The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Reading I
Dt 4:32-34, 39-40

Moses said to the people:
"Ask now of the days of old, before your time,
ever since God created man upon the earth;
ask from one end of the sky to the other:
Did anything so great ever happen before?
Was it ever heard of?
Did a people ever hear the voice of God
speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?
Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself
from the midst of another nation,
by testings, by signs and wonders, by war,
with strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors,
all of which the LORD, your God,
did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
This is why you must now know,
and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God
in the heavens above and on earth below,
and that there is no other.
You must keep his statutes and commandments that I enjoin on you today,
that you and your children after you may prosper,
and that you may have long life on the land
which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever."

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22

R. (12b) Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made;
by the breath of his mouth all their host.
For he spoke, and it was made;
he commanded, and it stood forth.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
to deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Reading II
Rom 8:14-17

Brothers and sisters:
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you received a Spirit of adoption,
through whom we cry, "Abba, Father!"
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
if only we suffer with him
so that we may also be glorified with him.

Gospel
Mt 28:16-20

The eleven disciples went to Galilee,
to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.
When they all saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
Then Jesus approached and said to them,
"All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."

Commentary

In today’s First Reading it is clear that obedience is the key to maintaining Israel’s relationship with God, which is made tangible by its possession of the Promised Land.  As a whole, the entire text speaks of the connection between obedience and possession of the land.  When Israel disregarded God’s commandments, disaster followed.  Breaking the stipulations of the covenant resulted in their exile from the land.

Obedience, then, is the foundation of Israel’s relationship with God, since it brings Israel closer to God than is thought humanly possible.  It is the uniqueness of Israel’s God and of the covenant this God makes with Israel that makes Israel unlike any other people in history.  To secure its future, Israel need only recognize what is so obvious and order its life according to the commandments.  A life lived in obedience will bring not only renown but also long life in the Promised Land.  The text is clear: disobedience arouses Israel’s God, who does not tolerate infidelity.

In the Second Reading, Paul assures us that the person who is guided by the life-giving Spirit finds both life and peace.  Paul uses various descriptions of the Spirit to express the multifaceted reality of the Christian experience of sharing in divine life.  In the final analysis the indwelling Spirit of God who raised Jesus will also raise us in the resurrection.  So the inescapable conclusion is that we are in debt to the Spirit.  We have an obligation to put an end to all things of the flesh and live instead in the Spirit.

A very important result of being subject to the Spirit is that one becomes a true child of God.  This is the first time the concept appears in Romans.  The Spirit or force we have received is not one that would cast us back into fear, even a reverential fear.  Rather this Spirit says we are dear to God to the point we can call God “Abba, Father”.  Yet, lest anyone get too carried away with all this good news, Paul reminds us that we must suffer with Christ in order to be glorified with him.

Today’s Gospel Reading is a very important scene in the overall plan of Matthew’s Gospel.  The mountain and Galilee are preeminent places of revelation.  The eleven disciples are the Twelve minus Judas.  Their doubts quickly vanish and they worship Jesus.

The so-called “Great Commission” consists of the statement regarding Jesus’ authority, the command to make disciples, and the promise of Christ’s continued presence until the fullness of the kingdom arrives.  The reading summarizes the three major themes of Matthew’s Gospel:

1.                  Supreme and universal authority of Jesus, which surpasses every other human being and deserves all the exalted titles given to him.

2.                  The disciples are to share their discipleship with all people and not just their fellow Jews and hand on Jesus’ teaching to them.

3.                  The promise of Jesus’ continuing presence with the disciples and their successors brings to fulfillment the name “Emmanuel” (God is with us) given to Jesus at conception, in accordance with Isa 7:14.  The promise assumes a “time of the church” between the inauguration of God’s kingdom through Jesus and its fullness at the end of the world.

Reflection

Perhaps the greatest mystery of our faith is our Triune God himself.  As director of religious education in my parish I find that trying to explain the Trinity is one of the most difficult things.  It may seem that people understand the concept of three persons in one God, but in reality our minds are limited and we can never fully understand this great mystery (or any other mystery for that matter).  So what do we mean when we say that there are three Persons in one God?

Contrary to what some people believe, the Church teaches that the three Persons in the one God are distinct from one another:

The Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit.

The Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son.

yet equal to one another:

                                    The Father is God

                                    The Son is God

                                    The Holy Spirit is God

God is triune which means three and one at the same time.  He is not one with three parts; God is completely one and completely three, just as Jesus is completely God and completely human.  It took Christians a very long time to even begin to see these things about the Trinity.  It was not until the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. that the Church could agree on the precise terms that would correctly define the doctrine of the Trinity.  The teachings that came from the Council of Nicaea form the basis of the Nicene Creed which we profess every Sunday in Mass.

We will never fully understand the Trinity.  That’s precisely what a mystery is – a truth of faith revealed to us by God yet incomprehensible for our finite minds.  God has, however, given us the privilege to glimpse into his inner self.  Our entire life as Christians and Catholics revolves around the Blessed Trinity:  we are initiated into faith through Baptism where the celebrant turns to the baptismal font and prays the blessing and invocation of God over the water where the following words are said:

We ask you, Father, with your Son

to send the Holy Spirit

upon the waters of this font.

May all who are buried with Christ

in the death of baptism

rise also with him to newness of life.

We begin all our prayers by making the sign of the cross invoking the Trinity:

In the name of the Father, X and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

And the prayers of the liturgy are directed to God the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.  This is precisely what happens in the Mass and the celebration of all the sacraments.  In the Mass, the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Son is offered to the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Biblical Sources

New American Bible; United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Noth, M., “The Deuteronomistic History”; “A History of Pentateuchal Traditions” (EC, 1972); Weinfeld, M., “Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School”; Barrett, C. K., “A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans”; Cranfield, C. E. B., “A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans”; The Collegeville Bible Commentary; Beare, F. W., “The Gospel According to Matthew”; Gundry, R. H., “Matthew”; Mohrlang, R., “Matthew and Paul”; Przybylski, B., “Righteousness in Matthew”; Schweizer, E., “The Good News According to Matthew”; Stanton, G., “The Interpretation of Matthew”; Brown, Raymond E., S.S., “Introduction to the New Testament”; Brown, Fitzmyer, and Murphy (ed.) “The New Jerome Biblical Commentary".

Reflection

Deacon Lazaro J. Ulloa