Skip to main content

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

By

The fifty days of Easter are now behind us, but as is often the case, the Church isn’t quite ready to leave the party.  As we enter this long period of Ordinary Time the Church takes these first two Sundays after Easter to reflect on two of her most sacred mysteries.  This Sunday, with the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, and next Sunday with the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

The Word for Trinity Sunday
Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40
Psalm 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22
Romans 8:14-17
Mathew 28:16-20

We open with a reading from the book of Deuteronomy – the 5th and final book of the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Bible).  Our passage has Moses speaking to the people of the wonders of the Lord… A God who chose them, Israel, a captive nation under Egypt, for his own.  The continuation of this special relationship, however, requires each party to perform.  In order to receive the grace of the Lord, one must also follow his commandments.  It is a two-way relationship.  Our Psalm echoes this arrangement – God has chosen his people, but only those who follow him will be delivered from death.

Our second reading form St. Paul to the Romans reminds us that we are children of God.  That spirit of adoption allows us to call God “father.”  This short passage shows the evolution of our understanding of God from the previous passage from Deuteronomy.  Here Paul reveals our understanding of the interconnected nature of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, working together to bring us to him and to be glorified by him.

Our Gospel for this solemnity is the conclusion to Matthew’s gospel.  Some might say this is Matthew’s ascension moment, only without the actual ascension.  Instead it is a “commissioning” of the Apostles.  Just as Matthew’s gospel taught us to pray with the “Our Father,” here Matthew gives us our most common prayer as well as our form of Baptism, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

Final Thoughts:
While our understanding of this Trinitarian nature of God has its roots in the Scriptures, it still took the Apostles and their successors nearly four centuries to fully understand and define this nature of God into our Nicene Creed.  Three unique personas yet each being consubstantial, one in the same to God.  Even after the Creed was set theologians to this day continued to wrestle with a way to lend definition and understanding to the Trinitarian nature of God.  But for all this work, it still remains a mystery of faith.  And faith is the key.  Even without hard, physical evidence, we take that leap, and believe as Christ himself taught us, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”  Amen!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

26th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Cycle B

By
Who speaks for the Lord?  Do you have to be a prophet?  A priest?  A bishop?  The Pope?  What about you?  The answer, according to our readings this week, is “whomever God calls,” and that could be you. The Word for the 26tth Sunday of Ordinary Time Numbers 11:25-29 Psalm 19:8, 10, 12-13, 14 James 5:1-6 Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48 Our first reading comes from the Book of Numbers.  This book is a continuation of the Exodus story, from the point where they leave the Sinai (after receiving the Law) to the point where they are ready to enter the Promised Land.  The book gives us some history of these years interspersed with sections of legal codes.  This Sunday’s passage deals with the commissioning the elders, those 70 individuals chosen by Moses to receive some of the Spirit so that they may prophesy (preach) among the people.  But during this time there were two men, Eldad and Medad, who were not with the group at the tent, but who also recei...
Post a Comment
Read more

3rd Sunday of Advent - Cycle C

By
“Shout for Joy!”  The opening lines of our first reading expresses the feelings we should be having during this third Sunday of Advent.  Also known as Gaudete Sunday (Latin for “rejoice”), we celebrate that we have now past the half-way point of our penitent reflection – the “hump day” of Advent, if you will.  What have we to be so joyful about?  Our readings provide the answer: The Word for the 3rd Sunday of Advent Zephaniah 3:14-18a Psalm 12:2-3, 4, 5-6 Philippians 4:4-7 Luke3:10-18 Our first reading comes from the Book of the Prophet Zephaniah.  Though we don’t hear from Zephaniah very often in our Sunday Liturgies, and though the book itself isn’t that long (only 3 chapters), the importance of his message not only can be seen in his predecessors Jeremiah and Baruch, but may even have had a profound effect on the Judean monarchy itself by moving King Josiah to begin his campaign of religious reform.  Our passage this week, though similar to the passages...
Post a Comment
Read more

28th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Cycle B

By
What is truly valuable?  As a species humanity seems constantly preoccupied with this question, starting from our individual perspective and building up to our families, our parish, our community, all the way up to the entire world view.  Whole industries have grown around this idea of value, from the advertising industry that tries to convince you of the value of what they’re selling, to insurance companies that can set a monetary value on everything, including your own life.  Our faith tradition also has some thoughts on this question, as addressed by our readings this week: The Word for the 28tth Sunday of Ordinary Time Wisdom 7:7-11 Psalm 90:12-13, 14-15, 16-17 Hebrews 4:12-13 Mark 10:17-30 Our first reading is from the Book of Wisdom.  You may recall that we had a passage from this book three weeks ago, but by way of reminder, the Book of Wisdom comes to us from the Jewish community in Alexandria some 50 years before Christ.  Typical of wisdom literature in...
Post a Comment
Read more