Next Sunday, there’s a little race taking place down in Speedway, Indiana.  And a whole lot of eyes are going to be focused on the State of Indiana.  But before the green flag falls next Sunday, there’s another race, another competition, that’s going to take place next Friday afternoon out at the Speedway, and that is the Pit Crew Challenge.  And I’ve got to tell you, it’s a pretty interesting race also.  It takes a lot of coordinated effort to bring a race car in off the track, change all four tires, fill the tank with gas, and get it back out on the track in eight or nine seconds.  The race teams are well-trained.  They have practiced for months.  And next Friday they will get the chance to show off their skills at working together to get the job done, in the Pit Crew Challenge.  There’s even prize money and a trophy on the line, for the team that consistently gets their car serviced in the quickest time.  Now, as much as I love cars and racing, I think I am even more fascinated by this pit crew competition.  Those teams are so organized.  Everything is coordinated and planned for speed and efficiency.  And man, can they service those racecars quickly.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we could go to the gas station like that?  I mean, you never see those race car drivers standing there shaking their heads over the price of gas.  They don’t have to read a magazine while their waiting for their tires to be balanced and rotated.  Sometimes they even give them something to drink in the few seconds that it takes to service their car.  Why can’t Jiffy Lube do that?  And they do it all in just eight or nine seconds.  See what happens when people work together.

       Today we celebrate the great Feast Day of Unity, the Feast of the Holy Trinity.  Today we celebrate that God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is One.  There are three person, but One God.  And this is the way that God chose to reveal Himself to us.  The Unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is sacred.  It is the way that God works for us.  Intrinsically important to the whole notion of the Holy Trinity, is not only is God One, but God calls each of us into a unity of being with Him.   The relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is not exclusive, but it is all-inclusive.  Put simply, we are invited to be One, by and with God, who shares His Unity with all of us.  This is so important to us as Church.  This is where we get the “mark” of the Church, that says that there can only be One Church and that the Church is One.  Our unity, our working together, just like a race team changing tires and filling cars with gas,  is an essential element of our being Church.  We are supposed to be doing this together.  Catholic Christianity is not an individual sport, but a communal one.  And that means that we have got to get out of ourselves to be Church.  We have to put aside differences.  We have to make amends.   We are to live in unity and peace, not just with God, but also with one another.  As the Holy Trinity is one, so too we are supposed to be living in unity.

        And that’s not easy.  In fact, in two-thousand years of being Church, we’ve found that to be very difficult.  Peter and Paul, two of our greatest Apostles and truly pillars of the early Church, fought and argued over the circumcision of the Gentiles.  We know that St. Jerome and St. Augustine argued over whether or not Augustine’s conversion was real.  St. Jerome never really trusted or believed St. Augustine.

Even the awesome St. Charles Borromeo thought that St. Philip Neri, his contemporary who was several years older, wasn’t serious enough and joked around too much.  It’s always been hard for Christians to get along.  And yet, our unity is sacred.  Our being on the same team is something that keeps us connected not just to one another, but also to God.  Peter and Paul, St. Jerome and St. Augustine, St. Charles Borremeo and St. Philip Neri ALL had their differences, but the six of these saints never forgot that they were on the same team, and that they were working towards the same goal.  And neither can we.

        Just think of what we can do working together.  What would happen if we quit fighting one another, and in our unity, worked together to fight the devil?  Can you imagine how powerful our Church would be if we just worked together more?  A racing team can service a racecar for five hundred miles in a matter of seconds, when they are organized and working together.  It’s amazing!  Just think of all of the good that the Church could if we get out act together, get organized, and work together to build the Kingdom of God.  Unity and being one is NOT just for the Holy Trinity.  The Holy Trinity gives us all an example of how we are supposed to be, in our relationships.  Things work better when we work together.  We are all called to unity, with God and with one another.  Let’s live that unity out in all of our dealings with one another.

May God bless us on this Feast Day,  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…   AMEN !!!

St. Maria Goretti …Pray for us  !!!