Mary conceived in her soul before she conceived in her body.

A royal virgin of the house of David is chosen. She is to bear a holy child, one who is both God and man. She is to conceive him in her soul before she conceives him in her body. In the face of so unheard of an event she is to know no fear through ignorance of the divine plan; the angel tells her what is to be accomplished in her by the Holy Spirit.

She believes that there will be no loss of virginity, she who is soon to be the mother of God. Why should she lose heart at this new form of conceiving when she has been promised that it will be effected through the power of the Most High? She believes, and her faith is confirmed by the witness of a previous wonder: against all expectation Elizabeth is made fruitful. God has enabled a barren woman to be with child; he must be believed when he makes the same promise to a virgin.

The Son of God who was in the beginning with God, through whom all things were made, without whom nothing was made, became man to free him from eternal death. He stooped down to take up our lowliness without loss to his own glory. He remained what he was; he took up what he was not. He wanted to join the very nature of a servant to that nature in which he is equal to God the Father. He wanted to unite both natures in an alliance so wonderful that the glory of the greater would not annihilate the lesser, nor the taking up of the lower diminish the greatness of the higher. 

What belongs to each nature is preserved intact and meets the other in one person: lowliness is taken up by greatness, weakness by power, mortality by eternity. To pay the debt of our human condition, a nature incapable of suffering is united to a nature capable of suffering, and true God and true man are forged into the unity that is the Lord.

This was done to make possible the kind of remedy that fitted our human need: one and the same mediator between God and men able to die because of one nature, able to rise again because of the other. It was fitting, therefore, that the birth which brings salvation brought no corruption to virginal integrity; the bringing forth of Truth was at the same time the safeguarding of virginity.

Dearly beloved, this kind of birth was fitting for Christ, the power and the wisdom of God: a birth in which he was one with us in our human nature but far above us in his divinity. If he were not true God, he would not be able to bring us healing, if he were not true man, he would not be able to give us an example.

And so at the birth of our Lord, the angels sing in joy: Glory to God in the highest, and they proclaim peace to his people on earth as they see the heavenly Jerusalem being built from all the nations of the world. If the angels on high are so exultant at this marvelous work of God's goodness, what joy should it not bring to the lowly hearts of men? 

There are two kinds of leaders in the world, those who use other people to get what they want, and those who sacrifice themselves to bring prosperity to others. Jesus is the second kind of leader.

Today's First Reading expresses this beautifully. It is a prophecy describing the Messiah, God's promised Savior, Israel's great king, who will come and rescue Israel from idolatry and foreign oppression. The description presents a vivid, poetic comparison between the leadership style of this promised Messiah and that of the pagan kings who have conquered and ruled Israel for so long.

The Messiah enters Jerusalem on a donkey, an animal considered noble in ancient Palestine, but an animal ridden by judges and rabbis, by those who brought order and justice to society. This Messiah, the prophet goes on to describe, will banish chariots and horses - instruments of war used by the pagan conquerors and symbolizing oppression, injustice, and violence.

Jesus himself, in today's Gospel passage, explains his leadership style in the same way. He invites the crowds to come to him, to follow and obey him, so that he can "give them rest." He will never force us to labour and carry heavy burdens just for his own gratification, as selfish, power-hungry leaders do.

Instead, Jesus invites us to walk by his side, uniting our crosses to his cross, as if we and he were harnessed to the same yoke. Yes, we will have to work and suffer in this life, but when we do so united to Christ, it all has a purpose; it is all leading us somewhere.

And so, instead of oppressing, depressing, and frustrating our souls, bearing crosses with Christ brings us deep satisfaction and peace of mind even in the midst of life's trials.

St Genevieve the Peacemaker

This is why faithful Christians are always courageous defenders of peace, in all its forms: since Christ has established his own peace in their hearts, they are able to become peace-makers for others.

Take St Genevieve [JEN-uh-veeve], for example.

