May 30 2021 The Most Holy Trinity
May 30 2021
The Most Holy Trinity
1st Reading: Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40
The Lord himself is God in heaven above and on earth below: there is no other
Moses said to the people: ‘Put this question to the ages that are past, that went before you, from the time God created man on earth: Was there ever a word so majestic, from one end of heaven to the other? Was anything ever heard? Did ever a people hear the voice of the living God speaking from the heart of the fire, as you heard it, and remain alive? Has any god ventured to take to himself one nation from the midst of another by ordeals, signs, wonders, war with mighty hand and outstretched arm, by fearsome terrors — all this that the Lord your God did for you before your eyes in Egypt? ‘Understand this today, therefore, and take it to heart: The Lord is God indeed, in heaven above as on earth beneath, he and no other. Keep his laws and commandments as I give them to you today so that you and your children may prosper and live long in the land that the Lord your God gives you for ever.’
Responsorial: Psalm 32:4-6, 9, 18-20, 22
R./: Happy the people the Lord has chosen to be his own
The word of the Lord is faithful
and all his works to be trusted.
The Lord loves justice and right
and fills the earth with his love. (R./)
By his word the heavens were made,
by the breath of his mouth all the stars.
He spoke: and they came to be.
He commanded; they sprang into being. (R./)
The Lord looks on those who revere him,
on those who hope in his love,
to rescue their souls from death,
to keep them alive in famine. (R./)
Our soul is waiting for the Lord.
The Lord is our help and our shield.
May your love be upon us, O Lord,
as we place all our hope in you.(R./)
2nd Reading: Romans 8:14-17
A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Romans
You have received the Spirit that makes you God’s own children, and in that Spirit we call God: Father, our Father!
Everyone moved by the Spirit is a son of God. The spirit you received is not the spirit of slaves bringing fear into your lives again; it is the spirit of sons, and it makes us cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’
The Spirit himself and our spirit bear united witness that we are children of God. And if we are children we are heirs as well: heirs of God and coheirs with Christ, sharing his sufferings so as to share his glory.
Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20
Baptise them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit
The eleven disciples set out for Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had arranged to meet them. When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated. Jesus came up and spoke to them. He said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.’
Not such a remote God
In bygone times practically everybody agreed about the existence of God. At those days, religious divisions came from conflicting beliefs about God, rather than any conflict between theism and atheism. This is not the case nowadays. Not only do many openly profess their lack of faith, but the quality of life we pursue tends to promote a kind of atheism in all of us. Especially in our large cities, surrounded by a world of largely human inventiveness, people are at a distance from the things of nature. As a result even the rural-based of our population are bound to feel in some degree God’s apparent remoteness from our situation, God’s silence, remaining hidden to the end of our earthly days.
Today we celebrate the Most Holy Trinity, the revelation of the mystery of God’s inner life. This mystery will remain for all of us as long as we live in this world, even though the veil which covers it is lifted ever so little. Our Bible assures us that not only is our God a personal God, but God exists as three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, while remaining one God. Although we cannot even begin to give a logical explanation for this, our faith enables us in some small measure to experience the presence of God. How this can happen is stated by St Augustine in a most beautiful passage from his “Confessions” (p. 211). “What do I love when I love my God?” he asks. Then he continues; “Not material beauty or beauty of a temporal order; not the brilliance of earthly light, so welcome to our eyes; not the sweet melody of harmony and song; not the fragrance of flowers, perfumes and spices; not manna or honey; not limbs such as the body delights to embrace. It is not these that I love when I love my God. And yet, when I love him, it is true that I love a light of a certain kind, a voice, a perfume, a food, an embrace; but they are of the kind that I love in my inner self.” “So tell me something of my God,” he asks. And loud and clear they answered, “God is he who made us.”
Seeing God will change us utterly, and this salvation is a pure gift that always comes from the Father, announced and realised in his divine Son, and made effective in each of us through the action of the Holy Spirit. St Paul tells us that “in one Spirit we have access through Christ to the Father” (Eph 2:18). But the God’s reaching down to us must be answered by the up-reach of our soul to God. To succeed in this we must break free from the sinful pursuits which hold us captive. Then as Paul says, like mirrors we will reflect the brightness of the Lord, until finally we are changed into that image which we reflect (2 Cor 3:17f). For this great promise, glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, forever, Amen.
