Homily Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity Year B
Homily Feast of the Blessed Trinity Year B
Reading I: Though we can come to know that there is a
God and there is no other equal to him, we can arrive at this by our natural ability
to know and understand. But God in his
love for us has revealed himself to us in the Scriptures, which is a spiritual
gift. In this reading, Moses says God has done this through signs and wonders
that the people had experienced first- hand.
It was God who delivered the Israelites from their
bondage in Egypt with signs and wonders. The people heard the voice of God at
Mt. Sinai. All this and more God did to reveal to them that the Lord is God in
the heavens and on earth and that there is no other god. Why was this important? Because all around them were
people and nations who believed in the multiplicity of gods. To these
creatures, such as the sun, moon, stars, etc., they offered worship.
Moses goes on to say it is not enough to know and
believe in the One, true God. Because he made a covenant with them and chose
them to be his people, they were called to keep his commands, to live life in
relationship to him in love.
Take a few moments to recall what God has done for you
over the years, even before you were born and since your birth. And are you
living out your baptismal covenant with God?
Reading 2: The God of the Old Testament revealed
himself in a fuller way when people were ready to receive the fuller awareness
of the reality of God, namely the One God is Triune in person. Though we could
come to an awareness of the One God through our reasoning, we cannot, on our
own, come to the realization of the full mystery of the three Persons in the
One God.
How was this mystery revealed to us? God the Son
became man, so that he may show us the great love of the Father and the Spirit.
He did this by reconciling us to himself and restoring us to our true
relationship with God. This reality was later acknowledged in John’s Gospel: “God
so loved the world that he gave us his only Son, so that whoever believes in
him may have eternal life.” Jesus, in turn, in his own words and actions said
that he and the Father were one. “If you see me, you see the Father; if you
know me, you know the Father; I only do the works of my Father; the Father and
I will send you the Spirit, who will testify to you about me, and will be with
you, as the Father and I will be with you.”
Later, Paul will say in his letter to the Romans that
God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Spirit, who has been
given to us. In First Corinthians, he proclaims that it is the Spirit who
enables us to say Jesus is Lord. In today’s reading, Paul says that we have
received the spirit of adoption through whom we cry, “Abba, Father!” As the
Spirit bears witness about Jesus, He also bears witness that we are adopted
children of God.
As sons and daughters we are called to eternal life
with God. But before we can experience this glory, we will experience the
purifying suffering of human life, the cross. As the Spirit enabled Jesus to
bear the cross for our sake, so the Spirit will empower us, not to avoid the
cross, but to embrace it with the end always before us.
Gospel: Even though the term Trinity is not mentioned
in the scriptures, the reality of the Trinity is, as we heard in the Gospel.
Jesus tells his disciples to baptize in the “name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. This is the summation of Jesus’ revelation of the
reality of the One God who is Triune in Persons.
Over the years, through the further revelation of the
Spirit to the Church, we have been able to acknowledge that the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit are distinct but equal. Their life is a life of love, which unites
them as one. Just as the Old Testament people were told by Moses that their
response to God’s revelation of himself is to keep his commandments, Jesus
tells us, not only to do this, but to make disciples and teach others, to be
witnesses of this mystery in our lives.
How? We acknowledge the Trinity publicly when we sign
ourselves with the sign of the cross; when we publicly pray “Glory be to the
Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit….” The prayers in the Mass are offered to God
the Father, through the Son in the Holy Spirit. In the Creed each Sunday we
profess belief in the Father and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit.
But a profession of faith can be mere words unless we
are living the reality of the Trinity in our lives by sharing our faith with
others, sharing who God is to us and what God has done in each of our lives.
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