Breaking the Word: The Right Bag

Sunday, May 31, 2026

The Right Bag

Solemnity of The Most Holy Trinity (A)

Readings: Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9; Daniel 3:52-56; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18

Picture: By Wasa Crispbread on Unsplash

My dear friends, do you BYOB? In an effort to reduce our reliance on single-use plastics, these days, whenever we go grocery shopping, many of us heed the call to BYOB. To bring your own bag. Of course, this is also partly to avoid having to pay the fee that many supermarkets now charge for plastic bags. But not everything can be contained in a reusable grocery bag, right? For example, when we send our children for a piano or swimming class. Or when we ourselves decide to take up something like yoga or qigong. How do we go about receiving and retaining the new knowledge and skills gained? What does BYOB look like in situations like that? Strange as it may sound, I believe our scriptures invite us to ponder a similar question on this solemn feast of the Most Holy Trinity.

When the first reading tells us that Moses went up Mt Sinai with two tablets of stone in his hands, we know that he is, in a sense, bringing his own bag. For those tablets are meant for a specific purpose. On them will be inscribed the commandments of God. But God is offering Moses and the people something far more precious than just a set of written instructions. God is offering nothing less than God’s very Self. How then to receive this wonderful Gift? Easy enough to carve a bunch of words on tablets of stone. How to receive and retain the Sacred Presence of the Lord of all Creation, the Almighty and Eternal God?

Isn’t this the deeper significance of God’s commandments? For it is by faithfully putting them into practice, that the people will allow themselves to be made holy. To be rendered fit for relationship with God. To be moulded into a worthy receptacle, a suitable vehicle, for the life-giving presence and action of God in the world. We might say that, if God is the intended Gift, then the people themselves are the designated bag. Unfortunately, right from the start, the bag proves unfit for purpose. The people fail to BYOB. As we may recall, the stone tablets mentioned in the first reading are actually a replacement for an earlier pair. Which Moses had smashed in anger, upon discovering the people’s idolatry. Their production and worship of a golden calf.

And yet, quite incredibly, God responds to the people’s infidelity by drawing even closer. By revealing even more about God. Whereas God had previously admitted to being a jealous God, punishing… those who reject me (Ex 20:5), now the Lord is described as a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness… In reply, Moses dares to make no commitments on the people’s behalf. He merely begs God to live up to God’s own revelation. To forgive us our faults and our sins, and to adopt us as your heritage. In other words, even though we are plainly unfit to receive you, please still stay with us. Still keep claiming us as your very own…

And God’s positive and compassionate response to this pitiful plea reaches its climax in the gospel. Where Jesus explains to Nicodemus exactly who he is, and why he was sent. God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him… may have eternal life… Seeing that, on our own, we are unable to BYOB, by the refreshing Breath of God’s Spirit, and the merciful descent of God’s Word in the Flesh, God prepares for humanity a Sacred Receptacle for God’s precious Gift. And to enjoy its benefits, all anyone needs to do is to believe in Jesus. To cling to him. To allow our hearts to be overwhelmed by his love for us. The same love that led him to lay down his life for us on a cross, and to be raised again on the Third Day. To continually recall his Sacrifice––as we do at every Mass––and to allow his Spirit to move us to follow in his steps. Putting into practice everything that he taught.

And to do this not just as a scattered bunch of individuals, but especially as a single people, a gathered community, the Body of Christ. Isn’t this what St Paul is telling his readers to do in the second reading? To try to be perfect… To help one another… To be united… To live in peace… For it is by doing this, by putting all this into practice, that the community truly becomes Christ’s Body. A receptacle for God. And then the God of love and peace will be with you… The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit––the presence and action of the Most Holy Trinity––will be with you all. Not just for our own benefit, but for the life of the whole world.

Isn’t this what we celebrate in this solemn feast? Isn’t this what it means to believe in a God who is Father, Son and Spirit? Not only that God is continually revealing and offering God’s very self as a precious Gift. But also that God is pleased to provide us with the appropriate Receptacle, with which to receive it. And isn’t this good news, and this precious Gift, still so very much needed today? In a world that often seems to be losing sight of what it means to be truly human? To be made not just to receive God, but also in God’s very image and likeness?

Unlike the groceries in a supermarket, there are certain things that cannot be contained in a reusable bag. Practical knowledge and skills like playing the piano, as well as our relationships with others and with God. Such things can be received and retained only through consistent practice. Sisters and brothers, as we recall the love of the Holy Trinity, how might we help one another to bring the right bag, today and in the days ahead?

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Breaking News: Ordinary Time

Besides the times of year that have their own distinctive character, there remain in the yearly cycle thirty-three or thirty-four weeks in which no particular aspect of the mystery of Christ is celebrated, but rather the mystery of Christ itself is honored in its fullness, especially on Sundays. This period is known as Ordinary Time. Ordinary Time begins on the Monday which follows the Sunday occurring after 6 January and extends up to and including the Tuesday before the beginning of Lent; it begins again on the Monday after Pentecost Sunday and ends before First Vespers (Evening Prayer I) of the First Sunday of Advent. During these times of the year there is used the series of formularies given for the Sundays and weekdays of this time both in the Missal and in the Liturgy of the Hours ~ General Norms for the Liturgical Year & Calendar, nn 43-44

From 36th Jesuit General Congregation

It is our union with one another in Christ that testifies to the Good News more powerfully than our competences and abilities.... In our individualistic and competitive age, we should remember that the community plays a very special role since it is a privileged place of apostolic discernment.... The Jesuit community is a concrete space in which we live as friends in the Lord. This life together is always at the service of mission, but because these fraternal bonds proclaim the Gospel, it is itself a mission. –Companions in a Mission of Reconciliation and Justice (CMRJ), nn. 7-9.