She lived in France, in the 400s. Paganism was still strong at that time, and so when her bishop allowed her to follow her vocation to become a consecrated virgin, she stirred up a storm of opposition. Calumny, slander, and abuse accompanied her on her many charitable journeys. At one point her enemies even plotted to drown her. She persevered by uniting her sufferings to Christ's - by taking his yoke upon her, she found rest for her soul.

She spent most of her time doing for others what Christ had done for her: bringing them the peace that comes from experiencing the power of God's unconditional love. For example, when Frankish warrior tribes (they were barbarians) laid siege to Paris, Genevieve risked her life by leading secret excursions out of the city at night in order to gather provisions for the starving Parisians.

When Paris eventually fell,it was Genevieve who courageously persuaded the pagan conqueror to release his prisoners and newly enslaved Christians.

Later, when Attila the Hun and his devastating army were approaching Paris, the people and city leaders panicked with fear. It was St Genevieve who rallied the populace, encouraged the Christians to pray for deliverance, and arranged for a prayer vigil in the Cathedral.

For no apparent reason, Attila changed his course and the city was spared. Six hundred years after her death, her relics were carried in procession through Paris as the city prayed for an end to an outbreak of the plague - and the plague ended. It's no wonder she is the Church's official patron saint for disasters. When we are filled with Christ, like St Genevieve, we overflow with his peace to everyone around us.

Putting on the Yoke of Humility

Christ brings peace to our souls. We have all experienced Christ's peace, at least a little bit. We have tasted the joy of his forgiveness in the sacrament of confession, the assurance that he is taking care of loved ones who have died, the consolation of knowing that he is near.

And yet, for most of us, that interior peace is not so deep and steady as we would like. The storms of life still seem to upset the ship of faith on which our hearts sail. Is there anything we can do to experience Christ's peace more steadily, securely, and deeply? "Take my yoke upon you," Jesus says, "and I will give you rest." What is that yoke? Jesus tells us, "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart."

Humility is the secret to experiencing Christ's peace.The more we grow in humility, the more Christ's peace, strength, and wisdom takes over our hearts.Like all the virtues, humility grows gradually, like a muscle if we exercise it.

Lucky for us, there are three very easy ways to exercise humility. First, prayer. Every time we pray sincerely, we acknowledge our dependence on God - an act of humility. This is why St John Vianney used to say, "God commands you to pray, but he forbids you to worry." It was his variation of the old saying, "Courage is fear that has said its prayers."

Second, speaking well of other people. Every time we observe and praise the good points of others, we loosen the shackles of arrogance and envy that bind humility. Third, obedience to God's will. Whenever we conscientiously fulfil our responsibilities in life, follow our conscience, and obey Church teaching, we are humbly reversing the arrogant rebellion of original sin.

Today, Jesus will once again prove his own humility and love by coming to us in Holy Communion. When he does, let's tell him how much we long for his peace, and ask him to lay his restful yoke of humility upon us.

The blood of the martyrs gives witness to Christian faith.
From the Homily of Pope John Paul II at the Canonization of the Chinese Martyrs

"Your word is truth; sanctify us in your love". This invocation, an echo of Christ's prayer to the Father after the Last Supper, seems to rise from the host of saints and Blessed whom the Spirit of God continues to raise up in his Church from generation to generation.

Today, 2,000 years since the beginning of Redemption, we make these words our own, while we have before us as models of holiness Augustine Zhao Rong and his 119 companions, martyrs in China. 

God the Father "sanctified them in his love", granting the request of the Son, who "opened his arms on the Cross, put an end to death and revealed the resurrection, in order to win for the Father a holy people".

The Church is grateful to her Lord, who blesses her and bathes her in light with the radiant holiness of these sons and daughters of China. Young Ann Wang, a 14-year-old girl, withstood the threats of the torturers who invited her to apostatise. Ready for her beheading, she declared with a radiant face: "The door of heaven is open to all", three times murmuring: "Jesus". And 18-year-old Xi Guizi, cried out fearlessly to those who had just cut off his right arm and were preparing to flay him alive: "Every piece of my flesh, every drop of my blood will tell you that I am Christian".

