in their everyday life, by
gathering in prayer and reflection, the Church gradually over time began to
formulate this central doctrine of Christianity. Jesus used, and Paul remind
us, that God is an “Abba” to us, tells us something about what we hear in the
first reading as the author of Deuteronomy writes. He has a relationship with us that is akin to
a parent and a child, and in particular a desperate child in search for his
Abba.
In short, Deuteronomy reminds us of what God has done in
creation, that God has reached out to communicate with us and with a people he
specifically chose to reveal himself to, and that no other “god” can compare to
the true and only God who has proven his love to his people through mighty
works and a covenant of laws he has handed on to us. What we hear is that God collects or gathers
us to himself. That God is searching for
us like that child and father searched for each other. This is not a Trinity of
Persons who desires to remain distant and mysterious but a God who reaches out
to communicate.
These readings and the experience of the Church over time
showed them the deeper implications of Jesus’ teaching about the Father and the
Spirit. So, by the time the now common
Creed we proclaim at Mass was written, three centuries later, it simply
reflected and finally clarified what the Church had come to know and already
believed about the nature of God.
Our Gospel from Matthew brings this all home for us and
forever sets the mission of the Church forward to proclaim to the entire world,
for all time, not only who God is but that he desires to gather us to himself
in community with one another and with him.
Jesus approaches his disciples before his ascension and sends them out
to: “. . . make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
that I have commanded you . . .”
Each time we gather for holy Mass, we direct all of our
prayers to the Father, through his Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit. To imagine that we share in the life (love)
he enjoys, that the second person of the Trinity, Jesus himself, comes to us in
the intimate and real presence of the Eucharist is to bow in adoration of his
mystery as his spiritually adopted sons and daughters. We encounter him in an
awesome, yet what appears very ordinary, sign of bread and wine.
So the next time we bless ourselves before and after
entering into prayer, let’s be reminded about a God of family, communication,
relationship, and a God who listens for our “Abba” when we run to find him, we
can give thanks for this divine life extended to us, “In the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
God our Father, who by sending in to the world
the Word of truth and the Spirit of sanctification
made known to the human race your wondrous mystery,
grant us, we pray, that in professing the true faith,
we may acknowledge the Trinity of eternal glory
and adore your Unity, powerful in majesty.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
(Collect of Feast)
No comments:
Post a Comment