Hope Does Not Disappoint

June 16, 2019

In our second reading, St. Paul tells us of the love of God that has been poured into our hearts.   It is a compelling image; one of our hearts being filled with this abundant love and God pouring and pouring and pouring without stopping.  This overfilled experience which finds divine origin is the power of the Trinity we celebrate this weekend.  One week after Pentecost, the Church draws us back again to reflect on the essence of the divine love.  All that we have experienced in the Sacred Triduum and Easter Season finds its power in the love the Trinity has within itself.  It is overflowing.  The love the Father has for the Son and the Holy Spirit, the love the Holy Spirit has for the Father and the Son and the love the Son has for the Father and the Holy Spirit is so unifying and so overflowing that it is poured into our hearts.  What a life changing blessing.

So the question remains, how do we live in this love?  How do we communicate this love?  How do we evangelize with this love?  Facebook pages and internet communications are filled with selfies.  Selfie sticks were created so a better picture could be taken and shared, but those are all staged.  The smiles and joy only capture a fraction of a second.  But what about when the camera is not on?  Do we radiate joy?  I think of all the times I was told to smile for the camera.  Obviously I wasn’t smiling in the first place or I wouldn’t have to be told to do so.  Recently in a staff meeting, I asked our parish staff this question and I feel it bears repeating:  If 100 action pictures were taken of you while you were living life, how many would show you happy?  What percentage would reveal joy?  I think this is an important question.  If we have God’s love being poured into our hearts, what is happening to all that is being poured in?  What is stealing this love from us?

On the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, we are to go back to our roots.  We are to go back to the divine revelation of God.  He has poured love into our hearts and it is overflowing.  This love is so abundant that it is to impact our lives each and every day.  So all-encompassing is this love that even death cannot destroy it, but only perfect it.  The union of the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit is profound.  The love between the Three is so pure and so unifying that it overflows.  Blessed are we who receive it and share it with others.

How many pictures of your life capture this joy?

Reverend  John J. Ouper