With the poor, we can learn what hope and courage mean.... In our communities and apostolates, we hear the call to rediscover hospitality to strangers, to the young, to the poor, and to those who are persecuted. Christ himself teaches us this hospitality. –CMRJ, nn. 15-16.

At the heart of Ignatian spirituality is the transforming encounter with the mercy of God in Christ that moves us to a generous personal response. The experience of the merciful gaze of God on our weakness and sinfulness humbles us and fills us with gratitude, helping us to become compassionate ministers to all.... For us Jesuits, compassion is action, an action discerned together. Yet we know that there is no authentic familiarity with God if we do not allow ourselves to be moved to compassion and action by an encounter with the Christ who is revealed in the suffering, vulnerable faces of people, indeed in the suffering of creation. –CMRJ, nn. 19-20.

(T)he Society must respond more decisively to the Church’s call for a new evangelization, giving special emphasis to ministry to and with the young and with families.... A special gift Jesuits and the Ignatian family have to offer to the Church and her mission of evangelization is Ignatian spirituality, which facilitates the experience of God and can therefore greatly help the process of personal and communal conversion. –CMRJ, nn. 22-23.

In many societies, there is an increased level of conflict and polarization, which often gives rise to violence that is all the more appalling because it is motivated and justified by distorted religious convictions. In such situations, Jesuits, along with all who seek the common good, are called to contribute from their religious-spiritual traditions towards the building of peace, on local and global levels. –CMRJ, n. 28.

Pope Francis has emphasized the fundamental connection between the environmental crisis and the social crisis in which we live today. Poverty, social exclusion, and marginalization are linked with environmental degradation. These are not separate crises but one crisis that is a symptom of something much deeper: the flawed way societies and economies are organised. The current economic system with its predatory orientation discards natural resources as well as people. For this reason, Pope Francis insists that the only adequate solution must be a radical one. The direction of development must be altered if it is to be sustainable. We Jesuits are called to help heal a broken world, promoting a new way of producing and consuming, which puts God’s creation at the center.... The multifaceted challenge of caring for our common home calls for a multifaceted response from the Society. We begin by changing our personal and community lifestyles, adopting behaviour coherent with our desire for reconciliation with creation. – CMRJ, nn. 29-30

From 35th Jesuit General Congregation

From General Congregation 35

By sending us to 'those physical and spiritual places which others do not or have difficulty reaching,' the Pope entrusts to us the task to 'build bridges of understanding and dialogue,' according to the best tradition of the Society, in the diversity of its ministries.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 6

To be missioned to this work 'at the New Frontiers of our times' always requires that one also be rooted at the very heart of the Church. This tension, specific to the Ignatian charism, opens the way to true creative fidelity.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 13

In every mission that we carry out, we seek only to be where (Christ) sends us. The grace we receive as Jesuits is to be and to go with him, looking on the world with his eyes, loving it with his heart and entering into its depths with his unending compassion.
- Decree on Identity, n. 15

For ultimately, there is no reality that is only profane for those who know how to look. We must communicate this look and provide a pedagogy inspired by the Spiritual Exercises, that carries people - especially the young - into it.
- Decree on Identity, n. 10

Our ministries of proclamation of the Word and the celebration of the Life of Christ in the sacraments continue to be fundamental for our mission and our lives together as Jesuits.
- Decree on Mission, n. 19

The complexity of the problems we face and the richness of the opportunities offered demand that we engage in building bridges between rich and poor and establishing advocacy links of mutual support between those who hold political power and those who find it difficult to voice their interests. Our intellectual apostolate provides an inestimable help in setting up these bridges, offering us new ways of understanding in depth the mechanism and links among our present problems.
- Decree on Mission, n. 28

Jesuit community is not just for mission, it is itself mission.
- Decree on Mission, n. 41

In this global context it is important to highlight the extraordinary potential represented by our character as an international and multicultural body. Acting consistently with this character can not only enhance the apostolic effectiveness of our work but in a fragmented and divided world it can witness to the reconciliation in solidarity of all the children of God.
- Decree on Mission, n. 43

Faith in Jesus Christ teaches us that self-realization comes from self-giving and that freedom is not so much the power to choose as the power to order our choices toward love. At the same time, love for Jesus Christ and the desire to follow him call us to trusting commitment. Commitment to the Word Incarnate cannot be separated from commitment to the concrete manifestations of the Word that are at the center of our lives, the Church and the Society which exists to serve the Church.
- Decree on Obedience, n. 19

Breaking the Word

Sunday, May 31, 2026

The Right Bag

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