The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
First reading: Dt 4:32-34, 39-40
Responsorial Psalm: 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22
Second reading: Rom 8:14-17
Gospel: Mt 28:16-20
By Jem Sullivan | Catholic News Service
We are social beings who enter the world within a family, our first human community. Then life unfolds in ever expanding circles of communities with family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and society.
Community is essential to human existence. Our experience of community sustains us in ways we often take for granted.
The pandemic has been a stark reminder that we are social beings. Lockdowns, quarantines and isolation have transformed our shared sense of community. Our diminished personal interactions during the pandemic give new appreciation for the formative power of community, and as new ways of building community have expanded through virtual and digital means the search for community grows even stronger.
Today’s solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity tells us that God is a community of divine persons — Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The divine community of the Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith. Yet this foundational truth of faith is not a remote, abstract idea with little or no relevance to my daily life.
The holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit invites me to live each day within the divine community of love. This is the gift of Christian faith!
In the first reading from Deuteronomy, Moses calls the people of Israel to reflect on the astonishing fact of God’s revelation and covenant: “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?”
In their covenant relationship with God, the Israelites experienced God’s closeness. Yet they doubted God’s love and power from time to time. They forgot they belonged to the divine community. Moses reminds them to live the commandments as an expression of love for God.
We are members of the family of God, named as children of God. St. Paul reminds the Romans that “you received a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father!'”
In the Gospel, Jesus gives a final command as he promises to remain with us always. We share in the divine community when we live the command of Jesus who says, “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.”
To be a Christian is to share in the divine community of God’s life, love and peace. Our baptism in the name of the Trinity began a new life of grace as members of God’s community of love. Every Christian prayer begins and ends by calling on the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
A Christian is never alone, even in the midst of social isolation! Jesus’ command to make disciples in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit invites us into the community of the holy Trinity, as we pray, “speak to me, Lord.”
Reflection Question:
How do you share in the love and life of the holy Trinity?
Sullivan is a professor at The Catholic University of America.