June 2009

A priest was giving a talk on Scripture in Canada. After the talk a woman came up and gave him a note to read on his flight home. When the priest was on the plane, he took out the note. It read:

We have had many prayers answered in our family, but none so meaningful as the answer to our daughter’s recovery from an emotional problem. On the twelfth anniversary of my daughter’s emotional illness, I prayed in a special way to Jesus to heal her as he did the woman in the Gospel.

As you recall, the woman in the Gospel believed that if she could only touch his garment, she would be healed. After she touched it, Jesus turned to her and said, “Woman, your faith has healed you.”

With that same kind of faith, I told Jesus that I believed he could heal my sick daughter, and that I had enough faith for both of us. The next day we noticed small, positive signs pointing to her recovery. They continued in the days ahead. And after each one, we thanked Jesus whom we truly believed was answering our prayers. That was six years ago. Today she is a happy young woman. And what is even more marvelous, Jesus is now using her to help other people.

This mother ended the story with this observation:

God cannot answer prayers unless we pray. And if we pray, God will answer our prayers in his own time and often in a way more marvelous than that for which we prayed.

God did this in the case of the mother’s daughter. God used her illness to prepare her to help other people in need.

Saint Paul writes in his Second Letter to the Corinthians:

[God] helps us in all our troubles, so that we are able to help others … using the same help that we ourselves have received from God.

That is a significant statement. Let me repeat it for you:

[God] helps us in all our troubles, so that we are able to help others … using the same help that we ourselves have received from God.

That brings us back to the Canadian mother’s statement that God often answers our prayers in a way more marvelous than what we prayed for. Let us close with a brief meditation. I’m sure many of you are familiar with it. It was found in the pocket of a dead soldier. It reads:

I asked for health, that I might do greater things;
I was given infirmity that I might do better things….
I asked for riches, that I might be happy;
I was given poverty, that I might be wise….
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men;
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need for God….
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life;
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things….
I got nothing I asked for, but everything I hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among all men most richly blessed.

Blessed are you Lord and God of love, you who has given to each of us the gift of a Father.
Today we honor him and we thank you for the wonderful things that are ours because of him.
His love for us has been a sign of your Divine affection and a sharing in your holy love.
His concern for our needs and our welfare is a mirror of your holy care.
Bless our Fathers this day with your Strength that they may continue to be a sign of your Love in our Families.
Bless them in this lifetime with joy and laugher, with pride in their children and with peace in their hearts.
Bless too, those Fathers who have gone out of this life. They gave us life, may they now enjoy the fullness of life in the embrace of God of Love and Peace.
Fathers, may you, on this special day, be blessed by God and by our love for you. AMEN.

There is an ancient story that you may have heard. Saint Augustine was walking along a sandy beach meditating on the Holy Trinity. He kept saying over and over to himself, “How can God be both three and one? How can God be both three and one?” Suddenly, he was distracted from his meditation by the sight of a small child with a toy bucket, carrying water from the sea to a hole in the beach. Smiling at the child, Augustine asked, “And what are you doing?” The small child said, “I’m emptying the ocean into this hole.’ Augustine thought, “I’m trying to do what the child is doing. I’m trying to pour the infinite God into my finite little mind.’

Later, saints engaged in similar meditation on the Trinity, trying to get some partial glimpse into this central mystery of our faith. For example, Saint Ignatius of Loyola likened the three Persons in one God to three musical notes, united in the harmony of a single sound. Saint Luke does not say so explicitly in his Gospel or his Acts of the Apostles, but he clearly views Sacred Scripture as being Trinitarian in structure. The Old Testament focuses on the Father, who created the world. The Gospel focuses on the Son, who redeemed the world. The Acts of the Apostles and the letters of the apostles focus on the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies the world.

That brings us to ourselves. What might we do to make the Trinity come alive for us in our daily lives?

One way some people try to do this is a prayer exercise they follow each night before going to bed. They do a three-minute replay of their day. During the first minute, they pick out a highpoint of the day, for example, going out of their way to help someone. They speak to the Father about it and give thanks for the grace to do it. During the second minute, they pick out something bad that happened, like ignoring someone to whom they could have spoken a kind word. They speak to Jesus about it and ask him to forgive them and to give them the opportunity to make it up to that person. During the third minute, they look ahead to tomorrow to some critical point, for example, something they ought to do but have been putting off. They speak to the Holy Spirit about it and ask for the courage to deal with it in the day ahead. This exercise combines prayer with a simple examination of conscience.

In a very practical way, therefore, it brings the Holy Trinity into our daily lives.

Let us conclude with reflection: Glory to God the Father, who created the earth, and to God the Son who redeemed the earth, and to God the Holy Spirit who hallowed the earth…. Glory be to thee, Most Holy Trinity, today, tomorrow, and forever. Glory be to thee. Amen.