Ex. 34:4b-6, 8-9; Dan. 3:52-55; 2 Cor. 13: 11-13; Jn. 3:16-18

The Lord, Our Father, one in three Persons is the answer to our pandemic, our injustice, our violence.  He is Jesus who first appeared to the disciples after the resurrection with the words, “Peace be with you”.  Do we seek peace, justice, unity and community then now is the time to proclaim Jesus is alive!  The power of evil on the streets is calling for “law and order” but the soul is hungry for love and justice.  The church must not be silent nor divided at this time but be one in the faith with the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We must not carry the sin of omission by being silent. 

During this pandemic we have experienced a separation from the Mass, the summit of our celebration of faith.  Is this a “vacation” from our obligation with a dispensation or a realization of our need for the body of Christ in the Eucharist, our need for unity as a people of God, and a need to enter into a deeper communion with the Trinity in our life of prayer.  One of the hardships for the community is having to bury the dead without a Mass.  In addition to the loss of a loved one and limited participation allowed from the funeral homes there is also the sense of an incomplete participation from the church.  The body of Christ is grieving to return to being one again and we must open the doors to the fullness of the sacramental life once more. 

This week was the burial of George Floyd who died at the mercy and in the custody of police.   His death has become a universal call to justice spreading around the world.  In the streets are the peace and justice crowd seeking to build up a community and the call to violence crowd seeking to tear down a community.  One is based on love and the other on hate.  In a post someone stated “The problem is sin, not skin.  The answer is Grace, not race.  Jesus died for all.  Our nation needs Jesus!”  The world needs Jesus!  Jesus came for salvation of the world but the world still rejects the source of peace.  Jesus appeared to the disciples and his first words were “Peace be with you.”  The universal church must be heard and seen as the voice for peace.  Now is not the time to be silent and let others battle the streets.  Now is the time to proclaim peace in Jesus! 

“The Lord, the Lord a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity…so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life”.  In this the promise of the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament in the person of Jesus, second person of the Trinity.  Today we needs the Lord’s mercy upon our nation and the world.

His name “The Lord” is now given as “Father”.  “The Lord” who Moses bowed down and worshiped is now the “Father” who we embrace with the love of the Son to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  He is “Our Father” in one body and three persons from the beginning of time.  From the old to the new the Word remains an act of love for the world but the world must respond to this love to receive its salvation. 

Free will dictates we make a choice and the choice we make is to embrace the Trinity as a member of the community of heaven becoming one in body, soul, and spirit that is one in love.  The opposite choice is to remain “a stiff-necked people” where condemnations comes from rejecting faith in his name.  In who are we to believe?  Some claim science as ultimate truth but science is limited focusing on the study of the elements of truth, incomplete and evolving.  Others look to a political nirvana that exists in theory with no potential of survival in a fallen and broken human nature.  Finally, left without a place to turn many are left to believe only in themselves but there is only one of each person with separate minds alone unto itself, challenged and never at peace, to die without unity to other. 

Who do we serve, science, politics, oneself, or someone greater than and creator of all that is above, below and most importantly with all?  The Lord, Our Father from the beginning is a unity in communion as a Trinity.  This the church proclaims as a revelation from God, our Lord and Father in the Son through the Holy Spirit as the source of life itself.  Do we believe?  Eternity is dependent on the answer.  This is the choice this nation finds itself on the streets of good versus evil. 

History of the church was first seen as an outgrowth of the Jewish faith tied to the scriptures of what we know as the Old Testament until it was clear that Jesus would not be accepted as the Son of God, co-eternal, one in being with the Father and many were martyred in the faith for claiming what was rejected as heresy.  Today the division continues to get fragmented into many other denominations and the justification remains the same, the heresy labeled against the other. 

Who do we serve one God in three Persons or one denomination among hundreds?  God is a unity of one and until we accept this unity to love God as one united in the Trinity and our neighbor as one with us in our one Lord and Father, we have a way to journey in the desert of faith.  During this pandemic the church has closed and the world has become more shattered by evil.  The evil one is claiming victory for souls while the doors of the church slowly are opening.  Let us open the doors wide and return to claim our victory over sin and death.  Jesus is waiting and its our turn now.