SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

Originally published June 15, 2014; additive edits June 11, 2017 by Dr. David Pence

"When we speak of the Trinity, we must do so with caution and modesty, for, as St. Augustine saith, nowhere else are more dangerous errors made, or is research more difficult, or discovery more fruitful."    
                    (Saint Thomas Aquinas)

The coming of Jesus announced a Messiah for the Jews, proclaimed a new Kingdom amidst the nations, dethroned the Enemy Prince, and revealed the mystery we contemplate on this day -- that the God-made-man is one Person in a Trinity.

"Even our God is a community," said G.K. Chesterton. Humans will overcome death only by entering into this triune God as sons of the Father, incorporated into the Body of the Son. The Spirit will bind us properly if we humbly let Him act… and He acts through the sacramental Church. He indelibly conforms our souls into Christ's Body through Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders. The Trinity, marriage and the family, Holy Orders and the Church – these are the communions we know as Catholics.

Our proposal here at Anthropology of Accord is that the Communio theology which takes its origin from the metaphysical reality we celebrate today must be further developed as the theological and anthropological principle of the public life of the Church and nations. The three persons of the Trinity are revealed to us in the masculine forms of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A serious theology will ponder and learn from the masculine apostolic priesthood and the male covenantal nature of the prototype nation: Israel. The Communio nature of the Eucharistic church and marriage are enriching themes of the last century. They have their champions and journals and institutes. Masculine public communio is a bit underdeveloped. Ubiquitous, fundamental, and yet (for fear of embarrassment) unmentioned.

The communal bond of men in nations is the natural polity which ensures the freedom of those more sacred bonds of Church and marriage. In different places and times in history the masculine public polity might have been fellow tribesmen and a warrior chief, or the Emperor and his subjects, or the 'polis' and its citizens. But, today, from Singapore to Germany, from Canada to China, from Brazil to Poland, and from Egypt to the Philippines, the natural bond of men in public communal work and protection has developed in the form of territorial nations. The Scriptural template of this masculine national form is the ritual of circumcision and the forging of one nation under a Law from the twelve tribes of Israel. The nation was built on a forgiving act of brotherly reconciliation. It is deeply tied to the possession of a common land. It is ordered by a common law. Leaders rise as prophets, priests or rulers to keep the communal body in concordance with God. It is our hope that Catholic theologians and philosophers would spend some fraction of their attention on history and the relationships of the natural armed authorities, which constitute public life and the legitimate State.

Possibly the next three graduate students who request to study the Theology of the Body might be reassigned to a project studying how Singapore got to be the polity it is today. We could call it the "theology of the corporate body" if that would make this ancient study of the natural polity more palatable. It was such men making civic agreement and the peace of 'Tranquillitas Ordinis' whom Christ had in mind when He said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."

Marriage is an important but not all-embracing covenant. Neither the Church nor the nations are families writ large. Christ did not found His church on a sacral marriage, nor was the bond of sacred honor which forged America the union between George and Martha Washington! Both the Catholic Church  and the American nation are founded on sacral covenanted brotherhoods of adult men.  Religious and political public life are both defined by public communal and masculine loves which include the apostolic priesthood and the particular territorial loves of men for their fatherland. Christ wept over Jerusalem, not Antioch. More than 2000 years have passed and Jerusalem once again is guarded by a nation called Israel. Christ never ordered the apostolic Church to move beyond the nation. He said, "Baptize the nations." Those of us who believe the Trinity is the fundamental form of love and life can no longer ignore in our religious discourse the public form of communion -- the life of nations -- that God promised Abraham 4000 years ago.

The 20th-century Catholic thinker who best navigated in the waters of Christianity and the formation of political cultures in history was Christopher Dawson:
                                               

The most articulate explanation of the dilemma of present-day Catholic political thought, scissored between the sacral relations of marriage and the Church, has been presented by Russell Hittinger.

On Trinity Sunday let us pay heed to the nature of our communal bonds – all of which in their proper order give glory to that greatest of bonds – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.




UPDATE: Here is an earlier review of Christopher Dawson’s Judgment of the Nations.

And a fascinating address given by Professor Hittinger on the troubled interaction of nations and theology.

Mary: Mother of the Church -- Come Holy Spirit, Renew the Face of the Earth

Originally posted May 21, 2018
by David Pence

Mary is the new Eve. Her willingness to be the handmaid of the Lord reversed the sin of Eve who sought to "be like God." Satan has always resented the beauty of Mary. He can't get over that the mighty Lucifer (the light bearer, Phosphorous in Greek) must bow to a human queen. Pope Francis has designated the day after Pentecost to remind us that the Body of Christ was first revealed in Mary. Today we celebrate Mary, Mother of the Church. The Church is Marian before she was Apostolic. The masculine apostolic Church cannot be understood apart from Mary, Mother of the Church. Her authority abided in her presence as a living memory of her Son. Remembering Him, witnessing the truth of his Incarnation, she nurtured and showed Mercy. Mary, Mother of the Church, Model of the Church, pray for us.

