On Sunday, May 26, 2024, the Universal Church returns to Sundays of the Ordinary Time of the liturgical year, Year B. The Ordinary Time of the year had been interrupted by the Easter Season, which ended last Sunday with Pentecost. 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."
Our celebration today is a song of praise to God who has taken us up to share in the very life of the Trinity. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is with us all. On this day, therefore, Mother Church invites us to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Trinity: God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons in one. 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.
There is the already well-known story of Saint Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo in North Africa, who lived in the 4th century after Christ. He is said to have been 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 in 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 some time, Saint Augustine, totally intrigued, walked up to her and asked her: “Hi, little girl, what are you doing?” “I want to empty the whole of this sea into this hole, which I have dug in this sand, using this cup,” she said jovially showing him her tiny cup. Saint Augustine shook his head sadly and said: “That must be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. You are trying to empty this immense sea into a tiny hole with that tiny cup? Are you out of your mind, or what?” “If you think I’m crazy because I want to empty the entire sea into this tiny hole,” the little girl told him, “then you’re crazier by racking your brain, as you’ve been doing for years now, trying to understand the immensity of God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” And with that, she is said to have disappeared, leading the puzzled Saint Augustine to understand that he was indeed faced with a mystery.
Like Saint Augustine, we too are faced with the immensity of God’s mystery, which we can only understand through 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 together with his Father) would send to strengthen his disciples on Pentecost. 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.
First Reading: Deuteronomy 4: 32-34. 39-40.
Moses said to the people: "Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created man upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, with strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other. You must keep his statutes and commandments that I enjoin on you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you forever."
Comment
Deuteronomy is the fifth of the first five books of the Old Testament; the first is Genesis, which tells the story of the origins of the world and the Israelites as God’s chosen people, the second, Exodus, tells the story of the escape of the Israelites from Egypt, their wanderings in the desert and the covenant at Mount Sinai, the third, Leviticus, deals with rites of Jewish worships and role of the priests of the tribe of Levites, the fourth, Numbers, gives the numerical strength of the people of Israel, and the fifth, Deuteronomy, from where our first reading of this day is taken, recounts the main events at the end of the forty years the Israelites spent wandering in the desert under the leadership of Moses. Collectively, these first five books of the Bible form what the Greeks called Pentateuch (meaning five books), or what the Jews called the Torah (Hebrew word for The Law).
The passage selected for our meditation gives the high point of the Old Testament. God’s word to his people is that he has chosen them for his very own. The divine election of the people of Israel is what the Old Testament is all about. God’s choice of the people of Israel is absolutely unique. He shows special and kindly providence towards the Israelites through the great works he does for them. Consequently, Israel should remain faithful to this one and only God, keep his commandments and worship him alone. By so doing, Israel will continue to enjoy his protection.
God has not chosen them for any reason other than out of his sheer love which he grants to whomever he wills and when he wills it. Thanks to the prophets of old, the people of Israel understood that it was again out of his love that God never stopped saving them and pardoning their unfaithfulness and sin. The prophets continue to urge Israel to remain faithful to the One and Only God and to Moses. Their Lord is a jealous God who requires his people to be totally loyal and obedient to him.
What message am I taking from this reading? God’s message to the people of Israel is still addressed to us today. Being good and obeying God’s commandments brings life whereas sin often brings with it misfortune and even death. As we reflect on the mystery of the Holy Trinity, let us ask God as Father Son and Holy Spirit for the grace to love one another and forgive each other’s trespasses. To love one another is keep one of the greatest commandments Christ left before going to his Father: the Commandment of love, which makes of us true sons and daughters of God. Holy Spirit, come to our aid. Amen.
Second Reading: Romans 8: 14-17.
Brothers and sisters: For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
Comment
The Letter to the Romans is one of the Epistles generally referred to as the “Great Epistles” of Saint Paul. The others are his Letter to the Galatians and First and Second Corinthians. Saint Paul wrote these epistles during his third missionary journey from the spring of 53 to the spring of 58 AD. Paul did not found the Church in Rome. It was the work of Saint Peter and the other disciples who had travelled to Rome when the persecution of Christians was no longer the order of the day. Then why did Saint Paul write to the Church of Rome which he did not found?
Church historians tell us that the Churches Saint Paul founded in Asia and in Greece were, thanks to the Holy Spirit, functioning well and so he planned an apostolic visit to Spain. He decided to go to Spain through Rome. It is to prepare his planned stay in Rome that he wrote the Letter to the Romans from Corinth in the early months of the year 58 AD. It is his longest and most important epistle. It deals with the key aspects of the teaching and redemptive work of Christ.
