Monday, Fifth Week of Easter: Indwelling of the Trinity

Here are Father Richard's words for the Monday of the 5th Week of Easter

Readings: https://universalis.com/20200511/mass.htm

Homily: Indwelling of the Trinity

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The pagan crowd in today’s reading saw Paul’s curing of a cripple and concluded that he and Barnabas were gods. The two apostles were so appalled by this claim that they tore off their clothes, rushed into the crowd and shouted that wonderfully stern phrase which often prefixes a reprimand of someone: “Friends, what do you think you are doing?”

Paul and Barnabas were so horrified by this heresy. In response, they make a robust defence of the One they preach and in whose name they act: “the living God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that these hold…” As today’s response to the Psalm declares: we only give glory to God.

In the Gospel, we hear more of who our God is and how close He is to us. Jesus mentions the three Persons of Who the Church later came to define as the Holy Trinity. We, like Saint John Henry Newman in His wonderful hymn affirm: “Firmly I believe and truly, God is Three and God is One.”

Jesus says to anyone who loves Him, both He and the Father “will make our home” with them. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, will also be sent by the Father in Jesus’ name to teach us. Here, Jesus alludes to that sublime reality: the indwelling of the Holy Trinity.

The Catechism speaks of our ultimate end: to enter into perfect unity with the Blessed Trinity. “But,” it says, “even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity.” (CCC 260) There’s a beautiful quotation from Pope Leo XIII which speaks of this ‘indwelling’:

“God by grace resides in the just soul as in a temple… From this proceeds that union of affection by which the soul adheres most closely to God, more so than the friend is united to his most loving and beloved friend, and enjoys God in all fullness and sweetness.” (Divinum Illud Munus, 9)

During this Easter season we invite the Holy Trinity to dwell in our hearts, that we may be totally united to Him.

Ending with the prayer of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity we say: “Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest. May I never abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your creative action.” (CCC 260)