The other 85 Chinese men and women of every age and state, priests, religious and lay people, showed the same conviction and joy, sealing their unfailing fidelity to Christ and the Church with the gift of their lives. This occurred over the course of several centuries and in a complex and difficult era of the history of the Church in China.

Resplendent in this host of martyrs are also the 33 missionaries who left their land and sought to immerse themselves in the Chinese world, lovingly assimilating its features in the desire to proclaim Christ and to serve those people. Their tombs are there as if to signify their definitive belonging to China, which they deeply loved, although with their human limitations, and for which they spent all their energies. "We never wronged anyone", Bishop Francis Fogolla replied to the governor who was preparing to strike him with his sword. "On the contrary, we have done good to many". 

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.

Tertullian [born c. 155/160, Carthage, now in Tunisia, —died after 220, Carthage, important early Christian theologian]

Not to preach the Gospel would be my undoing, for Christ himself sent me as his apostle and witness. The more remote, the more difficult the assignment, the more my love of God spurs me on. I am bound to proclaim that Jesus is Christ, the Son of the living God. Because of him we come to know the God we cannot see. 

He is the firstborn of all creation; in him all things find their being. Man's teacher and redeemer, he was born for us, died for us, and for us he rose from the dead.

All things, all history converges in Christ. A man of sorrow and hope, he knows us and loves us. As our friend he stays by us throughout our lives; at the end of time he will come to be our judge; but we also know that he will be the complete fulfilment of our lives and our great happiness for all eternity.

I can never cease to speak of Christ for he is our truth and our light; he is the way, the truth and the life. He is our bread, our source of living water who allays our hunger and satisfies our thirst. He is our shepherd, our leader, our ideal, our comforter and our brother.

He is like us but more perfectly human, simple, poor, humble, and yet, while burdened with work, he is more patient. He spoke on our behalf; he worked miracles; and he founded a new kingdom: in it the poor are happy; peace is the foundation of a life in common; where the pure of heart and those who mourn are uplifted and comforted; the hungry find justice; sinners are forgiven; and all discover that they are brothers.

The image I present to you is the image of Jesus Christ. As Christians you share his name; he has already made most of you his own. So once again I repeat his name to you Christians and I proclaim to all men: Jesus Christ is the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega, Lord of the new universe, the great hidden key to human history and the part we play in it.

He is the mediator – the bridge, if you will – between heaven and earth. Above all he is the Son of man, more perfect than any man, being also the Son of God, eternal and infinite. He is the son of Mary his mother on earth, more blessed than any woman. She is also our mother in the spiritual communion of the mystical body. 

Remember: it is Jesus Christ I preach day in and day out. His name I would see echo and re-echo for all time even to the ends of the earth.

My dear brothers and sisters, it's hard to follow Jesus Christ, to be a Christian, but it's worth it. That sums up the message our Lord is trying to communicate to us in today's Gospel passage - and it's a message that we constantly need to be reminded of.

At first, it almost seems like Jesus is trying to discourage us from following him. He warns that friendship with him is demanding. To be a true friend of Jesus Christ means that everything else has to be put in second place. Everything has to be put on the table, even personal dreams, even family ties. The demands of our friendship with Jesus Christ will require us to carry a cross, to sacrifice self-gratifying desires, maybe even to endure great suffering. That sounds hard, painful, maybe even unreasonable.

But God knows what he is doing! And if he calls us to this kind of lifestyle – which he does – it's only because he knows that this is the path to lasting happiness. If we are truly living for God, to give him glory and to build up his Kingdom in the world, then God will take care of us. We will not lose our reward.

