Pastor's Spiritual Reflections

By Fr. Leo Schneider (5/18/2008)

Dear People of Holy Name,

Often guys will share with me how close to God they feel when they are out in the woods hunting or on a lake or river fishing. Once when I was fishing in Alaska my eldest brother came to the top of the boat where I was praying, looked around and said, “Boy, I don’t know how anybody could look at that and say there is not a God.” There is a powerful sense of the vastness of God as we take in God’s creation and sense God’s presence in what God has created. For me that is an experience of God the Father, the creator or all things.

Another profound experience of God is what I witness in airports when I see loved ones reuniting or parting. The intensity of feeling around those moments speaks of how profoundly important relationships are to us and the love we share with our family and friends. These emotions surface at funerals and at weddings as we celebrate the profound gift of God to us in the people with whom we share our lives. For me this is the experience of Jesus Christ who became incarnate in the human experience.

Of course it is the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son who is our experience of God as Father, creator and as Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son. The Holy Spirit is what stirs within us when we call on God in our pain and when we praise him in our joy. The truth within us that identifies injustice and moves us to work for world peace, is the work of the Holy Spirit. Our deepest identity as children of God, on which our life direction is based, is the action of the living Spirit within us.

When we follow this inner voice we come to know the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. At this level we live in constant dialogue with God and come to know him and share in his life as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We become friends, sharing in the work of Christ, knowing in our hearts the faith God has in us as we place our faith in him. Our prayer is a coming to know God and a coming to know ourselves and the transformation that takes place in that relationship.

What we must never forget is what John tells us in today’s gospel, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” This single line can stand as a great corrective for the false images of God we may have acquired over the years. If our earthly father or the people in our lives have hurt us, we may have transferred this experience on to God and decided he doesn’t like us and won’t answer our prayers.

Here we must call on the Holy Spirit to heal us and help us to know the power of his love in our inner most being. God is love and God is for us, not against. As long as we believe in the love Christ showed us in dying for us and place our faith in him, God will lead and guide us, protect and save us and bring us to share fully in his joy, as we share in the life of the Holy Trinity.

Today we celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Trinity. We celebrate a God who created all things, redeemed all things and sanctifies all things in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As we proclaim our Amen in the Sign of the Cross, we affirm God’s love for us in creating, redeeming and sanctifying us in our journey to the new and eternal Jerusalem. Let us pray this Amen with deep conviction and renew our faith in the goodness of God, who believe in us, created us in his image and desires to share the fullness of his life with us.

May God bless us who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, creator, redeemer and sanctifier. Amen!

In Christ’s peace, Fr. Leo