The Catholic Calendar for Sunday, June 11, 2006
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40
Psalm 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22
Romans 8:14-17
Matthew 28:16-20

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. It celebrates the most awesome of all mysteries. The Scriptures for the Mass guide us through the story of its revelation to God’s people.

The first reading from Deuteronomy is all about Moses’ reminding the Israelites of just how great this One God has been to them ever since He revealed Himself to Abraham many years before. More recently, He has performed incredible miracles in delivering the people from Egypt’s Ruler. The number One, as in “God,” has been indelibly branded in their minds and hearts! (This accounts for some later confusion and reluctance on their part to accept the teaching of Jesus about the Trinity).

The final passages of Matthew’s Gospel are read this Sunday. In them, we find Jesus revealing the great Mystery which has left us speechless for two thousand years — and the mystery is this: He, Himself, is the Son of God, and He is equal to God the Father! How can this be? Two separate “Persons” in the One God?

Today’s second reading from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians casts much light on the mystery (but not enough to solve it completely). Paul talks about the Holy Spirit as the love connection between Father and Son. In fact, it connects the very distant idea of a Creator God, with the still very awesome idea of the Word of God taking on human flesh. He has been given the divine-human name of Jesus, the Anointed One (Christ).

So the Third Person of the Trinity is really the Holy Connection between Father and Son. St. Basil called this Spirit of God the Divine Being who is totally contained in every baptized and confirmed Christian. Now the catch: He gives his Power to the whole universe, and to those individuals “who are worthy, acting in each according to the measure of his faith.” If we think God is far away, we are wrong! This Third Person makes holy all those persons who will allow Him to do so. We ourselves share in the connection between “Father” and “Son.”

We need not be disturbed by the fact that we’ll never solve the mystery of three Persons in one God — all we have to do is to live by the Spirit who is the Great Connector, and realize that we have been given the immense privilege of being a living temple of the Holy Trinity, sharing in its Power, its Truth, and the incredible delights of its love, life, joy, and everlasting happiness!

- Msgr. Paul Whitmore
(smartins at frontiernet dot net)