St Paul understood this. This is why he tells us in today's Second Reading that to share Christ's life – the life of the redeemed soul, the new life of grace won for us by Christ's passion and resurrection – we must also share Christ's death. We have to die to self, to put to death all selfish and self-centered desires, in order to rise with Christ, to live the life of the Spirit, the life that gives true meaning and satisfaction to our lives. Yes, it is hard to follow Jesus, but it is worth it – nothing else even comes close. 

"Each time I saw Father Kolbe in the courtyard I felt within myself an extraordinary effusion of his goodness. Although he wore the same ragged clothes as the rest of us, with the same tin can hanging from his belt, one forgot this wretched exterior and was conscious only of the charm of his inspired countenance and of his radiant holiness."

Whether we follow Christ or not, we will suffer during our earthly journey. But if we choose to suffer with Christ, our suffering will take on a meaning and fruitfulness beyond anything we could have imagined. 

Maybe Jesus is asking you to leave behind a sinful habit – dishonesty, lust, greed, or neglect. Habits are always hard to change, but with God's grace, all things are possible. God knows that sin only makes us miserable in the end, and spreads pain and disaster in its wake. If that is the cross, he is asking you embrace, he will give you the strength you need to do so.

Maybe he is calling you to a new project, or to set out on a new path. Maybe you feel fearful at the prospect, at the uncertainty, at the risk. That's why Jesus wants to come to you today in Holy Communion. He wants to be your strength, your confidence, your courage. And so, he feeds your soul with his soul, your body with his body. This is the love of our God – a love that makes himself present in our lives, no matter what. It is a love that never leaves us alone, and that never leaves us to carry our crosses alone.

Yes, Jesus asks us to take up our cross, but only so that, by dying with him, we can also rise with him, and live with him, meaningfully, here and earth and forever in heaven. 

My dear brothers and sisters, God hears the cry of the poor! That's what today's reading tells us. Jeremiah in the First Reading says: "Praise the Lord, for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked!" Then Jeremiah jubilantly proclaims God's power and faithfulness: "But the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion," he says, "my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph."

These are beautiful words. But are they too good to be true? Does God really hear the cry of the poor? World Health Organization reported that around 73 million induced abortions take place worldwide each year. Six out of 10 (61%) of all unintended pregnancies, and 3 out of 10 (29%) of all pregnancies, end in induced abortion. Moreover, a WHO report dated 2020 estimates that 120 million girls aged under 20 years have experienced some form of forced sexual contact. [Source: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/]

What about the countless victims of natural disasters, war, and poverty? What about the agonizing moral and emotional suffering hidden in our own hearts and our neighbour's? Is the Lord really with us? Is he really a mighty champion? The answer is YES!

Jesus tells us, not a sparrow alights on the ground without the Father's knowledge. Every hair on every head is counted. Jesus used those striking images so that there would be absolutely no doubt left in our minds: God is watching over all of us and guiding the course of history - nothing escapes his providential care.

And if it ever seems otherwise, that's only because we are not looking at the whole story. Reality, Jesus teaches us, includes eternity. "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul." God's Providence is real. It will never let us down. Every evil deed will be set right, and every prayer will be answered.

Exercising Christian Courage

God's providence is real. As the Catechism tells us in its very first paragraph, "For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. "He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. "He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church." Nothing escapes God's all-loving, all-powerful providence.

This should be a source of comfort for us. No matter how dark the tunnel of life gets, as Christians, we are always able to see a light ahead: our resurrected Lord. Today, when Jesus renews his commitment to us in this Mass, let's thank him for this great gift. But taking comfort in this truth is only half the story.

The reality of God's providence has another practical consequence: it gives us supernatural courage. Courage gives us strength to resist enemies and overcome obstacles. Believing in God's providence helps us do that, because it reminds us that we are never fighting alone. But courage also gives us strength to undertake worthwhile but difficult projects, to set out to do great things for God and neighbour.

