Solemnity of The Holy Trinity What’s your favorite way of talking about the Trinity? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer? Have you ever tried to explain the Trinity? Or even to understand it? God is one and yet we’ve got these three, what? So what is God? Maybe God is a shape-shifter, one minute holy parent, another holy child, another holy spirit. “God in three persons.” Talking about the Trinity is not easy! The greatest mystery of this feast is not how God can be Three-in-One, but why does this God choose to be intimately present to us. Perhaps the mystery is that the triune community of the Trinity wishes to dwell within the community of humanity! Living and dying the Paschal Mystery means that we are faithful witnesses to the God within. So what do we have to be for one another? The love of God poured out, the truth that guides. This is the glory of God revealed within and among us.
Solemnity of The Holy Trinity Military officers are commissioned; they are given specific authority to carry out the duties of their rank. Sales personnel might earn a commission; they are given a percentage of a sale over and above their regular salary. Etymologi¬cally, the word “commission” means to be “sent with.” So, someone commis¬sioned might be sent forth with authority and reaps the rewards of a task well done. This year the gospel for this Sunday concludes with what is sometimes called the “Great Commission.” No other gospel so explicitly refers to the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity. We hear the very words of the baptismal formula we use today, and no doubt this gospel passage reflects the baptismal practice of the Matthean community some decades after the historical events of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension. The disciples are sent forth to “all nations” with the authority of Jesus and they reap the rewards of being faithful to Jesus’ command and having Jesus always with them. In this gospel passage for the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Jesus commands the disciples to baptize “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Jesus reveals his undivided, divine relationship with the Father when he declares, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Baptism professes our faith in the Holy Trinity and celebrates our insertion into the intimate, relational life of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The depth and intimacy of God’s relationship with us leads to our own identity—“we are children of God” and “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ”. As children and heirs, we share in the identity of Christ and, therefore, of God. Moreover, we participate in God’s saving work because we share in the power and mission of Christ through the Spirit. To share in divine identity is to share in divine doing— we, too, are to do mighty deeds. To be formed into the identity of Christ, therefore, is to be formed into his mission. The gospel rather succinctly and clearly lays out the mission with which Jesus charged the disciples (and us) before he ascended into heaven: make disciples, baptize in the name of the Trinity, teach, and observe “all that [Jesus] has commanded.” Jesus can entrust this mission to us because we share in his identity through the power of the Spirit. This identity is the fruit of our fidel¬ity. Has anything more wondrous or greater happened before? Liturgy calls us together to ask, “Who is this God?” Knowing God isn’t something we can find out in the abstract; knowing God is sought and expressed in our own doing — in taking up Christ’s mission and living our own privileged identity as daughters and sons of God “until the end of the age.” Without doing as Jesus did, we cannot answer “Who is God?” This doing is nothing less than to “suffer with” Christ, which means a constant dying to self. By our own self-emptying are we filled with the divine identity, are faithful to our own baptismal identity, and continue the mission with which Jesus has entrusted us.
Trinity Sunday This Sunday is Trinity Sunday – the first Sunday after Pentecost a time of year that Popes and Bishops, Councils and Synods, have, for years thought it good and wise to remind the millions of seekers – the millions of faithful – for whom they care – that God is a mystery which is best understood in three ways: as creator — or father; as redeemer — or son and as sustainer — or spirit. God is one. Yet God is three. God is here. Yet God is everywhere. God is mighty. Yet God is tender. God is just. Yet God has mercy. God is spirit. Yet God takes on flesh. God is in Christ. Christ is in Us. God is Spirit and the Spirit blows where it wills. Yet the Spirit abides in our hearts. God is one. Yet God is three. The Spirit of God, God the Spirit, is the one which guides us – the one which comforts us – the one that convicts us and conveys God’s mercy to us – the one who listens – and the one who speaks – and in speaking never asks of us that which is wrong – and never does through us – that which would bring shame to the name of God It is by the Spirit that our prayer is prayer to God and by the Spirit that our prayer is answered. God is one, yet God is three. God is a mystery — a mystery so big, so awesome, so holy that our limited minds can never grasp the wholeness of it but God has placed in us a capacity to appreciate the mystery that God is and to embrace that mystery . God has revealed God’s self , not just in the act of creation – in nature and its manifest goodness and beauty, – not just in the nudges and nods of the Spirit – in the prophet’s vision and the old man’s dreams, God has revealed God’s self in the one called Jesus the one called Christ – the one who was born by the Spirit and who worked all his works by the Spirit and who healed and forgave by the Spirit and in all that he spoke he spoke the word of God by the Spirit. In Christ, God reveals himself as the one who loves – and who does so in tangible, concrete, incarnate – in fleshed – ways. Grab hold of the mystery — appreciate it and embrace it: the mystery that not only is God one in three and three in one but the mystery that God loves you, the mystery that God cares for you, the mystery that God can and will, if you let him, use you to do great things that God can and will, if you are open to his bidding, use you to bring healing, and wholeness, and hope first to your homes, then to your neighbors and finally to the whole world through the gospel that we have received.
