BIBLE STUDY #47
SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY
June 19, 2011


Reading 1 Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9

Early in the morning Moses went up Mount Sinai
as the LORD had commanded him,
taking along the two stone tablets.

Having come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with Moses there
and proclaimed his name, "LORD."
Thus the LORD passed before him and cried out,
"The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God,
slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity."
Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship.
Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord,
do come along in our company.
This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins,
and receive us as your own."

The Word of the Lord


Reading II 2 Cor 13:11-13

Brothers and sisters, rejoice.
Mend your ways, encourage one another,
agree with one another, live in peace,
and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the holy ones greet you.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

The Word of the Lord


Gospel Jn 3:16-18

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

The Gospel of the Lord

Reflection

This Sunday we celebrate the central mystery of our faith and of our Christian life: The mystery of the Trinity. While it is impossible to understand this mystery, the very essence of God, we do know what God has revealed to us about this mystery.

Every Sunday after the homily we recite the Nicene Creed, a basic statement about our faith which tells us about the Trinity.

Nicene Creed (from the Catechism of the Catholic Church)

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, one in
Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered, died, and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in fulfillment of the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

New Nicene Creed from Revised Roman Missal (effective Nov. 2011)

I believe in one God,
the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and became man,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

I’ve reproduced the Nicene Creed, including the new one effective later this year, for your reflection. We recite it often enough, but do we really listen to what we’re saying? Below is a short reflection on the Trinity so we know some of the basics. I refer you to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 232 to 267 for a more in depth treatment of this sacred mystery. Paragraph numbers below refer to paragraphs in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

We believe that there is only one God, not three, but that there are three persons in the Blessed Trinity; namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They do not ‘share’ divinity, but are whole and complete God’s in themselves. This is called being consubstantial, so the trinity can also be referred to as the consubstantial trinity (paragraph 253).

The divine persons are really distinct from each other. The Father, Son, and Spirit are not just different modes of being divine; each is separate from each other. (paragraph 254). But in the unity of the Trinity, the Father is wholly in the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son is wholly in the Father and in the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Son (paragraph 255).

We believe that Jesus was ‘begotten’ by God; God did not create Jesus, he always was, he is true God, and is also a creator since he was present at, and participated in, the creation of the universe.

The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son and is also a giver of life (see Creed above) and is also worshipped as God. It was also this same Spirit that inspired the prophets.

I would like you to notice that God lives in community, that the very essence of God incorporates community. That tells us that, since we are made in the image and likeness of God, we too must be a part of a community. There is no such thing as a solitary Christian. Even Christian hermits are still part of a larger community. A solitary Christian is an oxymoron. Christianity by its very nature is communal. Those who say that they don’t need to go church because they can go in the woods and pray don’t understand what Christianity is about: and I find it is an excuse not to pray at all (who goes regularly into the woods to pray? I’ve never met anyone).

Whenever you are confronted with a group that claims to be Christian and you’ve never heard of them, the first test is whether they believe in the Trinity. Every Christian believes in this dogma. If they don’t, they’re not Christian.

There was a time in the not to distant past where some people wanted to change the sign of the cross to be “In the name of the Creator, and of the Redeemer, and of the Sanctifier” instead of “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” What we have to remember is that creator, redeemer, and sanctifier are not meant to limit each person of the Trinity’s power or role, but a way to understand something about each person of the Trinity. For example, the Son is much more than a redeemer; he is also a creator, since he was present at the creation of the world. In our feeble attempts to understand what God is trying to reveal to us, we should never put a limit on God. The Trinity is much greater than the sum of it’s’ parts.

God reveals a little about himself so that we may become more like him. The very essence of God is love, as we hear in 1John 4:8, “Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.” When we are baptized “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” we are brought into God’s love, we share in the divine life of love.

This is the most important part of understanding the Trinity: that God is love and we need to be loving people, also. The Father, Son and Spirit have an eternal exchange of love of boundless measure, and we participate in, as well as share, that love with each other as Christians. It’s nice to be able to understand and speak about all the various theologies about the Trinity, but if we don’t love, we’ve missed the point. The great commandment is to love God and each other, not to be able to plumb the depths of Trinitarian theology.

Loving is harder than reading theology, though, isn’t it. Love makes demands, sometimes great ones, on our time, talent, and even our resources. Theology describes; love acts, because love in its most basic and truest sense is an action, something that we do. If someone said they loved you, but never did loving things for you, would you believe they loved you? I doubt it.

God shows his love by what he does for us. Today’s first reading is from that great Old Testament book called Exodus. After God creates humans in Exodus, then forms his people and calls them to be his own, he never abandons them. When in slavery in Egypt, God sends Moses to free them. When Pharaoh refuses, God sends 10 plagues. The Israelites were spared the final plague of the death of the first born because they placed the blood of an innocent lamb of the wood of the doorpost and the angel of death passed over their houses, and they were subsequently freed by Pharaoh.

God then leads them through the desert, feeds them, gives them water, gives them the Law, and brings them to the promised land, a land of milk and honey. When they stray, God sends prophets to tell them where they went wrong. God is very intimately involved in the lives of his people and cares for them very much.

God loves us so much that in the fullness of time He sends His Son as the final and definitive revelation of His will. It’s as if He’s saying, “This is what I really mean, listen to him!” Faith is founded on the person of Jesus because he is the one who brings God’s will. He is the one who reveals God’s desires for us

Jesus shows us God’s love because it shows us how far God goes to offer us salvation. In theory, God could have chosen any number of ways to offer us salvation, but he chose to send his Son to suffer terribly, die, and rise to offer us eternal life. Isn’t the depth of God’s love incredible? It shows what great lengths God has gone to bring us to eternal life.

We know from our lives that anything worthwhile has a cost. We don’t value something that comes easy. The more valuable, the more it costs. What could be more valuable than eternal life? Has anything ever cost more than that?

The Gospel says that Jesus came to save, not to condemn. Salvation comes through believing in the Son, and that those who don’t believe aren’t saved because they refuse to believe. What does it mean to believe?

Believing is more than professing a creed; it is more than ritual actions; it is more than fulfilling obligations; it is more than knowing things about Jesus; it is knowing Jesus and having him in our hearts. It is turning ourselves over to Jesus as our lord and master and letting him direct and control our lives. It is letting ourselves have a personal experience of the risen Lord. If we do that, he will change our lives forever.

Believing is on ongoing relationship with Jesus that is life transforming. However, believing doesn’t mean we become perfect. It means that we are trying our best to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. We will make mistakes; when we do, we ask forgiveness. I believe that all God can ask us to do is to do our best every day, given our limitations and our circumstances. i don’t think we risk eternal life by failing in our discipleship, but I do think we risk it by not trying.

God loves us unconditionally and immensely. He gives our lives meaning and purpose. We feel blessed with the peace and love that come from living in the Kingdom. Thank you Lord! I know I don’t deserve it, but I certainly appreciate it. May we all have the strength and grace to share God’s love with others.



Fr. Phil