Believing in God's providence helps us do that too, because we know that if we are striving to do great things for God, he will, as St Paul once wrote, make all things work together to help us. What great thing has God put on your heart? What project has the Holy Spirit planted in the back of your mind? Today, as we renew our faith in God's providence, let's claim that supernatural courage and move that project forward. 

All parishioners are invited to complete a Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong – Catholic Households Registration Form for Parish Renewal. 

Each family may submit one form that includes all family members. 

Please send completed form to Esther (our St. Anne's parish secretary).  

In this era when science is king, we are tempted to belittle the mysterious and miraculous aspects of our Christian faith. And yet, the mysteries and the miracles are still real. Just because God doesn't fit into a test tube doesn't mean God doesn't exist.

The Church is a wise mother. She keeps us humble. She reminds us that God is bigger than our limited human minds. Today she gives us one of the biggest of those reminders, Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi.

That is what the sacrament of the Eucharist is. It is not just a symbol of Christ's presence; it is the reality of Christ's presence. Every Mass is a miracle in which Christ makes himself truly present to us under the appearance of bread and wine.

Every Mass is a miracle in which God shatters the limits of time and space and brings Christ's sacrifice on the cross into the here-and-now of our lives. Every moment of every day, as red candles burn beside tabernacles all over the world and remind us of Christ's living presence in the Eucharist, that miracle continues. But why did Jesus choose to leave us his presence in this way, under the appearance of bread and wine?

He told us the reason, in the Gospel passage we just listened to: "Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me."

Christians are called to follow in Christ's footsteps, to be other Christs. But we are weak and sinful; how can we fulfill such a high calling? Only because Jesus has given us his own divine life, by feeding us with this divine food.

St Juliana Falconieri's Miraculous Final Communion

All the saints realize how much we need this divine nourishment. St Juliana Falconieri had a particularly passionate devotion to this truth of our faith. Juliana lived in Florence, Italy, in the early Renaissance. When she was 14, her mother began arranging a marriage for her.

As soon as she found out, she objected, explaining that she wanted to consecrate her life to Christ. At first her mother resisted, but Juliana's vocation was undeniable, and eventually she took the habit as a Third Order Servite. Later, she helped start a new Order of Servite nuns, dedicated to prayer and serving the sick.

Throughout the long, hard years of foundation, she received Holy Communion three times a week - much more often than was normal for those times. But in her later years, chronic sickness made her unable to consume anything solid. Even while on her deathbed, frequent fits of vomiting made it impossible for her to receive Communion.

But when she knew her last hour had come, she was inflamed with a desire to receive Holy Communion one last time. So, she asked the priest to lay a corporal (the white cloth put on top of the altar for the liturgy of the Eucharist) on her chest and place the consecrated host on top of it.

No sooner had the Eucharist been laid over her heart than it disappeared, being miraculously consumed directly into her body. She died soon after, and as they were preparing the body for burial, they found the sign of the cross that had been on the host emblazoned on her skin. Ever since, the Servites have kept an image of a shining host on the left front side of their habits.

The Eucharist is food from heaven, given to us by Christ to bring us to heaven.

Being Christ for Others

The Eucharist is divine food that Christ gives us to make us more like him. In life's hustle and bustle, we can easily forget how wonderful this sacrament really is. Today, let's renew our sense of awe and gratitude in the face of such an indescribable, miraculous gift.

But we shouldn't stop there. We all know that people who eat well but don't exercise soon get flabby and out of shape. The same thing can happen to us in our spiritual lives. Each week we receive this divine food, we pray, we hear the Word of God - we take in a lot of spiritual calories. But if we don't put them to work, our souls will get flabby, self-centered, and self-absorbed.

For Christ's grace to make us more like him, we need to make an effort to live just as Christ lived. And that means giving ourselves to others, just as he gives himself to us. We all know people who are suffering, confused, or in trouble.

