This Sunday, we had our own "holy trinity" of sorts at the 11:00am Mass, as three folks were baptized into the Catholic faith: two adult men (brothers) and a baby girl (daughter of one of the first two). I wish I had some pictures to share with you...but there was just too much water—and grace—flowing for me to stop and grab the camera.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity B
I
was reading this past week about a museum in London, England:
the
Foundling Hospital Museum. (cf. M. Silf, America,
5/21/12)
The
Foundling Hospital, it seems, was established back in 1739
as
what we today would call an orphanage—
a
place to welcome, care for, and educate abandoned children.
For
any number of reasons—
(but
particularly because of poverty and illegitimacy)
mothers
who felt they could not properly care for their young children
could
leave them here—no questions asked.
But
more often than not,
these
same mothers
would pin a small token—
some
little trinket
such as an old button or a key,
a
scrap of paper or a snippet of cloth—
to
the clothing of their children,
in hopes
that each child’s natural parent
might be identified
if
she should ever return
to reclaim her son or daughter.
Many
of these bittersweet tokens
are preserved in the museum,
including
a small, heart-shaped metal charm from 1759 which
is movingly inscribed:
You have my Heart Tho wee
must Part.
The
reason these tokens
were so carefully preserved—
and
why they remain
such poignant artifacts even today—
is
because foundlings
are meant to be found.
While
these children may have been left off at the hospital,
what
was never abandoned was the hope
that
they might one day be reunited with their families.
We
are spiritual foundlings.
It’s
sin—
the
original sin which has mortally wounded human nature,
the
personal sins by which we so often miss the mark,
the
sins of injustice and of selfishness
found
in the very structures of our society—
it
is sin that has driven us from our Father’s house.
But
while sin creates an ever-widening gap
between
God and humanity,
we
have been given a token:
we
were made in God’s divine image and likeness,
giving
us an intrinsic worth, an inalienable dignity,
which
always remains, no matter how hidden or disfigured.
You
see, we were given this token—
even
in our sinfulness—
because
it’s always been his desire,
since
God created man upon the earth,
that
we foundlings should be found.
And
so God has tirelessly pursued us down the ages.
The
Lord revealed himself as the one true God
and
chose a people to be his own—
liberating
them with wondrous signs,
guiding
them by his commandments.
And
to that chosen people, in the fullness of time,
God
came in human flesh and blood,
sending
his only begotten Son
who
gathered followers that they in turn
might
go out to make disciples of all nations.
And
it is in receiving the baptism
which
those first disciples faithfully preached
that
we foundlings have been found:
adopted
as God’s sons and daughters,
becoming
heirs of God and coheirs with Christ.
And
thus we’ve been given another token—this one no trinket:
receiving
God’s own Spirit to dwell within us,
that
should sin ever separate us again,
and
found once more.
The
Church is the foundling hospital
established
by God in Jesus Christ.
To
the Church come the lost, the forsaken,
seeking
a stable home amidst the chaos of this world.
But
we are not dropped off here by a parent
unable
or unwilling to provide the proper care.
In
the Church, we are not abandoned, but found;
here,
we are not left as orphans,
but
welcomed into the very family of God—
welcomed
into the life of the Most Holy Trinity:
the
life of God the Father,
who has loved us from the start;
the
life of God the Son, who suffered and rose
that
we might share his glory as brothers and sisters;
the
life of God the Holy Spirit—
that
fire of love, that Spirit of adoption—
who
makes of us God’s children,
not merely in name but in fact.
Justin
and Doug:
today our parishes rejoice abundantly
that—together
with your loved ones—
you have found the Church,
and
that in the Church you have found God,
and
that in the sacraments you are about to receive
God
finds you,
making
you members of the Body of Christ
and
temples of the Holy Spirit,
who
can rightly call upon God as Father.
God
has chosen you as his own!
May
this reality which we now celebrate with you
remain
alive forever in your hearts.
London’s
Foundling Hospital
lasted
more than 200 years—into the 1950’s—
before
placing its remaining children in foster care
and
closing it’s doors for good.
Now
demolished,
the hospital’s original location
is
marked by a park and a playground,
and
it’s memory kept alive in the nearby museum.
But
foundlings—especially spiritual foundlings—
still abound!
And
so it falls to the Church—to each of us—
to help
them recognize the tokens of God’s eternal love.
Sent
by the risen Jesus in the name of the Holy Trinity,
let
us do for others what the Lord has first done for us:
gathering
to our merciful Father—one-by-one—
all
his children, scattered throughout the world.
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