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In the name of the Father

The
first reading on this Trinity Sunday tells us about Moses on Mt. Sinai when he
broke the cuneiform laws carved into tablets and transcribed, transformed and
translated them onto papyrus.  In that same reading Moses gives a new name
for God, the first “Lord”. ‘Lord’ in the reading, stands for the
traditionally unspoken “I Am”.  Moses is stating a new First
Commandment–“I Am Lord and God Almighty”.  

Imagine
what it must have felt like for the apostles to follow behind Jesus entering
Jerusalem as King David did, to the shouts and cheers of the crowds. 
Finally He (and they) were being awarded the recognition and praise that the
Christ deserved. HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST!  What was their understanding of
the Christ?  I imagine that the picture most people had, and have, was
much like this:  a triumphant conqueror who will put everything in the
world to …

When we were children, we trooped up to kneel at the
communion rail on the Feast of St. Blais for the priest to bless our throats
with two crossed candles.  In Luke’s gospel reading we learn of a ritual
that is no longer practiced.  Today is also Ground Hog Day, recalling what
was once the Candlemas bear.  These things led me to reflect on rituals
and the rules surrounding them.

Some years ago, I was looking …

When the Babylonians gathered the intellectual, spiritual and political leaders from various areas of Israel and settled them in Babylon, there was an unexpected result. Those descendants of the 12 sons of Jacob, thrown together by tragedy, shared with one another the various strands of the traditions, laws and histories since their ancestors left Egypt. The result of their collaboration is our Bible.
Biblical scholars call one of them “the Priestly Writer” and credit him for the great Creation …

There are two version of the giving of the Holy Spirit to the Church. In one, (Acts 2:1-12) a roar of wind is heard outside the room and tongues of fire appear on the heads of the apostles. After, they go outside and preach to people of many nations and languages. In another version, (Jn 20:22-23) the Risen Christ appears to the apostles and breathes on them saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you shall forgive, …

My
friend, Byron, wrote and successfully defended his PhD dissertation on the
Apocalypse.  After he died, I was given a
copy of his work, although before that, he had told me his understanding of
what the Apocalypse or the Book of
Revelation was all about.  There were
two points that Byron made to me.  The
first was that it was a message sent to particular Christian communities at a
very definite time in history, a time when they had …

In this week’s first reading from Exodus, the voice in the burning bush said that I was known to your fathers as “God Almighty” but now “I Am Who I Am.” The sacred letters that form this new name of God, “YHWH” were so sacred that whenever these letters were read out loud they were replaced by the word which in English is “Lord.”
But in English we are not so reluctant to use these words. “I am…” …