This week, strengthened by our holy food, let's be Christ's messengers to them. We can find no greater joy in life than to spread to others the love we have received from Christ. Jesus himself said this, as St. Paul tells us in the Book of Acts: "There is more happiness in giving than receiving" (Acts 20:35).

Today, Jesus will give himself to us once again in Holy Communion. When he does, let's thank him for this tremendous gift, and let's promise that this week, at least this week, we will follow in his footsteps. 

Christ invites us to become His friends by eating with Him. When did Christ institute this special meal? The Gospel teaches us that before His passion, Christ had His last supper with His apostles. It was then that Christ took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, saying, "This is my Body..." and he also took the cup, saying, "This is my Blood..." So the Catholic Church teaches that Christ intended this, namely to make Himself food and drink for those who believe in Him. According to Jewish thought, the body is the person and the blood is the source of life that feeds the person. So when Jesus said "This is my body....This is my blood...", he meant, "This is myself". Christ gives Himself completely to us. The bread and wine are transformed into His own Body and Blood by the power of the Holy Spirit through the words of the Word of God spoken by the priest. This change is known as "transubstantiation", which means: the substance of the bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ (cf. CCC 1376), although the appearance remains that of bread and wine.

Christ himself said, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world... Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is truly drunk. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live by the Father, so he who eats me will live by me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate and died. Whoever eats this bread will live forever." (Jn 6:51-58) Because in this meal, the meal is Christ, the Bread of life who came down from heaven, this meal is heavenly. Also, since what we eat in this meal is Christ, "the Holy One of God" (Mk 1:24), it is also called a holy meal. Moreover, it is called a holy meal because we who receive it must be at peace with God, that is, not in a state of mortal sin (cf. CCC 1385), and because through the Eucharistic holy meal the Lord Jesus in His way sanctifies us who receive Him.

Perhaps we have heard how people question the Eucharist and find it strange that Jesus commands us to eat His Body and drink His Blood. If many people don't understand this now, it's not surprising, because, from the very beginning when Jesus gave this teaching, many people said, "This is a hard saying; who can hear it?" (Jn 6:60) So many of them withdrew and no longer followed Jesus (cf. Jn 6:67). Yet Jesus did not change His teaching. He did not say, "Wait a minute, I don't mean this is My Body, but this symbolizes My Body..." Instead, He asked His apostles, "Don't you want to go too?" Peter answered Him: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Your word is the word of eternal life; and we have believed and know that you are the Holy One of God." (Jn 6:61-69)

Here the Apostle Peter does not say that he understands how bread and wine can turn into the Body and Blood of Christ. Rather he simply accepted the authority of Jesus' words and believed in the power of Jesus to do so, for the words of Christ are the words of eternal life. The Apostle Paul also believed that in the Eucharist, Christ is truly present, so he said, "Whoever unworthily eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord sins against the body and blood of the Lord....whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord brings judgment on himself" (1Cor 11:27,29). So, we Catholics, like the Apostles Peter and Paul, accept what Jesus said as truth because His words are words of eternal life. Although we cannot understand how the bread and wine could be transformed into the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus, we accept by faith that Christ, by the power of His Holy Spirit, made this transformation, to give Himself spiritual food for us.

St. John Paul II said, "The Eucharist is the true banquet, in which Christ offers Himself as a meal that strengthens us." ((Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia de Euscharistia, 16)) Thus, the first churches also called the Eucharist the Lord's Supper (1Cor 11:20). Christ Himself declared that His Body is true food and His Blood is truly drinking (cf. Jn 6:55) because He wanted us to relate the Eucharist to our daily food and drink. Just as food and drink can strengthen our bodies and become one with our bodies; so too the Eucharist can strengthen us, so that we can become like Him whom we receive.

By receiving Christ, we also receive His divine life. Christ said, "Abide in me and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine and you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." (Jn 15:4-5). The Eucharist is a way for us to abide in Him, receiving divine life so that we can grow and bear fruit. For Jesus said, "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him." For just as Christ lives by the Father, so we who eat He will also live by Christ (cf. John 6:57).

