It is the failure to recognize the humanity in other people, the failure to emulate the loving bond of the Holy Trinity, that can lead to the evil of racism in our society.
That was the message of Bishop Alfred Schlert in his Homily at the Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena on Trinity Sunday.
“When we fail to recognize, no matter the situation, the presence of God in another person,” the Bishop said, “it becomes possible to kneel on someone’s neck until the life is squeezed from him.
“There are no valid reasons for racism, which is evil,” Bishop Schlert said. “None.”
The failure to recognize each other’s humanity also leads to abuse, to human trafficking, to slavery, to exploitation of women and men, and to the presence in our society of euthanasia and abortion, he said.
“We are created in the image and likeness of the Holy Trinity,” he said. “We are unified in a bond of love. That is our desire today. That is our call today. That is our obligation today.
“That love is what causes us, enables us, and empowers us, regardless of race or gender or orientation or religion, to see God in another person,” Bishop Schlert said. “When we truly see and reverence God in another person, we cannot help but respect them, we cannot help but invite them into our human family, and say ‘Yes, we are one.’”
The Holy Trinity – God in three Divine Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit — is a core belief of Christianity, and what distinguishes it from other religions.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity was the first Sunday that faithful in the Diocese were once again able to be united by personal attendance at Mass, and by receiving the Holy Eucharist, after a nearly three-month absence.
We call the Holy Eucharist “Communion,” Bishop Schlert said, because it is the Sacrament that brings us unity, as brothers and sisters in Christ, and as members of the Catholic Church.
“So today, as we fortify ourselves once again on the body and blood and soul and divinity of Christ,” he said, “help us, Lord, to see in that Sacrament, and to understand in that Sacrament, to be examples for others in our society, to be in communion with one another, united in the love that makes us brothers and sisters, because we are truly begotten of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”
