Deacon Tom's Homily for The Feast of the Holy Trinity

We cry out with gratitude on this solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity: “Glory to God in the Highest. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.”

When I was in grammar school, we prayed every day for the beatification of Father Damien. He was a missionary that served the leper colony on the island of Molokai in Hawaii.  The first twelve years of Father Damien’s mission were a failure, with only a handful of people attending his Mass each Sunday. The lepers wanted a native priest, not some missionary from Belgium, where Father Damien was born. One day, after an unsuccessful trek around the island, Father Damien put his aching feet into a tub of hot water to refresh them, and one foot didn’t feel the heat.  He instantly knew that he had contracted dreaded leprosy.

Many of you may have heard of that dramatic moment when Father Damien got up into the pulpit the following Sunday and began his sermon, “My fellow lepers.”  Like electricity, that news spread around the island, and the church overflowed every Sunday after that.  Father Damien had taken on their flesh, their leprous flesh, and had become one of them.

Today, we thank the Most Holy Trinity for giving us God the Son who took on our flesh and lived among us. Jesus showed us Resurrection.  He took all our sins upon Himself, suffered, and died for us in our place so we could share in His Resurrection.

Today, we say “thank you” for the gift of our Baptism when the very Life of the Most Holy Trinity is poured into each one of us, and this Very Life of God has never stopped flooding into us. Today, to the Immense Majesty of God above us, we shout: “Glory to God in the Highest.” And to that same God who dwells in the depths of our hearts, we cry out:

“Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Glory! Glory! Glory!”