Here is a reflection on the devotion of Pope Paul VI and Pope Francis to Mary as Mater Ecclesia.   A sermon on Mary, Motherhood and Creation  by Rev. Peter Stravinskas. The Humility of Mary, the Mother of God. by Jonathan Coe.

All of these reflections show why the Pope has given this Marian mark to the day after Pentecost (Whit Monday). Our Lady as the physical perfection of femininity is the model for every soul and for the Living Church! What mighty things the Lord can accomplish in our personal and ecclesial lives if we let ourselves be a sailboat driven by the Holy Spirit instead of a motorboat driven by our own will.

                                   

       

PENTECOST: The Spirit fills the Apostles who draw the Jews into the Church who draws humanity into the Trinity.

[first published June 8, 2014]

"The Church which, already conceived, came forth from the side of the second Adam in His sleep on the Cross, first showed herself before the eyes of men on the great day of Pentecost."      (Pope Leo XIII, 1897)

                           

David Pence writes:

St. Augustine said the coming of the Holy Spirit – exactly ten days after the 40 days of Christ’s risen presence – signifies that the Spirit fulfills the Law (Ten Commandments) in Christ. The obligatory presence of adult males in Jerusalem for the Jewish Pentecost crowded the city square with men speaking the different languages of the nations, but sharing the unified liturgical memory of Israel.

"For as of old on the fiftieth day after the sacrifice of the lamb, the Law was given to the Hebrew people on Mount Sinai – so after the sacrifice in which the True Lamb of God was slain on the fiftieth day after his resurrection, the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles and those who believed." [from a 5th-century sermon of Leo the Great]
                               

The Holy Spirit is the Soul of the Church, the Giver of Life, and the great binder of communions. He animates matter with life, draws the living to the Church, and indelibly configures the baptized to the Body of Christ. He was a co-conspirator with Christ throughout his life on earth, as they plotted to confound Satan in the desert and build the Kingdom of God on earth. The presence of the Spirit was activated on Pentecost, as it is sacramentally for us in Confirmation. That distinct Catholic sacrament of initiation “confirms in the Spirit” the soul of the Christian to the physical liturgical presence of the Bishop as the local head of the Apostolic Church. Like baptism, confirmation orders the soul with a permanent seal of character in ecclesial communion with Christ. After confirmation there is no such thing as a vocation to the single life. Baptism in one sense, and confirmation in a deeper way, calls each of us out of the single life into a new communal identity as a practicing Catholic.

In the days before Pentecost, the Twelve had been corporately restored by the election of Matthias (the opening chapter of the Book of Acts.) On Pentecost the Spirit filled the apostles, and their shouts of praise were heard in the tongues of many nations (second chapter of Acts.) An early bishop, when questioned why he couldn't talk so foreigners could understand, replied that by baptizing men of  many nations and languages, it is the Church now through her converts who speaks in tongues understood by all the nations.

It was Peter – surrounded by his apostolic brethren constituting the restored twelve tribes of Israel – who formally addressed the “Men of Judea” gathered in their holy city. He announced that the Messiah promised to them as Jews had come to deliver them from their enemies, but had been killed by those He came to save. He offered them repentance and incorporation in the new Kingdom under Christ the Lord. The universality of the Church’s Kingdom message to the nations, the fact that the Messiah was not another human prophet but the God of nature become man, and the mystery that God is One in Three Persons: these three truths became the reflections of Pentecost Sunday sermons down through the ages. Like all of us, the 3,000 baptized Jews of that day did not fully appreciate the extent of the miraculous events that engulfed them. The developing realization that this coming of the Spirit was the action of a distinct Person of a triune God gave a name and special time for reflection to the octave Sunday of Pentecost: Trinity Sunday.

Five Years Later: On the Passing of Dr. David Pence

Today marks six years since the passing of Dr. David Pence. His loss continues to be deeply felt. So much has changed since June 4, 2019. Be it in regards to the coronavirus pandemic, the riots that plagued cities like Minneapolis, the murky results of the 2020 election, the war currently raging in Ukraine, the victory of President Trump in the 2024 election, or the stunning election of an American pope, our favorite M.D. oncologist would have so much to say. 

