We have now reached the month of June and summer has come to this part of the country with a vengeance.  All of a sudden the weather is quite hot and the rain seems to come every day.  All you have to do is look around and you can notice the big change.  The same is true within this time in the church.  On the Solemnity of Pentecost, which we celebrated on June 8 this year, we concluded the Season of Easter, but it also marked the beginning of something new.  We refer to this day as the birth of the Church, when the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles as they were gathered in the Upper Room. 

We read in the Acts of the Apostles, “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. … Amazed and astonished, they [the crowds] asked, … “in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” (Acts 2:1-4, 7a, 11b)

We call this the birthday of the Church because something drastic has taken place.  We had seen that certainly following the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on Good Friday, and even afterward, when had encountered the risen Christ, they were afraid for their lives.  But something was going to change.  Jesus Himself had alluded to it when He told them, “’These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you – that everything written about Me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’  Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on their third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.  And see, I am sending upon you what My Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’” (Luke 24:44-49)

So, what begins here on the day of Pentecost, the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit, is that the Apostles received the Holy Spirit, the “power from on high” and because of that Spirit and through that Spirit, they begin to proclaim and preach “repentance and the forgiveness of sins” through the redeeming actions of Jesus Christ.

Following this inauguration of the mission of the Church, the beginning of the witnessing to the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, the mission of the proclamation of forgiveness of sins and renewed life in Jesus Christ, the Church in her wisdom gives us a number of solemnities to show and remind us, as well as to honor the foundational aspects of the Church’s work and mission. 

The Church begins this short season with the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity as the foundational belief of the Church, that we know God as Trinity in Unity, and Unity in Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, Three Persons but only one God.  In the prayers for this Sunday we pray, “Holy Trinity, Triune God, our hearts are restless until they rest in You.  Turn our wanderings into a pilgrimage, drawing us ever closer to You.”  We acknowledge that, if we do not acknowledge God within our lives than all that we are and all that we do is merely “wandering.”  It is going through life without purpose or direction.  We are reminded of the words of St. Augustine from his ‘Confessions,’ “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”  We therefore desire that our whole lives will be a time of searching and seeking to know God and love Him more fully.

Following this Solemnity, the Church gives us the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.  In fact, this Solemnity extends from Thursday to Thursday to remind us of the celebration of the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, but in this period of the work of Church, we remind ourselves that the Holy Eucharist, the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is the food that sustains us and sustains the work of the Church.  We pray during the Mass an acknowledgement of the reality of the Eucharist and then pray that it will take effect within our own lives.  We pray, “Heavenly Father, in this wondrous Sacrament You left us a memorial of the passion and death of Your Son, Jesus.  May we, who so reverence His Body and Blood, perceive within ourselves the effects of His redemption.”  Within this Solemnity we honor and revere the Holy Eucharist as the presence of Jesus Christ and the food which sustains, each of us individually and together it sustains us in the mission of the Church.

Lastly, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Word of God.  This important Solemnity within the Polish National Catholic Church reminds us that God speaks to His people today just as He always has.  And He speaks to us most profoundly in the Word of God made flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is with us when His word is proclaimed.  Within the Mass of this Solemnity we pray, “O merciful God, grant that we may hear Your words with willing hearts and apply ourselves to fulfill them.  May we progress toward perfection and, after completing our earthly pilgrimage, may we be united with You in eternity.”  We see here the completion of the prayer from the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity.  There we asked God to turn our earthly wandering into a pilgrimage and here we ask that this pilgrimage ends with us united to God in eternity.

These three Solemnities are an important part of each of us embracing the mission and work of the Church in the world today: To acknowledge God in the Holy Trinity, to be sustained by the Holy Eucharist and to spread the Word of God and the presence of Christ as the Word made flesh. 

Following these solemnities, we will enter the Season of Ordinary Time in the Church.  That is the season where we wear Green Vestments, and focus our attention on the teachings, miracles signs and ministry of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  It is within these Sundays that we strive to apply these teachings, signs and ministry to our own ministry and work within the Church and within the world today. 

But in this coming season, we must not leave these Solemnities behind, rather we must strive to keep them always before our eyes.  The Trinity is with us always, God the Father Who created us, God the Son, Who redeemed us, God the Holy Spirit, Who sanctifies us.  The Holy Eucharist is always with us to sustain us as our food.  The Lord Jesus gives us His Body and His Blood to strengthen us for the work of His Church.  And His presence in the Eucharist is perpetual so that we may visit our Lord each and every time we come to His Church.  And His Word, the Word of God, is to be proclaimed in every thought, word and action that we take within the Church.  We remind ourselves the words of St. John the Baptist: “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. … He who has the bride is the bridegroom.  The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears Him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice.  For this reason my joy has been fulfilled.  He must increase, but I must decrease.”

So as we traverse this time and into the coming Ordinary Time, let us commit to living so as to honor and glorify the Trinity, let us commit to receiving and worshiping Jesus Christ present in the Holy Eucharist, let us commit to listening to, receiving and sharing the Word of God.  Let us  continue to be witnesses to Christ present within the Church that is His Kingdom, that through every action, Christ will increase.