Naming the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, we hear Jesus speaking, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit… I am with you always, until the end of the age.”[i] We also hear in the inspired writing of Saint Paul, “…you received a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’ … heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”[ii]
By virtue of being taken into Christ through Baptism, we are made one with Him. Each subsequent grace, conforms us more to the likeness of Jesus, taking us deeper into His life, presented in adoration to the Father.
Blessed Abbot Marmion writes beautifully of the mystery of being in the heart’s-embrace of the Father in this text from Christ in His Mysteries:
When you go to communion, during these holy days of Ascensiontide, let your soul abandon itself to thoughts of joy and confidence.
You are with Jesus in the heart’s-embrace of the Father, in the sanctuary of Divinity.
By uniting yourself to Jesus Christ you incorporate yourself in Him; He is in you, and you in Him; and you are before the face of the Father. True, you do not see Him. Yet, by faith, you know yourselves to be in His presence, with Jesus who has taken you to Him. You are with Jesus in the heart’s-embrace of the Father, in the sanctuary of Divinity. This is for us the deep grace of the Ascension—sharing, by faith, the ineffable inner life that Jesus has with His Father in heaven.
By the grace of our Savior, and with Him, we can always be in the heart’s-embrace of our Heavenly Father.
It is recounted in the Life of St. Gertrude that one day, on the solemnity of the Ascension, when she received the Sacred Host from the hand of the priest, she heard Jesus say to her: “Here I am; I did not come to say goodbye to you, but to take you with me to heaven and present you to my Father.” Leaning on Jesus, our soul is powerful, because Christ gives us part in all His riches and treasures: “Who is this that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her Beloved?” In spite of our miseries and our weaknesses, let us never be afraid to approach God. By the grace of our Savior, and with Him, we can always be in the heart’s-embrace of our Heavenly Father.
Let us lean upon Christ Jesus, not only in prayer but in all we do, and we shall be strong
Let us lean upon Christ Jesus, not only in prayer but in all we do, and we shall be strong. Though we can do nothing without Him—“Without me you can do nothing,” we can with Him do everything: “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.” We find in Him both the source of a great confidence and the most efficacious motive for fidelity and patience in the midst of the sorrows, disappointments, trials, sufferings, that we must undergo on earth until our exile ends…
Let us live already in heaven by faith, hope, and love
With Christ offering His merits to His Father for us, there is no temptation we cannot conquer, no difficulty we cannot surmount, no adversity we cannot endure, no insane joy from which we cannot detach ourselves. In waiting to rejoin Jesus in heaven (or rather, waiting till He calls us there Himself, since He is “preparing a place” for us), let us live there, by faith in the limitless power of His prayer which is always heard; by hope of one day being sharers of His bliss; and by love that delivers us up joyously and generously to the faithful and entire accomplishment of His will and His good pleasure. It is thus that we shall participate fully in this wonderful mystery of the glorious Ascension of Jesus: “living in mind of heavenly things.”[iii]
In the celebration of the Most Holy Trinity, let us remember these words of Blessed Marmion:
In spite of our miseries and our weaknesses, let us never be afraid to approach God. By the grace of our Savior, and with Him, we can always be in the heart’s-embrace of our Heavenly Father.[iv]
Botticelli, Sando. “Holy Trinity with Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist and Tobias and the Angel .” WikiMedia Commons, March 30, 2010. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Botticelli_Trinity.jpg.
[i] “The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.” USCCB. Accessed May 28, 2021. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/053021.cfm.
Reading II: Rom 8:14-17; Mt: 28:16-20
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Marmion, Columba. Christ in His Mysteries, 368–70. Bethesda, MD: Zaccheus Press, 2008.
[iv] Ibid.
Posted for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity | May 29, 2021