The Fullness of Love
Much debate in the 20th century centred on the thought of three outstanding figures, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx, described irreverently as “the unholy trinity.” They pushed us into the modem world, often in spite of our protests. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was greeted, particularly by the established churches, with howls of derision, and had to battle hard for recognition. Sigmund Freud opened up the universe of the unconscious and profoundly affected conventional attitudes. The socialist theories of Karl Marx came to dominate one half of the planet and considerably influenced the other. Of the three, only Darwin and his theory of evolution remain intact. Recent events in the Eastern Bloc have largely discredited Marx. The theories of Freud are more and more contested in recent times. Time has taken its toll of “the unholy trinity.”
The Holy Trinity, whose feast we celebrate today, is beyond the reach of time and the grasp of human reasoning. It is a mystery of our faith. We can only fumble in the dark in search of glimmers of light. “Two is company, three is a crowd” is a popular expression. The gospel would have it otherwise. There, the figure three symbolises completeness and perfect symmetry, and re-appears at all the key moments of the Christ story. His life itself constantly reflected the Trinity. Three figures make up the nativity scene in Bethlehem — the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Their first visitors were the three wise men. Later, in the desert preparing to begin his public life, Jesus was tempted three times by the devil. A good story should have a beginning, a middle and an end. Christ was a storyteller par excellence and three figures prominently in his parables. The Prodigal Son is about a father and his two sons; the Good Samaritan tells of the behaviour of three passers-by, the priest, the Levite and the Samaritan; the sower sowed his seed in three different types of terrain, yielding three different levels of harvest. The end of his life, as the beginning, has again the three motif. During his Passion, Peter denied him thrice. On the road to Calvary, he fell three times. The crucifixion scene has three figures, Christ between two thieves. Before his resurrection, he spent three days in the tomb.
God is love. There are Three Persons in the Trinity, the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. Together they represent the fullness of love. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father. The Holy Spirit is their love for each other. We are made in the image of a triune God. God the Father, who created us, his Son who saved us, and the Holy Spirit who continues to guide us. Our lives should reflect the Trinity. We should be always creative like the Father, compassionate like his Son, and dispose our talents in the service of others like the Holy Spirit.
Key Message:
God created us as ‘The Father’. God redeemed us as ‘The son, our brother Jesus’. God takes care of us, as ‘The Holy Spirit, the guiding light’. Jesus has included us as part of God’s family.
Homily:
Takeaway from First Reading:
In the first reading prophet Moses says to the Israelites, ‘Obey the Lord your God, so that you and your children may prosper and have a long life’. God’s blessings are either conditional or unconditional. This blessing has a conditional note (to make people walk in the right path) – ‘Obey your God’.
To claim this blessing, we have to walk according to the will of God. If we need to walk on rough roads also we should not complain, since God our Father will always provide us with the grace to complete the tasks assigned to us. If we are not aware of the next steps to take, then we can search for answers from the Bible or pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will be waiting to guide us.
For each act of obedience, we will reap a great blessing!!
Takeaway from Second Reading:
When a child is born or a child is adopted by a family, we register in legal documents accepted by the Government that he/she is a child of a particular family. Similarly, God also registers us, that we are part of His family by putting His Holy Spirit in us. When we see the fruits of the Holy Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) abiding in anyone, then we can easily recognize that they are already part of God’s family.
Let us pray for the fruits of the Holy Spirit!!
The takeaway from Gospel Reading:
There is a nice and famous story of St. Augustine’s when He was working on his book On The Trinity:
While Augustine was working on his book On The Trinity, he was walking by the seaside one day, meditating on the difficult problem of how God could be three Persons at once. He came upon a little child. The child had dug a little hole in the sand, and with a small spoon or seashell was scooping water from the sea into the small hole. Augustine watched him for a while and finally asked the child what he was doing. The child answered that he would scoop all the water from the sea and pour it into the little hole in the sand. ‘What?’ Augustine said. ‘That is impossible. Obviously, the sea is too large and the hole too small.’ ‘Indeed,’ said the child, ‘but I will sooner draw all the water from the sea and empty it into this hole than you will succeed in penetrating the mystery of the Holy Trinity with your limited understanding.’ Augustine turned away in amazement and when he looked back the child had disappeared.
Yes, we will not be able to thoroughly grasp the complete understanding of the Trinity.
Words on the Trinity from Jesus:
The first recorded statement of Jesus after His birth and the last recorded statement of Jesus before His death were addressing God as His Father. His first recorded statement in the Bible:
Jesus addresses God as His Father when He was just a 12-year-old child. He says to His mom, “Why were you looking for Me?” He asked. “Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?”
