Pentecost concluded our annual liturgical celebration of the Pascal Mystery and turned our thoughts with awe towards the mystery of God, to the Blessed Trinity. We prayed for the gift of the Holy Spirit: Through thee may we know the Father and the eternal Son. Mysteries are truths of of our religion that are grasped by faith. We do well to study them, but it is more important that they fashion us through meditation and prayer.
We are gathered now to celebrate the Sacred Mysteries, the sacrifice to which our Lord willingly and lovingly submitted at the Last Supper and Gethsemane, and consummated on Calvary. Our Lord was sentenced to death for telling the High Priest that he is the Son of God. The High Priest alone had the right to this direct witness, yet he had surrendered any knowledge of the Father by determining to have Jesus killed, and, lacking knowledge of the Father he crucified the Lord of Glory Jesus witness to the mystery of his true humanity and divine Sonship was the reason for his condemnation. He underwent that sentence willingly so that the world may know his love for the Father and his love of each one of us. We encounter this mystery in the Mass. In our Communion we feed upon it in faith.
In the Eucharist we learn of the love of the heart of Christ, an unfathomable yet uniquely consoling mystery to turn to should we be passing through bleak moments. These mysteries are of supreme importance in our journey to God. In them we progress little by little in the knowledge and love of God. We are converted by his grace. We become convinced of God’s unfailing love for each one of us, his yearning to come close to us with his forgiveness and his tender care for our wounds.
So may we come to know that there is only one mystery: God is love. This is the mystery, a mystery all embracing, simple, yet far beyond our capacity to understand, but in pray we are taught that love is his meaning.