The letter surveys, among other things, the moral degeneration of the Gentiles and the similar sins of the Jews, and concludes that all men are in absolute need of redemption by Christ, and obtain God’s forgiveness and grace.
The passage selected for our meditation deals with Christians as children of God. It tells us that the life of a Christian is sharing in the life of Christ, God’s only begotten Son. By becoming, through adoption, true sons and daughters of God, we have the right to also share in Christ’s inheritance, which is eternal life in heaven. This divine life in us, begun in Baptism through the rebirth in the Holy Spirit, will grow under the guidance of this same Spirit, who makes us ever more like Christ.
What am I hearing from this reading? I hear that our new life in the Spirit makes us sons and daughters of God. We too should be proud to call God, as Christ himself does, Abba, Father. Let us pray for the grace to always seek the face of God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit no matter the difficult situation we may find ourselves in.
Let us pray with Bishop Michael Buckley to the Holy Trinity: “Most Holy Trinity, I commit my life to your infinite mercy, trust, and love. For my lack of faith, I ask mercy of the Father, who is swift to compassion and slow to anger; for my inability to trust your providence, I seek refuge in the humanity of your Son, who was obedient unto death; for my coldness in loving, I place myself in the warmth of the Holy Spirit, who alone makes our lives acceptable to you. May this day find me more ready to give glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Gospel: Matthew 28: 16-20.
The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they all saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."
Comment
In this day’s Gospel, Jesus authoritatively sends out his disciples to preach the Good News of his resurrection to the four corners of the world. Trinity Sunday is the feast of God as Father, God as Son, and God as Holy Spirit. Mother Church baptizes and confirms “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” She also anoints the sick and absolves the penitent sinners “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” We begin the Eucharist “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” We end our prayers at Mass as follows: “We make our prayer through Jesus Christ your Son who lives and reigns with you (God) and the Holy Spirit one God forever and ever. Amen”. Our faith, which we recite in the Creed says “We believe in one God the Father Almighty … We believe in Jesus Christ the only Son of God … We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life.
The final commission, as this part of Matthew’s Gospel is sometimes called, is given on the mountaintop. Throughout Scripture, many of the most important events happen on a mountaintop, and Matthew used this motif often. Peter, James, and John saw Jesus transfigured on the mountaintop, and Jesus taught the crowds from the mountaintop in the Sermon on the Mount. In today’s Gospel, the eleven disciples go to the mountaintop in Galilee, as Jesus had instructed them through Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. They see Jesus, and they worship and doubt at the same time. Jesus approaches them and commissions them to baptize and teach. It is a task for which Jesus had previously prepared his disciples; recall that Jesus had already sent the twelve apostles to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal. Yet earlier, the Twelve were sent only to the House of Israel; in this final commission, the eleven are told to go to all nations. The mission of Jesus is now to be taken to all people, and the task is to baptize and to teach.
Jesus commissions his disciples to baptize in the name of the Trinity; this is one of the clearest attestations for Baptism in the name of the Holy Trinity found in Scripture. Other New Testament references to Baptism describe it as being celebrated in the name of Jesus. As we read this Gospel on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, we are reminded that this central mystery of faith is meant to be lived. As baptized Christians, we share in the life of the blessed Trinity and seek to invite others to share in God’s love.
Trinity Sunday celebrates God as a Father, who loves us despite our sinfulness. Trinity Sunday celebrates the grace and generosity of God the Son, who forgives sins and reconciles people. Trinity Sunday celebrates God as Spirit, who calls us to fellowship, to communion, and to unity in our new family, the Church. Looked at from another angle, the Trinity is a call for Christian rebirth, a call to be a new creation, a call to enter into the reign of God. God is calling us not to judge us but to save us.
The question therefore is how do I, as a Christian living in the city of Douala, respond to this call, to this invitation from God? How do I react when he calls on me to be generous and forgiving to others as he is to me? A story is told of three children who each saw in the Trinity a source of joy. One found in God, the father he never had, another found in Jesus a brother, because his biological brother had been separated from him by his parents’ divorce, and another saw the Holy Spirit as a guide, who enlightened him as he went out into the wide world. On this feast of the Blessed Trinity, then, it might be good for us too to reflect on our personal relationship with God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Let us pray: We beseech you, Lord, to listen to our humble prayers: be merciful towards the sinfulness of us who confess our misdeeds, and in your goodness forgive us and set our minds at rest. We make our prayer through your Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit one God forever and ever. Amen.
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