Pastor's Spiritual Reflections

By Fr. Leo Schneider (06/03/2007)

Dear People of Holy Name,

All analogies refer to something else in an effort to describe another reality. Every description of some reality falls short of the reality, kind of like trying to see all the sides of a cube at once. We can only see partially any reality we encounter in this life. The same is true when we use the analogy of God as the Holy Trinity to describe God. In doing so we use human terms, we personify God, who is more than our minds can grasp.

We must remember this when thinking of God as the Holy Trinity. It is only a beginning and a bare one at that. To say God is Father is a masculine reference to the creator, God who would also have all the characteristics of the feminine as well. Even if we referred to God as the Mother/Father God, it would still limp because we are still using human terms to describe the infinite.

God is more than Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These are only aspects of one God. In reality God is more and one image must flow into the other. When we think of Jesus we must also embrace the Holy Spirit who dwelt in him and made him one with the Father. When we think of the Holy Spirit, we must think of the Son and how this spirit proceeds from the Son and the Father to us, to make us one with the Holy Trinity.

In John’s Gospel it is made clear that the Holy Spirit is what connects us and makes us one with the Father and the Son, just as they are one in the Spirit. In the end it is this unity with the trinity, the life of God in us and us in God, which is the goal and hope of all who contemplate the reality of God. Our feast day today is a celebration of our share in the divine life. Jesus prepares his disciples for the coming of the Holy Spirit who will teach them all things and direct them in all things.

To live in God is to live in his Spirit, and to know God is to know the Spirit that lives in us. Prayer is a calling on the Holy Spirit, or a tuning in and listening to the voice of truth and love that is our noblest self. I do think the voice of God speaks within us. Deep down we know there is energy, a voice calling us to a better life. When we are still, our hearts will tell us how content we are, or what we need to work on to make a fuller life.

Establishing a deeper relationship with God also establishes a deeper relationship with our inner soul. Learning to live in God is learning to live in peace with our inner self, seeking, being, and engaging in those things that bring fullness to our lives. God is for us, Paul says, and we must remember this when we pray to know God’s will, as it is planted in our souls.

As I write this, I can hear my inner voice calling me to change my schedule. To spend more time reading, thinking and developing my mind and my own sense of self, and less time with other activities, good activities in themselves, they need to be balanced with what will help me grow as a person. I can sense the discipline it will require to change certain patterns in my life and all that which makes the change hard. Here is where I pray for the Holy Spirit to keep me focused and in tune with my inner soul.

We all have needs and desire many things, but those needs must be balanced in a way that our deepest needs and desires can be realized. We may need the company of others, but we must also learn to be alone at times, to do what we need to be in touch with our inner-self nurturing, that part of us that require aloneness.

Today we celebrate that we are called to live in unity with the Holy Trinity by living in the Holy Spirit, which is their presence within us. Such shared life is what is most profound about being human and an unimaginable reality for us to share in the life of God. We have cause to celebrate, to trust and to find joy in what God as made as he formed us in his image and breathed his life into us.

Let us celebrate the Holy Trinity by celebrating and stirring our hope in all the Holy Spirit can and will do within us who call upon God’s name. We are the blessed, God dwells in us and we are called to life in God.

May the Holy Spirit show us his presence within us, bless our prayer, and lead us to the fullness of life now and forever!

God’s Spirit be with you, Fr. Leo