Mother Church invites us to celebrate Sunday, June 16, 2019, the eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, as the Feast of the Holy Trinity: God as Father, God as Son and God as Holy Spirit, Three Persons in One. In the entrance antiphon we pray, “Blest be God the Father, and the Only Begotten Son of God, and also the Holy Spirit. For he has shown us his merciful love. Amen.”
The doctrine of Three Persons in one God, equal in divinity yet distinct in personality cannot be understood by the human mind. It is a mystery. A story is told of Saint Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo in North Africa, who lived in the 4th century after Christ. He was so preoccupied with the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity that he wanted at all costs to understand how God could be said to be one in three persons. One day he was walking along the beach and deeply reflecting on this matter. Suddenly, he saw a little girl carrying water from the sea in a tiny cup and pouring it into a tiny hole she had dug on the sand. Back and forth she ran to the sea and brought back water in the tiny cup, which she emptied into the tiny hole. After watching her for sometime, Saint Augustine went up to her and asked her what she was doing. She said she wanted to empty the entire sea into that tiny hole using her tiny cup. Saint Augustine shook his head sadly and asked her how in the world she thought she could ever empty the sea into such a tiny hole. She then asked him how he thought he could ever in his small head understand the mystery behind God being One in three persons. And with that, the child is said to have disappeared and it was only then that Saint Augustine understood that he was faced with a mystery.
Like Saint Augustine, we too are faced with the immensity of God’s mystery, which we can only understand with the mind of our faith. When he was on earth, Christ spoke about the Father who sent him (the Son) and about the Holy Spirit whom he (the Son) was going to send to strengthen his disciples. The Father gave to the Son and the Son gave all that he received from the Father to the Holy Spirit. It is this unity of purpose among the three persons of the Holy Trinity that we are celebrating today in the readings from Sacred Scripture. We pray for the grace of a strong faith to believe that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Three in One.
The first reading of today speaks of the wisdom of God. The wisdom is presented as a person who was with God from the very beginning. God displayed great wisdom and power in creating the world. God manifests his love in the creation. We find already in the Old Testament traces of the doctrine of the Trinity. In the second reading all the three persons of the Holy Trinity are named. In faith we experience the love of God embodied in Christ who makes us partakers in the life of God through the Spirit of love, for “God’s love has been poured into our hearts.” In the Gospel, Saint John shows us that God is not alone. He is community, at the same time, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
First Reading: Proverbs 8: 22-31
Thus, says the wisdom of God: "The Lord possessed me, the beginning of his ways, the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago; from of old I was poured forth, at the first, before the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no fountains or springs of water; before the mountains were settled into place, before the hills, I was brought forth; while as yet the earth and fields were not made, nor the first clods of the world. "When the Lord established the heavens I was there, when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep; when he made firm the skies above, when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth; when he set for the sea its limit, so that the waters should not transgress his command; then was I beside him as his craftsman, and I was his delight day by day, playing before him all the while, playing on the surface of his earth; and I found delight in the human race."
V/. The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
Proverbs are a collection of human wisdom sayings that are imbued with the faith of the Lord, the God of Israel. It is perhaps the most typical example of wisdom literature in the Bible. The poetical and wisdom books of the Bible were composed after the return from exile, in the period between the fifth and the first centuries before Christ, although some of them contain material that can be traced back to the times of the monarchy (David and Solomon). The tradition of Israel attributed to Solomon, for example, produced a truly exceptional wisdom literature made up of thousands of similes and proverbs. The questions that are asked in these wisdom sayings may not always find immediate answers, but through their reflections God stimulates man in his search for the truth, which is the search for God himself.
The wise men of Israel began to reason things out by observing the world around them and reflecting on the personal and social consequences of human actions. In the wisdom books we can see the teachings about the type of life one should lead if one wants to be happy and successful, with emphasis always on the “fear of the Lord” as the touchstone of wisdom.
Chapter 8, from where our reading is taken, consists of a splendid poem in praise of personified wisdom. Wisdom speaks in public for all to hear; her message is not meant for a select few, but rather for the general public. God’s wisdom is presented as a person who was with God from the very beginning. God displayed great wisdom and power in creating the world. God manifests his love in the creation.
This poem, with its solemn language and imagery, shows the relationship between wisdom and the creation of the world and of man. Wisdom is present with God at the creation and what delights her most is her relationship with mankind. Jesus Christ was with his Father from the creation of the world and so Wisdom, described as having the features of a person, prepares us to grasp the mystery of the Blessed Trinity: God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three Persons in One.
