Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

With the Solemnity of Pentecost last Sunday, the Easter Season came to an end. On Monday, we began Ordinary Time, that is, the period when priests wear the colour green, a time during which we are called to live the Gospel in the ordinariness of everyday life, witnessing the joy of being disciples of the crucified and risen Jesus. If we were to pause and look back a moment, we would be able to visualize a unique image. From a balcony in the heavens, God the Father, aware of how humanity after Adam and Eve’s sin (see Gn. 3) had gone astray and was unable of finding the way back to heaven, sent the prophets to help them find that way. But humanity not only failed to heed them, they also killed them (see Mt. 23:29ff.).
In the end, moved with compassion, the Father sent His only Son: “And the Word was made flesh and made his dwelling among us” (Jn. 1:14). Jesus, the Son of God, shared everything about our human condition with us except sin, helping us to remember that we are created by God, that we are His children, and that God is our Father. Through His words and His life, He taught us with Truth regarding the Way to return to the Father, who is eternal Life. Thus, Jesus showed us the Father’s face: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:9). He reminded us that the way to heaven is open to everyone, that there is no need to be afraid, and that we do not need to be ashamed because God the Father is love, He is faithfulness, He is mercy. Obedient to the Father, Jesus died on the cross for our salvation. On the third day He rose, defeating sin and death, thus opening the way to return to His Father and our Father (this is what we celebrated on Easter Sunday).
We can confidently choose this Way because Jesus, having ascended into heaven, gave us the Holy Spirit on Pentecost (the Solemnity celebrated last Sunday), the first gift given to believers – the Person of Love poured out into our beings so we might live as children of God. This is how we can understand why the liturgy invites us to celebrate the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This Solemnity is a sort of synthesis and, above all, directs us toward the goal of our journey.
This God, who presents Himself as One and Triune, is not all that distant as it seems, but is so very close that He becomes Bread broken for us, Corpus Christi (which will be celebrated next Sunday). This Bread, the Bread of angels, nourishes us on our journey toward heaven. This gift then reveals the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, celebrated the Friday following Corpus Christi.
These three liturgical feasts are a synthesis of the mystery of our faith which we have lived in these last months: from Christmas to the death and resurrection of Jesus, from His Ascension to Pentecost. The Arian heresy, which disputed Jesus’s divinity and His bond with the Holy Trinity, was condemned by the Council of Nicea in 325 and Constantinople in 381. These two Councils were providential in spreading the doctrine regarding the Trinity both through preaching and through devotion. As early as the 8th century, liturgical prefaces appeared containing references to the doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity. A votive Mass emerged toward the year 800 in honour of the Trinity, which could be celebrated on any Sunday. This decision was opposed because the Trinity is honoured every Sunday. In the end, it was Pope John XXII who established the feast throughout the universal Church in 1334.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (Jn. 3:16-18)

God walks with us

The First Reading comes from the Book of Exodus, chapter 34. It is the moment in which God passes before Moses proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, a God gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love and fidelity” (Ex. 34:6-7). Before this grand scene of self-revelation, Moses prostrates himself before God and asks, “If I find favor with you, Lord, please, Lord, come along in our company” (Ex. 34:8). This request expresses the desire that every person has at heart. For beyond whatever happens in life, what matters is knowing that “God is with us”, since “nothing is impossible with God” (Lk. 1:37).

God with us

Perhaps Moses never expected that one day he would one day walk with his flesh and blood in the midst of his people, just as he would never have imagined that God would take on flesh in Jesus. Instead, this is what He did. And He did this not to condemn a disobedient world, but to save it once and for all.

To celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity means being aware of God’s provident care, of His faithfulness towards us, of a God who never became disinterested in human affairs, but who made Himself all things to all people so as to reach them all. Enlivened by the Holy Spirit, each of us is asked to exercise this same care and closeness, trying always to tend toward perfection, cultivating the same sentiments Jesus had, living in peace, as Saint Paul reminds us in the Second Reading (2 Cor. 13:11-13). This Solemnity, therefore, should not be experienced as if we were spectators, but it requires that each of us “walk with” others, to make ourselves their neighbours (cf. Lk 10).

