Cycle C - Year II:  

12 June 2022: Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity 

(Liturgical Color: White)

Readings:

First Reading:        Proverbs 8:22-31

Second Reading:  Romans 5:1-5

Gospel:  Please Read  John 16:12-15

One God in Three Divine Persons!

The Universal Church proclaims this Sunday the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. Let us begin our short meditation on this mystery, in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Notice that every time we make the sign of the cross, we profess our belief in the Most Holy Trinity. This is the "trademark" of Christianity.

The doctrine of the Trinity holds that God is one, but three co-eternal and co-substantial Persons -- the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit -- as "one God in three divine Persons". The mystery of the Holy Trinity is the most fundamental of our faith.  On it everything else depends and from it everything else derives.  Hence, the Church's constant concern to safeguard the revealed truth that God is One in nature and Three in Persons.

This doctrine on the Holy Trinity is the most difficult to comprehend and even more difficult to fully communicate with human words.  We end up acknowledging that the Trinitarian character of God will always be, in reality, a great mystery. In fact, the shortest Gospel commentary is that the Trinity is a mystery, and that is the end of the story.

Now, the Church did not invent the teaching on the Holy Trinity.  It is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself who revealed this mystery of the Trinity to us through the first disciples. In this Sunday's Gospel, the evangelist St. John quotes Jesus revealing to us God's real identity in the Trinitarian mystery:

"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)

The Church's teaching on the Trinity helps us to grow in faith and strengthen us in practical ways of Christian living.  Because God allows us to know Him more intimately as He truly is in the Trinitarian mystery. We cannot love Him unless we know Him: One God in three divine Persons.  Thus, He reveals Himself to us as a divine family, and we are all invited to be part of that family.

St. John Paul II says of the Holy Trinity: "God in His deepest mystery is not a solitude, but a family, since He has in Himself fatherhood, sonship, and love, which is the essence of the family."

Since we know that God is a communion of Persons, we who are made in His image and likeness are likewise made to be in a relationship with God and with each other. We are made to be communal beings, meant to live for others.  This is the nature of love and the nature of God who formed us in His image.

So God reveals Himself to us as a family through the Holy Trinity, a loving communion of Persons. Our family, therefore, should also be a communion of life and love modeled after the Trinity.  It is in the family that we first learn some important lessons about Christian living, such as sharing, being patient and forgiving. It is in the family that we also learn how to practice a selfless, sacrificial love that is an image of the selfless love on the Trinity.

In sum, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity tells us something about who God is, and tells us something about ourselves, too. In the Eucharist at Mass, let us give glory to God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit -- one God, three Persons-- from Whom everything in the world and in history comes, and to Whom everything returns in time. Amen.

A blessed Holy Trinity Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!