Father Donald Senior, CP

June 11: Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Ex 34:4-6, 8-9; Dn 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56; 2 Cor 13:11-13; Jn 3:16-18

This Sunday is Trinity Sunday, marking the conclusion of the rich liturgical season stretching from Ash Wednesday through Lent and into the celebration of Easter and concluding last Sunday with the feast of Pentecost. All ends with praise for the mystery of the Triune God.

Over time Christian theology, under the guidance of the Spirit, has attempted to describe the inner life of God, while fully aware that our words and concepts are but feeble probes into this awesome mystery. God is one but that oneness is articulated in a vortex of mutual love among Father, Son and Spirit.

The God revealed in our Scriptures is not like the somewhat abstract God that philosophy or rational analysis attempts to identify — a God who is the “prime mover,” or the “architect of the universe” or the “first cause.” The God described in the Bible is passionate, involved in human affairs, demanding at times, but always loving and forgiving. He is a God who speaks, who wants to be in relationship with humans.

As the opening chapter of Genesis tells us, creation itself is seen as an outpouring of God’s tender love, drawing beauty and order from chaos. The biblical God creates human beings in God’s “own image and likeness” — able to know God and to love in return. Or, as Genesis 2 puts it, God breathes his own “spirit” or “breath” into a body of clay and thus the human becomes a “living being.”

The biblical God becomes wrapped up in the drama of human history, creating a garden for humans to fully enjoy. Seeing Adam and Eve squander their opportunity for happiness so begins a long history of human failure. A history, the Bible notes, that often frustrates the God of Israel but never causes him to abandon his people.

This is captured in the first reading today taken from Exodus. Early in the story of Israel’s journey from slavery to freedom, Moses climbs Mount Sinai, bringing with him the commandments God had forged. He experiences another of those remarkable conversations face to face with God. Here God himself declares what is a tenacious conviction of our Scriptures: “The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.”

Praise of this merciful God echoes throughout the other readings. The responsorial psalm for today is from the book of Deuteronomy and is pure praise of God’s majesty: “Glory and praise forever!” is the repeated refrain. In a striking passage from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, the apostle concludes with an ardent greeting that reflects the depth of God’s mysterious beauty celebrated in today’s feast: “Brothers and sisters, rejoice. Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you … The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”

No passage of the Bible reveals the depth and mystery of God’s love more than the Gospel selection today from John: “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.”

One could think of the Bible as a long search for this mysterious God, a God of love and mercy. We can see it from the opening scenes in Genesis where God creates the world in all its beauty and order to the Book of Revelation where God renews that creation, fashioning a new heaven and a new earth, with the radiant city of Jerusalem symbolizing a fully redeemed people coming down from above. Today there is no need to draw out some lesson for our Christian lives other than the call to pause and simply praise God — Father, Son and Spirit — “merciful and gracious.”

 

Topics:

  • scripture

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