The last recorded statement in the Bible, before His death:
“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit”.
This shows that our Lord Jesus had the closest relationship with God the Father, which, in many places in the Bible, we read about.
Angel Gabriel’s testimony to the existence of the Trinity:
When replying to Mother Mary, Angel Gabriel testifies the existence of the Holy Trinity:
“The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God”.
Mother Mary’s womb is so privileged to have the first presence of the Holy Trinity.
Words on Trinity from scriptures:
All across the Bible, we see that our dear Jesus addressing God lovingly as ‘Father’.
Colossians 1:15 says that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. John 14:11 says that Jesus resides in the Father and the Father resides in Jesus. John 1:18 says where Jesus resides too! Jesus is in the bosom of the Father!!
There are too many places in the Bible about Jesus revealing the Father and the Holy Spirit… Too many to quote all here…
We are all part of God’s family:
God’s love is always unconditional. We are all members of God’s family.
Jesus showed us ‘This is your Father’ by teaching us the ‘Our Father’ prayer.
Colossians says, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” – Jesus is our elder brother!!!
Jesus is living with us as the Holy Spirit – enabling us to call God the Father as ‘Abba, Father’.
Jesus gave us His mom, “This is your Mamma. Mamma this is your child”.
No one is allowed to enter into heaven other than members of God’s family.
Living joyfully as God’s family:
1. St. Paul says in the second reading, that as heirs of God and coheirs of Christ, we need to share in His sufferings as to share His glory. Will we be able to suffer for Jesus once we reach Heaven? Can we proclaim the love of God to the hard-hearted people once our time is over? Our only opportunity to serve God is ‘now’. If we are suffering from sicknesses or having to deal with hard-hearted people, thank God for the wonderful occasion!! Pain in the earth is gain in heaven.
2. We hesitate to obey God when the tasks are too difficult or when it is out of our ‘comfort zone’. Then we will lose our peace. Losing our peace, when we do not obey the little voice, is also one of the ways to confirm that it is God’s voice. If we are not trying out God’s command then we are anyways unhappy. So why not try it unhappily and then be happy?
3. As our loving Father, God always created prosperous plans for us. In the end, we will always succeed. If we commit some sins along the way and run into failures, then no need to worry. There is no failure plan or worry plan in God’s plan. When we walk by trust and obey the little voice of the Holy Spirit, He will invoke the trust plan in our lives and will turn our failures into beautiful success stories.
4. Loneliness is a major problem in today’s world. People who are extremely timid, divorced, unmarried, widowed, rejected, or leaders are some of the sections experiencing loneliness. This may lead to depression. Since we are part of God’s family, we should never allow the feeling of loneliness to rest in us. We should move nearer to God. Let us think about the words of our elder brother in today’s Gospel repeatedly ‘I am with you always.
5. There can be many uncomfortable happenings in our daily life. Our family members may be very hard to be with, our peers may always try to dig wells for us but there is a reason why they have a place in our life. God, our Father does not do anything by chance but always plans it for a purpose. Our ‘Why’ questions will be answered by God in the future.
Mother Mary’s womb was the first abode of the Holy Trinity.
The Holy Trinity is willing to abide within us too. Let us willingly welcome in our hearts!!
(Ref Comment No 1 above – start of final paragraph)
The statement that “Mother Mary’s womb was the first abode of the Holy Trinity” is clearly heretical. Mary is the mother of the human manifestation of the eternal Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. If one were to claim that she gave birth to the Trinity, the three Divine Persons would no longer be God; Mary would be God.
The Most Holy Trinity
“The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
In past times a Quickening (The first known movement of the fetus within the uterus) was an acceptance of a new life (Creation). Those born anew of the Holy Spirit do not fully understand the time and place (Whereof) of that birth as initially He enlightens our minds with the ‘sound’ of His living Word given within the Gospels (True knowledge God) while quickening/moving our hearts into obedient, truthful tender compassionate ones as we are gradually been transformed into a New Creation.
While the Holy Spirit prompts us to cry out Father! With His beloved Son as His Holy Spirit inspired/gave His Beloved Son the pray which glorifies His Name as we are taught by the Son to say in Unity of purpose.
“Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name
thy kingdom (Grace via The Holy Spirit) come (Then)
thy will, (Will) be done,
on earth as it is in heaven….etc
While we can reflect on these Words “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, (Spirit) living in me, who is doing his work”
kevin your brother
In Christ