In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Today we rejoice in the mystery of that invocation and the mystery of our faith - the “tri-unity” of God - that God is three Persons in one divine Being and one divine Being in three Persons, neither confusing the Persons or dividing the Being.

That mystery is already revealed in the first sentence of the Bible in the book of Genesis. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The word for “God” - Elohim - is a plural and yet there is but one God. The Spirit of God, whom we know as the Holy Spirit, is there too, hovering like a mother hen over the face of the Deep. And the Word is there too, as God speaks and it is so. John identifies this Word as the eternal, only-begotten Son of the Father. And so you might say that the entire work of creation is from the Father through the Son (the Word) by the Holy Spirit.

If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink, whoever believes in me. As the Scripture says, “From his heart will flow rivers of living waters.” (John 7:37-39)

Today is one of the highest and holiest days on our calendar. It’s a day we dare not forget, for if we do, we will forget the one who birthed us, washed us, nurtured and fed us. How dare we forget the womb that birthed us, the breasts that nursed us, the arms that comforted us. Of course, I’m talking about Church, our spiritual mother of our baptismal birth. Pentecost is, in a very real sense, our Mother’s Day, the day of the Church and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And of course, happy Mother’s Day to all who are mothers, and thanks be to God for our mothers.

Today, this 7th and last Sunday of the season of Easter is the in-between Sunday. The Sunday between the Ascension of our Lord and Pentecost. Forty days after the resurrection, Jesus ascended to His majestic glory at the right hand of the Father and disappeared from sight until the Last Day. Fifty days after the resurrection comes Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Today is part of the days in-between. We also live in the time in-between, between Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, and His appearing in glory on the Last Day to judge the living and the dead. It’s called the last days, the end times, the “1000 year” sabbatical rest of the old creation. The resurrection was already the dawn of the new; now we await the full blown day of eternal life.