Second Reading: Romans 5: 1-5
Brothers and sisters: Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
V/ The word of the Lord.
R/ Thanks be to God.
Comment
In the winter of the year AD 57, in the comparative quiet of the city of Corinth, Paul wrote what was to be his greatest masterpiece: The Letter to the Romans. This letter, Paul’s longest letter to any community, deals with the key aspects of the teaching and redemptive work of Christ. The authors of The African Bible tell me that it is the longest, most influential and rewarding of Paul’s undisputed letters. It may well be the last he wrote. He seems to have written it from Corinth during his stay recorded in Acts 20:3.
Paul did not found the Church in Rome. It was probably founded by Jewish Christians from Judaea or by Jews who had been converted to Christianity while on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Paul had never visited nor evangelized the Church of Rome and he longed to visit them, Rome being the most important city in his world. He is therefore writing to people who have already been evangelized by others, notably Saint Peter and other earlier converts to Christianity. Saint Paul is planning to travel to the Iberian Peninsula and hopes he can get some help from the Christians of Rome.
In the passage of our meditation, Paul shows how faith, hope and charity act in us in turn, causing us to grow in the life of grace. Thus, faith leads us to know and be sure of the things we hope for, while hope ensures that we attain them, and charity, for its part, gives us energy to practice the other two theological virtues. The definitive outcome of this growth in love, faith and hope is the everlasting peace that is of the essence of eternal life.
As long as we live on this earth, we cannot completely do away with tribulations. Suffering is a necessary part of life because it is the normal way by which we grow in virtue. “A person who hopes for something and strives eagerly to attain it,” says Saint Thomas Aquinas, “is ready to endure all kinds of difficulty and distress.” A person who lives by faith, hope and charity realizes that suffering is not something meaningless but rather is designed by God to perfect us for eternal life.
We pray, in the course of this Eucharist, for our brothers and sisters who are ill. Father, you invite all who are burdened to come to you and you will give them rest. Allow your healing hand to touch our brothers and sisters who are ill. Touch their hearts with courage. Touch their minds with your wisdom, that their mouths may always proclaim your praise; through Jesus Christ your Son and our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia! Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; the God who is, who was, and who is to come. Alleluia!”
Gospel: John 16: 12-15
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."
V/ The Gospel of the Lord.
R/ Praise be to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Comment
The doctrine of the Blessed Trinity tells us that the love of God flows through different personalities: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God the Father loves his Son Jesus Christ and the Son loves his Father. Between them, there is perfect love that generates a third person, the Holy Spirit. The three are united in one great love that overshadows the whole creation. We are part of it for we are sharers of God’s love in its fulness, for God knows no partial love. The feast of the most Holy Trinity reminds us of God’s unfathomable love for each one of us, a love that never gets exhausted. Through this love, we are transformed and become heirs of God’s kingdom.
It is the Holy Spirit who makes the truth revealed by Christ fully understood. As Vatican II teaches, our Lord “completed and perfected Revelation and confirmed it by sending the Spirit of truth.” Christ himself reveals some aspects of the Blessed Trinity. He teaches that the three divine Persons have the same nature when he says that everything that the Father has belongs to the Son, and everything the Son has belongs to the Father (Jn 17:10), and that the Holy Spirit also has what is common to the Father and the Son, that is, the divine essence. The Holy Spirit’s responsibility is to glorify Christ, remind and clarify the disciples everything the Master taught them (Jn 16: 13). When the Holy Spirit inspires us to recognize the Father through the Son, we then render praise to Christ; glorifying Christ is the same as giving glory to the Father (Jn 17:1, 3-5, 10).
Earlier our Lord had consoled his disciples by assuring them that he would send them the Holy Spirit after ascending into heaven. Now he gives them another consolation: he is not leaving them permanently, he will come back and stay with them.
Today’s feast reminds us that we too are created in the image of the Holy Trinity. We should therefore give up all that is selfish and individualistic in us in order to be communicators and sharers in God’s love in the community as the Holy Spirit does. Irrespective of differences in opinion, outlook and attitude, we have to learn to live in harmony as the members of the Blessed Trinity do. So let us try to cherish in our families, communities and society the love of God and of neighbor so that we may be credible witnesses of Christ’s message of love for all, even for our enemies. In that way, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit will be with us now and forever. Amen.
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