May 26, 2013: The Most Holy Trinity
How many of you purchased a lottery ticket last weekend when the jackpot was $600 million. Suppose that you won that jackpot, what is the first thing you would do with the first payment? Someone half-jokingly asked me, “Father, can you say an extra prayer for me so that I can win the lottery? I’ll donate some of the money to your church.” We all heard about most of the lottery winners going broke very quickly. Why is that the fortune of winning lottery turns out to be misfortune for most of the lottery winners? We're reminded that winning the lottery will not solve our life problems in our marriage, with children, or with family. In fact many people's lives became notably worse after they got super rich, and they managed to lose their fortunes in no time. One lottery winner after his wife divorced him and whose grown children died after overdosing on drugs, said to the reporters in tears, “I wish I’d torn that ticket up.” What is it about the lottery that draws us, like moth attracted to a bug zapper? Perhaps, St. Augustine offers us an insight through his own experience.
“Late have I loved you, [God]. You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you.”
Sometimes we may be so obsessed with God’s creation that we forget about God himself. Often we forget Jesus who made it possible for us to share in the life of the relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The truly happy persons are those who have a sense of God and of his presence in their lives. Financial security is something that can flee away from us in an instant. We sometimes forget that we already have inestimable riches. Heavenly Father created me out of profound love for me, Jesus died for me to redeem me, and Holy Spirit helps me live the fullness of Divine Life on this earth. How can we grow in personally knowing the Father and his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ?
The path was shown to me in an unexpected way, through Blessed Mother. In college I read the book, “True Devotion to Mary” by St. Louis de Montfort. The author proposed that the quickest, the surest, and the shortest route to Jesus is through his Mother Mary. I was skeptical at first and wondered why we would give honor to Mary when we should be giving all the glory to Jesus? I realized that Blessed Mother responded to God's will with the total gift of Herself, body and soul, forever, from the Annunciation to the Cross and from the Cross to the Assumption. What if we could respond totally to God’s will just as Blessed Mother did? She can show us how to do this, if we allow her. St. Louis proposes that we consecrate ourselves to Jesus through Mary in a solemn way--dedicating our body, our soul, our material and spiritual possessions to Jesus. In July, I’ll invite those who are interested as a parish to consecrate ourselves to Jesus through Mary on the Feast of Assumption, August 15. But before consecrating ourselves, we need to consecrate our homes first. We need to dedicate our home to be a place of prayer and a place dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Who is the King or the Master of your home? It should be Jesus. And in a solemn way, you can make Jesus the centerpiece of your home by dedicating a place for a crucifix and having an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe near the crucifix. It will be a place dedicated to prayer and a reminder that Jesus is the centerpiece of our lives, and a reminder that Blessed Mother will always lead us to listen to Jesus and to do whatever Jesus tells us. Dedicating a special place in you home is called a home enthronement. If you are inspired to do so, at the end of the mass, we will have volunteers at the back of the church to take your name and address. We ask for a small donation of $5 for home a enthronement packet. Once you sign up, we’ll order the packets, and they will arrive in a few weeks. In the packet you’ll get a framable picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe and a prayer booklet. I hope that many of you will participate in dedicating your homes to Jesus Our King.
