God is Relationship, Demands Loyalty

Some years ago, in my homily to a group of high school students, I told the sad story of a lonely man found in an in inner city home.  The body was not found until the stench of the decaying body disturbed the neighbourhood.  For many weeks he was dead and no one missed him.  Listening to this story I could see tears dropping from the eyes of the students.  These students were well aware of the need to share life in its exuberance as well as in its barrenness.  Without sharing, life is nothing.  The more you are prepared to relate to others in love, the richer your life will be.   The Bible reveals that our God by nature is total sharing.

God is not solitary, unable to share himself one.  God is communion of loving relationships.  Jesus Christ has revealed that God is a relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit:  This unity of the three, Tri-Unity, we call Trinity.  This is the image in which we human beings are created.  Therefore, if we define the best human being as being a person totally autonomous, self-sufficient, not dependent on others it is not a good thing.  A good life has three dimensions.  As a good Christian you build up a fellowship with others and with God.  We celebrate this three-dimensional aspect of life when we come together as Christians to receive Holy Communion at the Altar.

     Many are happy to be philanthropic, thus leading a two-dimensional life.  Going a step further and making a fellowship with not only others, but also with God, your life will be more fulfilling. This happens in the context of a worshipping community.  Even some of the regular Mass goers do not seems to get it right.  They think by just attending Mass alone they are on the right path.  To be true to a fellowship with God and others, you need to have loyalty to your worshiping community, your parish.  Turning to your church only on occasions when you feel the need to ‘fill up’, as you would do with your car at a fuel pump, does not adequately show the divine nature in you.  Just as God is a trinity, total and mutual relationship between three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you who are created in his image also should be loyal to the Father and the Body of Christ.  On this feast of the Most Holy Trinity, ask yourself “What is my relation to the Father in heaven, and to Body of his Son, the Church? What place does the local parish have for me in my faith life?”