THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

[cappie]

Today, on the first Sunday after Pentecost, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. This feast invites us to consider what we believe about God, who has revealed himself to us in the Trinity—one God in three persons.

In today’s Liturgy we’re swept through time from before earth and sky were set in place to the coming of the Spirit upon the new creation, the Church. We begin in the heart of the Trinity, as we listen to the testimony of Wisdom in today’s First Reading. Eternally begotten, the first-born of God, He is poured forth from of old in the love of the Father. Through Him the heavens were established, the foundations of the earth fixed. From before the beginning, He was with the Father as His “Craftsman,” the artisan by which all things were made. And He took special delight, He tells us, in the crowning glory of God’s handiwork—the human race. The Spirit, the Love of God, St Paul says has been poured out into our hearts.  

The verses of today's Gospel come near the end of Jesus' long discourse at the Last Supper. In this section he focuses more on the shape of the future, which will include Jesus' victory over the world that they will share in. The disciples of Jesus cannot know the future. 

Jesus says something curious in today’s gospel: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”

Why do you suppose that Jesus said that? He was speaking to his disciples. Whatever did he mean?  We can only speculate – and trust.

Trust that his promise to send the Holy Spirit to speak to us for God has been realized. Trust that what we need to know is expressed to us through the generations by the Spirit moving in human community. Trust that God will find a way to bring comfort, guidance, wisdom.

 That is the essence of Trinity Sunday. We may not know what Jesus left out, but we do have some record of what Jesus had already said.

 While some people take offense at efforts to examine the Bible for historical evidence, still others use Scripture carelessly and to their own ends. We hear this in the evening news as people claim, “The Bible says…” to support their position on something.  The Bible is  a story of people and their relationship with God, of the struggle and challenge of living meaningful lives, of goodness manifest in Jesus and the love of God manifested in a new way.

And yet Scripture sometimes gets used carelessly.

 As people of faith, we have a sacred responsibility to tell the truth, to represent the truth, indeed, to recognize the truth in our midst. The Holy Spirit inspired it. And it is still hard to live the revealed truth of God.

“Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor.”
 “Love your enemies.”
“Do not worry about tomorrow.”
“Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.”
 “Be perfect.”

As Christians, we are people of the Book, the story of earlier generations carried within the Bible and the traditions of our community.

Many of them are great stories. Some are puzzling, troubling, comforting. We won’t know what those stories are, won’t be knowledgeable and articulate in our Christian heritage, unless we read the Bible with understanding. It is an understanding that calls for study, yes – but first calls for prayer. Prayer has the power to soften our hearts to receive God’s truth and to open our ears to hear God’s word.

Trinity Sunday celebrates the mystery, the majesty, of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All three persons are tied together in today’s words of Jesus.  The three divine persons work together for the salvation of all. So too must we work together for the good of all.