Prayer

“Keep uncontaminated this upright faith that is in me and, until my last breath, grant me likewise this voice of my conscience, that I may be ever faithful to what I professed in my regeneration when I was baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” (Saint Hilary of Poitiers)

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26 May

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they 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.” (Mt. 28:16-20)

Go and baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

The Gospel passage for today’s Solemnity concludes with the sending of the disciples out on mission with the invitation, “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”.

Two prepositions merit our attention: “in” and “with”. The first, “In the name of the Father…” and the second, “I will be with you…”. Jesus sends the Eleven to baptize, he sends them to “immerge”, “immerse”, “submerge” others in God’s life, to abbandon solitude and self-sufficiency. For in the end, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity is the feast of “relationships”.

I am with you

“I am” recalls the self-revelation of God to Moses before the burning bush (Ex. 3:14). Jesus claims God’s name for himself here, as in other passages: “I am the bread of life” (Jn. 6:35); “I am the light of the world” (Jn. 8:12); “I am the gate for the sheep” (Jn. 10:7); “I am the resurrection and the life” (Jn. 11:25); “I am the way, the truth and the life” (Jn. 14:6); “I am the vine” (Jn. 15:5). Therefore, Jesus is “the One who is”, the One who always walks with us, who never leaves us. He is Emmanuel, God-with-us (see Is. 7:14; Mt. 1:23), until the end of time (see Mt. 28:20).

Sense of belonging

By “sending” the disciples to all peoples, Jesus initiated a new life capable of creating a sense of belonging. It is a journey that progressively helps each person find him or herself only when in relationship with others, because remaining “in the name of the Father” implies being “with others”, otherwise there is always a type of void, a nostalgia. With His Incarnation (Christmas), Jesus became one of us to enter into communion with us. With the gift of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost), Jesus asks us to become like Him, entering into communion with Him, to be consecrated in unity and love because this alone leads us to true life.

Prayer

“Keep uncontaminated this upright faith that is in me and, until my last breath, grant me likewise this voice of my conscience, that I may be ever faithful to what I professed in my regeneration when I was baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” (Saint Hilary of Poitiers)

Jesus said to his disciples: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.” (Jn. 16,12-15)

How wonderful is your name in all the earth

The responsorial Psalm from today’s liturgy (Ps. 8) is a hymn of awe and praise before God’s grandeur reflected in the grandeur of the human person and of all creation. The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity should therefore be “contemplated” through the grandeur with which God made us and of all that surrounds us to the point of being able to say: “The glory of God is man fully alive (St Irenaeus of Lyon).

Love – Communion

The reflection of God in us speaks to us not only of His “grandeur” but also of His “company”. God reveals Himself to us as God-Love, even more, as God-Communion. He is the light on this horizon of “communion” that we are called to embrace as the vocation of every human person. We are above all God’s “gift”. Therefore, as the one God is Triune, so we have been made to be in relationship with others. For inasmuch as we are in communion with others, we find ourselves. To the extent that we “lose ourselves” for others, we find ourselves, and in the end, we save ourselves, as Jesus told us (see Mk. 8:34ff.).

Interior Teacher

To fulfill this task-vocation, Jesus told us that the Spirit would be given to us. He is our interior Teacher, our Guide, who knows how to give each person what is necessary according to their own capacity. Understanding and bearing everything does not happen all at once, as the Gospel reminds us. There is “much more” that we are not capable of bearing. There are things we cannot attain to on our own through our own intelligence, with our money, much less with power or the use of force. The Spirit is specifically the One who makes us capable of living a life worthy of God’s gift. He makes us capable of bearing this “too much”, the “other things” He comes right where we, on our own, cannot go. And He does this from within, not imposing any extra burden, not asking us to exert any extra effort. He leads us to the truth, which is not an idea, but is Jesus Himself, who teaches us to make ourselves small, poor, so as to learn how to make room for God and for others, to live like God, Trinity-Love-Communion-Fraternity.

Prayer

“Keep uncontaminated this upright faith that is in me and, until my last breath, grant me likewise this voice of my conscience, that I may be ever faithful to what I professed in my regeneration when I was baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” (Saint Hilary of Poitiers)