If you will, ‘summer’ kicks off unofficially this Memorial Day weekend. Significantly, this weekend provides a pause to remember the sacrifices of our deceased veterans, and also our deceased family and friends; a weekend where graduation gatherings remind us of the hope and ambitions of our young men and women; and, as it falls, recognition of the Trinity: God the Creator, Christ Jesus our Redeemer, and the Holy
Spirit our Advocate. On this Holy Trinity Sunday—always the weekend prior to Corpus Christi—may we not so much  attempt to explain this union, as to  recognize the grace of the Trinity bestowed on us through baptism and faith, as the Catholic author Brian Doyle explains: “But simple as the Sign of the Cross is, it carries a brave weight: it names the Trinity, celebrates the Creator, and brings home all the power of faith to the brush of fingers on skin and bone and belly. So do we, sometimes well and sometimes ill, labor to bring home our belief in God's love to the stuff of our daily lives, the skin and
bone of this world — and the Sign of the Cross helps us to remember that we have a Companion on the road.” Without digressing into a theological explanation of the union of the ‘Three In One’, we can demonstrate our belief by the simple, yet profound Sign of the Cross we habitually trace upon our body at the beginning of Mass, before meals, in a personal prayer, entering church and blessing ourselves with holy water,
etc. And for “the rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey would conclude, just a brief history of this common symbol/gesture/ritual demonstrating our belief in the Trinity. In the
third century, church father, Tertullian, described how the early Christians marked their foreheads with the sign of the cross at various moments in daily life. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, in the fourth century, validated the practice of the sign of the
cross as our testament of the Trinity. 

A few centuries later the three fold signing of the forehead, lips and heart was introduced at the time of the gospel proclamation in the Mass. Gradually the sign of the cross, as we know it today, was formally ritualized as a gesture: forehead to chest, then from right shoulder to left with the right hand, (and us southpaws had to capitulate). As the Orthodox Church continues to this day, with the thumb, forefinger and middle finger held together symbolizing the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But our belief in the Holy Trinity comes not with a full understanding of this union, but in the faith of an omnipotent Creator, our personal Savior, and the Advocate always at work in our daily lives. Marina Nemat, born in Tehran and imprisoned at the age of sixteen for her public demonstrations advocating for the rights of citizens, wrote about her ordeal—and Christian faith--years later after her release and relocation to Canada. “The way I see Jesus has not changed much at all since I was a child, but my imprisonment and all that followed made me love Him even more. His being the Son of God makes sense to me, because I believe God to be loving, just, forgiving, and merciful. I also believe that He respects free will. After all, He has given it to us so that we can choose to love or hate Him, do good or evil. But is it fair for a loving God to sit on His throne in Heaven and let us struggle and suffer on our own? Would any good father abandon His children this way? It makes perfect sense to me that God decided to come among us, live like us, and die a horribly painful death after being tortured. This is a God I can love with all my heart. A God who sets an example. A God who has bled and whose heart has been broken. This is who Jesus is to me. I don't pretend that I understand the Holy Trinity. But I understand love and sacrifice. I understand faithfulness.” And the next time we make the Sign of the Cross, wherever, may we gratefully be conscious of our freedom to openly express and celebrate our Christian beliefs. 

As we pause to decorate the graves of our loved ones, attend services for deceased veterans, or gather with friends/family this weekend, a prayer reminding us of God’s blessings bestowed on our country. 

God our Father, as we pause to remember those in the military who have given their lives for freedoms we enjoy, we pray you would have us all look to you for strength, comfort and guidance. Be with all who serve our country, at home and overseas; bless them and their families with your protection. Let peace prevail among all the nations, O God. Especially, let your mercy rest upon our land as we acknowledge with thanksgiving your past goodness on this country. Most of all, we pray that the blessing of our freedoms and liberties we so enjoy, may be tempered by the Christian faith and values we share with our brothers and sisters of this great nation. In this peace and hope for eternity, we pray.

God Bless, Fr. Tim

FYI: For our Graduates: “You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world.” (Tom Brokaw, journalist)