Nevertheless, the voice and vision, friendship and comradery of Dr. David Pence is missed beyond measure.

At the same time, we are sure that Dr. Pence rejoiced in celebrating today by "keeping sacred time" here in 2025.

Much has also changed for me these past six years. I am very proud to say that we’ve kept Dr. Pence’s request to continue AoA’s regular posting our sacred and civic time articles. Our book, The Catholic Palette is now available in both print and eBook editions. 

There are also a couple of important personal updates I might add here. I've begun teaching more frequently at parishes across the Kansas City area, which has given me a much wider reach than I had previously had working at a single parish. In even more recent news, I began teaching the "Pence Project" to sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students at a parish school in the Kansas City area through two courses entitled Integrated Catholicism and Philosophy & Theology. Through these courses, I introduce students to history, geopolitics, the sciences, and literature from the perspective of our God. God is real and he makes a difference in our world. My students begin to understand that no discipline can be taught unbound from the faith. That's what Dr. Pence taught - and that's really what Catholic education is all about. 

Six years without frequent phone calls and emails with Dr. Pence is almost unfathomable. I've been blessed, however, by spending so much of this time editing our book, re-reading so many of his past blog posts, and encapsulating his vision into my new courses. In some way it's all kept me in a dialogue of sorts with my "secondary" father.

This idea of a “secondary father” comes from Joseph Campbell. Chuck Palahniuk, the author of Fight Club, spoke of it in an interview with Joe Rogan:

“Joseph Campbell’s idea of that there needs to be a secondary father in men’s lives. You’re born – if you’re lucky – with a biological father that you do not choose,” but each man needs “to choose a new father. That father by choice typically is a minister or a teacher or a drill sergeant or a coach… and you put yourself in apprenticeship to the secondary father. And you have to consign your life to the secondary father, and agree to learn what he is going to teach you.

“Whether you apprentice yourself to a fighting coach or to a metallurgist or to a welder or to a bricklayer or to a mason, you are apprenticing yourself to somebody that you’re going to do all this grunt work for but in exchange you’re going to learn to a master skill at something. And so it’s a way of mastering yourself as you master this other thing.

“There is that existential moment when you realize that you have to sacrifice your youth for something. You’re not going to live forever… you have to become a being-towards-death… and you’ve got to give your life to something.”

I would have loved to discuss this idea of a secondary father with Dr. Pence, but I know he’d hear it and say, “I’m hip!” No young male can mature into a man without undergoing a process of socialization both by a group of men and through the guiding influence of a secondary father. As we mourn the anniversary of his passing, I know that no man could have a better “secondary” father than Dr. David Pence. God love you, Dr. Pence, you are missed! The work – the project – continues.

Uganda Martyrs, pray for us

by David Pence

                                               

Uganda is an independent (1962) African nation with 38 million people (84% Christian). Parliament recently passed an anti-homosexuality bill roundly condemned by activists in the northern white churches. Denmark, the Netherlands, America, and the World Bank have all threatened Ugandans with severe economic repercussions for their law.

The motto of their flag is "For God and my Country." A formative event in their history is celebrated today to commemorate the martyrdom of Charles Lwanga and his companions. From 1885-1887, King Mwanga II of Buganda was responsible for the execution of a group of young Christian males who had been employed as court pages. They would not submit to his depraved desires. The king knew, in fact, that if a boy was taught the Christian faith and converted, that was one service he would no longer offer the sovereign. Both Anglicans and Catholics were martyred.  Almost 80 countries have laws against sodomy which was a felony  in all 50 U.S. states before 1962. The Ugandan celebration of these recently canonized saints reminds us that Christ has offered all men a share in the deepest and widest of all brotherhoods. All Christian men from the Asian islands to the African heartland know that we are forming a protective brotherhood of cities and nations in imitation of Christ's bond with his Apostles.  Violence, racism, and war can break this bond; and so we must seriously and constantly pursue high and holy brotherhoods to form a public life which glorifies Christ.
       
Just as incest pollutes the love of sons for their  fathers and brothers for their brothers, the brave young pages of Mwanga's court knew what he was asking of them was no insignificant call to duty. The 27 young men who were marched over twenty miles -- and then burned to death -- leave a bright light for our own so-darkened times.

Saint Charles Lwanga, pray that Americans may display the courage of sexual purity that you and your companions showed this day 130 years ago.

                                         FROM TODAY'S OFFICE OF READINGS:
                      POPE PAUL VI SERMON CANONIZING UGANDAN MARTYRS

"These African martyrs herald the dawn of a new age. If only the mind of man might be directed not toward persecutions and religious conflicts but toward a rebirth of Christianity and civilization."