Several years ago, in one of my parish assignments I was involved in prison ministry. I had the privilege of meeting a young man in his early thirties who was totally on fire for the Lord. At the time I met him he was leading a bible study group with fellow inmates. He joined our prison R.C.I.A program and was initiated into the Catholic Church. In the follow-ing years he headed up our prison R.C.I.A group and helped to lead many souls to the Lord.
Derik (not his real name) was doing an extended prison term for murder. As a teen he was tried as an adult and pleaded guilty to first degree murder. He openly shared his story with everyone who would listen. He grew up in the inner city without ever knowing his fa-ther. He had one older stepbrother who also did not know a father. His mother was an ad-dict and was seldom present. His older brother was involved in a gang that trafficked drugs in a specific territory of the inner city. At the age of fourteen Derik begged his brother to allow him to join the gang. Derik entered the gang a month later and he said that he finally felt that he belonged. It gave him a sense of family for the first time. He had brothers that cared and looked out for him. He had a job and a sense of purpose. He had enough money to care for himself. His job was to peddle drugs to the younger children in the area.
One summer a rival gang began to infringe on their territory and a war broke out. Derik’s older brother was killed in the process. Derik in a rage of anger and revenge shot and killed a member of the rival gang. He was only 16 and the boy that he shot was only 17, a person that he did not even know. And now he was in prison serving extended time for his crime.
On the night that I first heard Derik’s story I laid awake thinking of the young man and his circumstances. I remember wondering, what if I were born into his situation? Would I be in prison? I grew up in a strikingly different environment. I grew up in a rural area near a small town. I grew up in strong Catholic family of six children with a good hardworking father and a stay-at-home mother. I was surrounded by a large extended family with dozens of cousins, with both sets of grandparents close to the family. I was involved in various 4H groups, several youth sports teams, numerous elementary extra-curricular activities, etc. I was heavily involved in my Catholic faith and belonged to a very vibrant parish community. I worked on the farm and had my chores to do daily. As a child, in my childlike mind, I had too much belonging!
God is a community of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are created in God’s image and likeness. We are created out of love and for love. We are created for relationship. The need to belong, the need for community, is a part of our created nature. One of the deepest longings of the human heart is to belong. Conversely, one of the deepest fears of the human heart is isolation.
One of the anxieties, and there are many, of young people that I recently heard of is being termed, FOBLO, i.e., fear of being left out. As society turns away from personal interaction and more towards screens, we are feeling more and more isolated. In isolation the need to belong intensifies.
The Feast of the Most Holy Trinity is a celebration of community. By our baptism we are invited to enter the Trinity of God, the Communion of love with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus formed a community around Himself that we call the Church. Just as the Holy Spirit cannot be contained, but bursts out into all of creation, so too are we called to bring God’s love into our families, into our communities and to the ends of the earth. It is to this end that we are chosen and empowered. It is to this mission and this community that we are called to belong.

May God bless you and your loved ones in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.