Like a deer that longs for springs of water, so my soul longs for you, O God. Now just as those deer long for springs of water, so do our deer. Fleeing Egypt – that is, fleeing worldly things – they have killed Pharaoh and drowned all his army in the waters of baptism.
Now, after the devil has been killed, they long for the springs of the Church: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
We can find the Father described as a spring in Jeremiah: They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, to dig themselves leaky cisterns that cannot hold water.
About the Son we read somewhere: They have forsaken the fountain of wisdom.
Finally, of the Holly Spirit: Anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will have a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life. Here the evangelist is saying that the words of the Saviour come from the Holy Spirit. So you see it very clearly confirmed that the springs that water the Church are the mystery of the Trinity.
These are the springs that believers long for. These are the springs that the souls of the baptized seek, saying My soul thirsts for God, the living God. The soul does not just feel like seeing God, it longs for him fervently, it is on fire with thirst for him. Before they received baptism, the catechumens spoke to each other and said, When shall I come and stand before the face of God? What they asked for has now been given them: they have come and stood before the face of God.
They have come before the altar and been confronted by the mystery of the Savior.
Welcomed into the body of Christ and reborn in the springs of life, they confidently say: I will go up to your glorious dwelling-place and into the house of God. The house of God is the Church, the ‘dwelling-place’ where dwells the sound of joy and thanksgiving, the crowds at the festival.
So then, you who have followed our lead and robed yourselves in Christ, let the words of God lift you out of this turbulent age as a net lifts the little fishes out of the water. In us the laws of nature are turned upside down – for fish, taken out of the water, die; but the Apostles have fished us out of the sea that is this world not to kill us but to bring us from death to life. As long as we were in the world, our eyes were peering into the depths and we led our lives in the mud. Now we have been torn from the waves, we begin to see the true light. Moved by overwhelming joy, we say to our souls: Put your hope in the Lord, I will praise him still, my savior and my God.
St. Jerome ; “but the Apostles have fished us out of the sea that is this world not to kill us but to bring us from death to life.”
Have a beautiful Trinity Sunday TAC and thank you Donald for bringing us delights for the soul. Not Donald alone, but all contributors to this blog. Thanks and a blessed Memorial day to you all.
Off topic.
Assuming some of you follow Lewis Amselem, the retired Foreign Service officer who blogs at Diplomad 2.0. He has lost his son, reasons as yet unknown.
https://thediplomad.blogspot.com/2022/06/apologies.html?sc=1655058774583#c6468429782200358597
May he now be enjoying the Beatific Vision. There is no grief like outliving a child.
God as Father
As husband and wife are vocations, offices, to which men an women are called, so too are the deeds of father, mother, husband and wife, offices to which persons are called and to which persons must have fully informed consent to give to assume such offices.
Therefore, to call God “our Father” is perfectly good since God chooses to father mankind. Fathering and creating are both acts. Jesus said: “My father is working until now and I am working” John 5:17 meaning that Christ’s Father and “our Father”, creates mankind and keeps mankind in existence from one instance to the next unto eternity wherein man will see the Beatific Vision and still be kept in existence by our loving and Just Creator, God for all eternity.
When Bernadette Soubirous saw Blessed Mary, Mary said “I am the Immaculate Conception”. Bernadette’s pastor said “Immaculate Conception is an act, a deed.” Yes, as is Father; Creator.
The most important part of Mary’s message is that Blessed Mary used God’s name: “I AM”
“I AM”, “I AM Who I AM” is God’s name forever.
Does the devil use God’s name? Probably not as using God’s name “I AM” would be worshiping in the Truth.
A male “I AM” is a priest, a father, a husband, a brother, a son, an uncle, a Godfather, a grandfather and so forth.
A female “I AM” is a nun, a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a Godmother, an aunt, a grandmother and so forth.
The Holy Trinity is a family, a Father, a Son and the perfectly infinite Love Who proceeds from the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit of God…”I AM WHO IS”