The Trinity This Sunday is Trinity Sunday – the first Sunday after Pentecost a time of year that Popes and Bishops, Councils and Synods, have, for years thought it good and wise to remind the millions of seekers – the millions of faithful – for whom they care – that God is a mystery which is best understood in three ways: as creator — or father; as redeemer — or son and as sustainer — or spirit. God is one. Yet God is three. God is here. Yet God is everywhere. God is mighty. Yet God is tender. God is just. Yet God has mercy. God is spirit. Yet God takes on flesh. God is in Christ. Christ is in Us. God is Spirit and the Spirit blows where it wills. Yet the Spirit abides in our hearts. God is one. Yet God is three. The Spirit of God, God the Spirit, is the one which guides us – the one which comforts us – the one that convicts us and conveys God’s mercy to us – the one who listens – and the one who speaks – and in speaking never asks of us that which is wrong – and never does through us – that which would bring shame to the name of God It is by the Spirit that our prayer is prayer to God and by the Spirit that our prayer is answered. God is one, yet God is three. God is a mystery — a mystery so big, so awesome, so holy that our limited minds can never grasp the wholeness of it but God has placed in us a capacity to appreciate the mystery that God is and to embrace that mystery . God has revealed God’s self , not just in the act of creation – in nature and its manifest goodness and beauty, – not just in the nudges and nods of the Spirit – in the prophet’s vision and the old man’s dreams, God has revealed God’s self in the one called Jesus the one called Christ – the one who was born by the Spirit and who worked all his works by the Spirit and who healed and forgave by the Spirit and in all that he spoke he spoke the word of God by the Spirit. In Christ, God reveals himself as the one who loves – and who does so in tangible, concrete, incarnate – in fleshed – ways. Grab hold of the mystery — appreciate it and embrace it: the mystery that not only is God one in three and three in one but the mystery that God loves you, the mystery that God cares for you, the mystery that God can and will, if you let him, use you to do great things that God can and will, if you are open to his bidding, use you to bring healing, and wholeness, and hope first to your homes, then to your neighbors and finally to the whole world through the gospel that we have received.
God Is One. Yet God Is Three. This Sunday is Trinity Sunday – the first Sunday after Pentecost a time of year that Popes and Bishops, Councils and Synods, have, for years thought it good and wise to remind the millions of seekers – the millions of faithful – for whom they care – that God is a mystery which is best understood in three ways as creator — or father; as redeemer — or son and as sustainer — or spirit. God is one. Yet God is three. God is here. Yet God is everywhere. God is mighty. Yet God is tender. God is just. Yet God has mercy. God is spirit. Yet God takes on flesh. God is in Christ. Christ is in Us. God is Spirit and the Spirit blows where it wills. Yet the Spirit abides in our hearts. God is one. Yet God is three. The Spirit of God, God the Spirit, is the one which guides us – the one which comforts us – the one that convicts us and conveys God’s mercy to us – the one who listens – and the one who speaks – and in speaking never asks of us that which is wrong – and never does through us – that which would bring shame to the name of God It is by the Spirit that our prayer is prayer to God and by the Spirit that our prayer is answered. God is one, yet God is three. God is a mystery — a mystery so big, so awesome, so holy that our limited minds can never grasp the wholeness of it but God has placed in us a capacity to appreciate the mystery that God is and to embrace that mystery . God has revealed God’s self , not just in the act of creation – in nature and its manifest goodness and beauty, – not just in the nudges and nods of the Spirit – in the prophet’s vision and the old man’s dreams, God has revealed God’s self in the one called Jesus the one called Christ – the one who was born by the Spirit and who worked all his works by the Spirit and who healed and forgave by the Spirit and in all that he spoke he spoke the word of God by the Spirit. In Christ, God reveals himself as the one who loves – and who does so in tangible, concrete, incarnate – in fleshed – ways. Grab hold of the mystery — appreciate it and embrace it: the mystery that not only is God one in three and three in one but the mystery that God loves you, the mystery that God cares for you, the mystery that God can and will, if you let him, use you to do great things that God can and will, if you are open to his bidding, use you to bring healing, and wholeness, and hope first to your homes, then to your neighbors and finally to the whole world through the gospel that we have received.