A few weeks ago I was in the city, here in Melbourne, and as I was walking a young man joined me. He was wearing a white shirt and a tie. However it wasn’t his outfit that got my intention. He wanted to talk to me about Jesus. Do you think that he was a Catholic? Probably most of us would say: Impossible, we Catholics don’t talk to people in the middle of the city about Jesus. However would you believe me that he was a Catholic? At least he was a Catholic to me. He was born to a Catholic family. He was baptised in the Roman Catholic Church. He has received the other sacraments in the Catholic Church but now he is a Mormon. That’s what he says, though to me he was like a lost brother. What hurt me most was what he said about the Holy Trinity. He insisted that he Holy Trinity was a theory made up a few centuries after Jesus, so it is false.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers!
A number of times I have been approached by Mormons, but that encounter from Lonsdale St. has left me deeply distressed as I realised that our brother, though he calls himself an elder now, has walked away from a chance to live his life with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
As we listen to the Gospel for this Sunday we hear Jesus talk about Father, Son and Holy Spirit in one breath because you cannot divide them. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church we read: “Christians are baptised in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: not in their names, for there is only one God, the almighty Father, his only Son and the Holy Spirit; the Most Holy Trinity.” There are lot of passages in the Holy Scriptures that reveal that there is one God in three persons but let me use only one quotation today, from the Frist Letter of John, chapter 4 verse 8: “God is love.” It means that even before heaven and earth were created with choirs of angels in the spiritual realm and people inhabiting our blue planet God wasn’t a lonely ranger but He was the communion of three persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit. How could you apply the word LOVE to someone who doesn’t have another person to love?
My Dear Friends what I want to proclaim today is what I said to that lost brother of ours I met in the CBD: the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is not a human invention but it is the loving communion of Divine Persons from whom comes our own ability of loving even to the point of laying down one’s life for his friends.
Have you seen a baptism? It is such a calming celebration. The water flowing on the person’s head and these words given by Jesus: “I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” But don’t be misled by the calming circumstances of baptism because it is a very violent, dramatic and dynamic moment. “In the name” means dragging someone into the relationship with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the Gospel of John we read: “No one can come to me unless the Father draws them.” When Jesus sent his Apostles on the mission of making disciples of all nations he revealed that with his Father and the Holy Spirit he wants people to be “dragged”, drawn into the most profound relationship with the Holy Trinity. Of course no once can force another person to love and that the painful choice some people make. However those who make their choice to believe, to love God, will need others to approach God. As no one can baptise himself or herself as no one can get closer to God without another person ‘dragging’ him or her.
To conclude this homily I would like to invite you to join me to pray for this lost brother of ours. Let’s raise our empty hands the Holy Trinity for him:
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shell be world without end. Amen.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers!
A number of times I have been approached by Mormons, but that encounter from Lonsdale St. has left me deeply distressed as I realised that our brother, though he calls himself an elder now, has walked away from a chance to live his life with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
As we listen to the Gospel for this Sunday we hear Jesus talk about Father, Son and Holy Spirit in one breath because you cannot divide them. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church we read: “Christians are baptised in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: not in their names, for there is only one God, the almighty Father, his only Son and the Holy Spirit; the Most Holy Trinity.” There are lot of passages in the Holy Scriptures that reveal that there is one God in three persons but let me use only one quotation today, from the Frist Letter of John, chapter 4 verse 8: “God is love.” It means that even before heaven and earth were created with choirs of angels in the spiritual realm and people inhabiting our blue planet God wasn’t a lonely ranger but He was the communion of three persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit. How could you apply the word LOVE to someone who doesn’t have another person to love?
My Dear Friends what I want to proclaim today is what I said to that lost brother of ours I met in the CBD: the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is not a human invention but it is the loving communion of Divine Persons from whom comes our own ability of loving even to the point of laying down one’s life for his friends.
Have you seen a baptism? It is such a calming celebration. The water flowing on the person’s head and these words given by Jesus: “I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” But don’t be misled by the calming circumstances of baptism because it is a very violent, dramatic and dynamic moment. “In the name” means dragging someone into the relationship with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the Gospel of John we read: “No one can come to me unless the Father draws them.” When Jesus sent his Apostles on the mission of making disciples of all nations he revealed that with his Father and the Holy Spirit he wants people to be “dragged”, drawn into the most profound relationship with the Holy Trinity. Of course no once can force another person to love and that the painful choice some people make. However those who make their choice to believe, to love God, will need others to approach God. As no one can baptise himself or herself as no one can get closer to God without another person ‘dragging’ him or her.
To conclude this homily I would like to invite you to join me to pray for this lost brother of ours. Let’s raise our empty hands the Holy Trinity for him:
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shell be world without end. Amen.
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