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| Holy Trinity (Pala della Convertite) by Sandro Botticelli 1491-93 |
"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."
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Commentary on Dt 4:32-34, 39-40
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the Lord the earth is full.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
by the breath of his mouth all their host.
For he spoke, and it was made;
he commanded, and it stood forth.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
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Commentary on Ps 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22
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Reading II: Romans 8:14-17
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.
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Commentary on Rom 8:14-17
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Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20
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."
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Commentary on Mt 28:16-20
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Reflection:
The celebration of Trinity Sunday always invites the homilist to preach heresy. This was driven home to me over twenty-five years ago. An instructor of Christology asked the class at the beginning of a session on the Holy Trinity that each student stand and provide a definition of the Holy Trinity to the rest of the class. One by one each student stood and did their level best to provide a scrupulous answer and at the end of each attempt the instructor would say “You’re a heretic. Sit down.”
You may be waiting for me to say that when my turn came, I brilliantly answered, “It’s a mystery.” But that was not an option. I too was called “heretic” and asked to take a seat. The point Father Phil was making was really a great warning for us. When we try to define God’s reality using human language we fail to appreciate that aspect of the Trinity, which is God, that lies beyond human understanding.
The theological understanding itself was not easily established in the early Church. Many of the Church Fathers, including St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Hilary, wrote and struggled with detractors of this theological truth.
Many of you who know me know that I enjoy humor and my bad jokes are something of a legend. While doing research for this solemn feast I came across the following for which I must give credit to Fr. Munachi Ezeogu, to illustrate the point I am trying to make (which I have been told is also incorrect and likely heretical as well as gently blasphemous as it makes fun of our attempt to put a deep mystery into words).
“Jesus said, who do men say that I am?
And his disciples answered and said, “Some say you are John the Baptist returned from the dead; others say Elias, or other of the old prophets.”
And Jesus answered and said, “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter answered and said, "Thou art the Logos, existing in the Father as his rationality and then, by an act of his will, being generated, in consideration of the various functions by which God is related to his creation, but only on the fact that Scripture speaks of a Father, and a Son, and a Holy Spirit, each member of the Trinity being coequal with every other member, and each acting inseparably with and interpenetrating every other member, with only an economic subordination within God, but causing no division which would make the substance no longer simple."
And Jesus answering, said, "What?"
This of course brings us quickly to understand that it is not necessary for us, in our lives on earth, to struggle to understand the theological reality which is God. Rather it is important for us to recognize what our faith in God calls us to.
It is this call that is echoed by Moses in Deuteronomy, by St. Paul to the Romans, and by Jesus himself as he takes his final leave from his disciples in the Gospel of St. Matthew. The fundamental importance of our faith in the triune God is that we are called to action based upon our faith. Nowhere in Sacred Scripture does God say to us “Simply believing in him is enough; it does not matter how we treat one another or use the gifts he has given us." Rather the gift of faith obligates us past, present and future to follow his commands, to love one another and to impart the faith we have been given to others.
What should we minimally understand about the Trinity? We bless ourselves in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
-God the Father called us before time and created us. He established his covenants with Noah, Abraham and Moses each attempting to show his creation his love and how they were to love him.
-That the Son came to establish a final and eternal covenant; bringing his perfect revelation of the Father and defeating death that entered the world through Adam and Eve.
-That he left the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit as our advocate and guide.
All this we believe and have as a central belief. This belief must color our every action and bring us ultimately to the heavenly kingdom and the promise of the Trinity who is the only true and living God.
Pax
[1] Catechism links are taken from the Homiletic Directory, published by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 29 June 2014.
[2] The picture used is Holy Trinity (Pala della Convertite) by Sandro Botticelli 1491-93.
[3] S.S. Commemoratio
[4] The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[5] The Navarre Bible: “Pentateuch,” Scepter Publishers, Princeton, NJ, © 2003, p. 682.
[6] Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, © 2010, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA. p. 267.
[7] Fire of Mercy Heart of the Word Volume IV, Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA, © 2021 pp. 642-43.
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