My dear brothers and sisters, the late Pope Benedict XVI's first encyclical was entitled, "God Is Love" (1 John 4:8). It's something we have all heard many times. In fact, we may have become so used to it that we don't remember how revolutionary and unique that conception of God really is.

There are many religions in the world, and many of them have come to understand that God is good. But almost all of them start with man's search for God. And because human nature is limited, that search can only arrive to a limited view of God.

Christianity is different. Christianity is about God's search for man. When Jesus Christ came to earth, he came to rescue the fallen human race from evil and bring it to the joys of eternal life. And so, in Christianity, we have the privilege of receiving God's own revelation of himself - he shows us, in Christ, who he is and what he is like. And his most fundamental and essential characteristic is love. Not power, not knowledge, not transcendence - but love.

This explains why Jesus came to earth in the first place: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life" (John 3:16).

And this also explains what the Holy Trinity is all about. If God were solitary, how could his nature be love? Love always means relationship and self-giving. God can only be love if he is both one and three: three divine persons, each one fully divine, living from all eternity in an unbreakable unity of mutual love.

God is love. In other words, God is one, as the Catechism puts it, but not solitary (CCC 254).

Theology of the Body

The Catechism teaches us that "The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life" (CCC 234). This is because we are created in the image and likeness of God, as the Bible tells us.

Therefore, if God's essential nature is love, so is ours! We have a built-in openness to other people. We are incomplete by ourselves. We are created to give ourselves to others and to receive others.

This is the real meaning behind human sexuality - the theological meaning of our bodies. God created us male and female. When a husband and wife come together in marriage, they become one flesh; they give themselves to each other completely, holding nothing back.

This is an image of the love of the Holy Trinity. The Father, from all Eternity, loves the Son and pours himself into the Son, and the Son loves the Father in return. And that mutual love is so complete that the Holy Spirit proceeds from it.

Every human family is an image of this Trinitarian love. The husband gives himself without limits to the wife, and the wife receives him and gives herself in return, without limits. And it is through that total love of mutual self-giving that God brings a new life into the world: a child, called to eternal friendship with God. This is the true sacredness and beauty of married love, of sexual love.

This is why the Church never wavers in issues of sexual morality: human sexuality has a deep theological meaning that we must all honour if we are to live life to the full.

Any time we separate sexual love from that meaning, we not only abuse our very selves, but we also rebel against God, who has created us in his image: the image of self-forgetful love.

Praying Like a Christian

This mysterious and wonderful doctrine about God, that he is both unity and trinity, is called by the Catechism "the central mystery of Christian faith and life" (CCC 234).

Everything in Christianity depends on this mystery, which we can begin to understand in this life because God has chosen to reveal it to us. This helps us understand why Christian prayer is so unique.

Christian prayer is a relationship, a heart-to-heart conversation. Our most basic prayer begins, "Our Father." Since God is love, three persons sharing one divine nature, he is personal. He is not a vague, faceless force that we try to tap into with strange rituals, symbols, dances, or ceremonies. He is not some distant, impenetrable being who simply tolerates our existence.

God, as Christ has shown us, is close to us, understands us, cares about us, and invites us into his friendship. In fact, he even adopts us into his family. That is why we receive a Christian name at baptism. And that is why we don't just go off on our own to meditate on Sundays, but we come together to worship Our Father, as members of his family, the Church.

As a result, whenever we pray, we should approach God with confidence and sincerity, as a child approach loving and wise parents. This applies both to personal prayer, and liturgical, community prayer.

The beautiful liturgy of the Church is full of rituals and symbols, but for us, as Christians, they are all meant to remind us of the beauty of his love, and the great dignity we have received through becoming his children. As we profess our faith today in the one, true God, the Most Holy Trinity, let's take those reminders to heart.