Catching Up
Don't worry, I haven't abandoned you
Hello, dear readers!
I hope you had a nice Memorial Day weekend. My was good, but also very busy, which is why I haven’t written anything in a few days. As I explained in my other Substack, the last couple of months have been pretty busy.
I had started writing a couple of posts, but but didn’t finish them on time, unfortunately. I’d like to share some thoughts, though—
Trinity Sunday
The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is one of those complicated things that seems contradictory at first blush, then gets even more confusing the more you think about it. Bishop Barron offers a good explanation.
One way to think of it is when you picture yourself. You have an image of yourself in your mind, and you love yourself. But we don’t really know ourselves perfectly. When God “pictures” Himself, that image is so perfect, it’s as if it’s another Person, Jesus. And the love between themselves is so real, that love is a Person, too: the Holy Spirit.
Leo Trese puts it another way in The Faith Explained:
However, we do attribute to the individual divine Persons certain works, certain activities that seem most suitable to the particular relationship of this or that divine Person. For example, it is to God the Father that we attribute the work of creation, since we think of him as the “generator,” the instigator, the starter of things, the seat of the infinite power which God possesses.
Similarly, since God the Son is the knowledge or the wisdom of the Father, we ascribe to him the works of wisdom; it was he who came upon earth to make truth known to us, and to heal the breach between God and man.
Finally, since the Holy Spirit is infinite love, we appropriate to him the works of love, particularly the sanctification of souls, since sanctification results from the indwelling of God’s love within the soul.
God the Father is the Creator, God the Son is the Redeemer, God the Holy Spirit is the Sanctifier. And yet what One does, All do; where One is, All are.
Eye of the Needing
Yesterday’s Gospel was the story of the Rich Young Man:
As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother."
He replied and said to him, "Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, "You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
At that statement, his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
This story is told in all three of the synoptic Gospels, but Mark adds a little detail: “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” This leads some people to believe that the rich young man is Mark himself!
Mark’s is the shortest Gospel, and thus has the least amount of detail. Yet, here’s something that neither Matthew nor Luke. Why? Perhaps because Mark is the person Jesus was looking at, and the only one who would know.
Okay, that’s all I have for now. More soon, I promise!