The Holy Trinity,
Andrei Rublev, 1411

Readings:
Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9
Daniel 3:52-56
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
John 3:16-18

Chants

We often begin Mass with the prayer from today's Epistle: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you." We praise the God who has revealed himself as a Trinity, a communion of persons.

Communion with the Trinity is the goal of our worship - and the purpose of the salvation history that begins in the Bible and continues in the Eucharist and sacraments of the Church.

We see the beginnings of God's self-revelation in today's First Reading, as He passes before Moses and cries out His holy name.

Israel had sinned in worshipping the golden calf (see Exodus 32). But God does not condemn them to perish. Instead He proclaims His mercy and faithfulness to His covenant.

God loved Israel as His firstborn son among the nations (see Exodus 4:22). Through Israel - heirs of His covenant with Abraham - God planned to reveal himself as the Father of all nations (see Genesis 22:18).

The memory of God's covenant testing of Abraham - and Abraham's faithful obedience - lies behind today's Gospel.

In commanding Abraham to offer his only beloved son (see Genesis 22:2,12,16), God was preparing us for the fullest possible revelation of His love for the world.

As Abraham was willing to offer Isaac, God did not spare His own Son but handed Him over for us all (see Romans 8:32).

In this, He revealed what was only disclosed partially to Moses - that His kindness continues for a thousand generations, that He forgives our sin, and takes us back as His very own people (see Deuteronomy 4:20; 9:29).

Jesus humbled himself to die in obedience to God's will. And for this, the Spirit of God raised Him from the dead (see Romans 8:11), and gave Him a name above every name (see Philippians 2:8-10).

This is the name we glorify in today's Responsorial - the name of our Lord, the God who is Love (see 1 John 4;8,16).

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St. Athanasius
from Letters to Serapion, 1, 19 (PG 26, 373)

Fools!..., how is it that you can't stop your prying investigations into the Trinity or be content to believe it exists since you have for your guide the apostle who wrote: "Anyone who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him" (Heb 11,6)... So let no one put unnecessary questions to himself but be content with learning what is contained in Scripture...

Scripture tells us that the Father is both source and light: "They have forsaken me, the source of living waters" (Jer 2,13); "You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom" (Ba 3,12) and, according to John, "God is light" (1Jn 1,5). Now the Son is called a river in relation to the source for, according to the psalm, "the river of God is full of water" (Ps 65[64],10). And in relation to the light he is called splendor when Paul says that he is "the refulgence of his glory and the very imprint of his being" (Heb 1,3).

Thus the Father is light, the Son its refulgence... and, in the Son, it is by the Spirit that we are illuminated. "May God give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation," says Paul, "resulting in knowledge of him. May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened" (Eph 1,17-18). But when we are enlightened it is Christ who enlightens us in him, for Scripture says: "He was the true light who enlightens everyone coming into the world" (Jn 1,9).

Moreover, since the Father is source and the Son is called river we are said to drink of the Spirit: "We were all given to drink of one Spirit" (1Cor 12,13). But, refreshed by the Spirit, we drink Christ since: "They drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was the Christ" (1Cor 10,4)...

God alone is wise and the Son his wisdom, for "Christ is the power and the wisdom of God" (Rm 16,27;1Cor 1,24). So it is in receiving the Spirit of wisdom that we possess the Son and gain wisdom in him... The Son is life.

He said: "I am the Life" (Jn 14,6). But it is said that we are brought to life by the Spirit, as Paul wrote: "The one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to our mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in us" (Rm 8,11). But when we have been brought to life by the Spirit then Christ will be our life... "I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal 2,20).

When such a correspondence and unity exists in the Holy Trinity, who can separate either the Son from the Father or the Spirit from the Son or the Father?... God's mystery is not communicated to our minds by demonstrative arguments but in faith and reverent prayer.

Pope Benedict XVI
from Angelus, May 22, 2005

Today, the liturgy celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity almost to underline that in the light of the Pascal Mystery is fully revealed the centre of the universe and of history: God himself, eternal and infinite Love. The word that summarizes all revelation is this: "God is love" (I Jn 4: 8, 16); and love is always a mystery, a reality that surpasses reason without contradicting it, and more than that, exalts its possibilities.

Jesus revealed to us the mystery of God: he, the Son, made us know the Father who is in Heaven, and gave us the Holy Spirit, the Love of the Father and of the Son. Christian theology synthesizes the truth of God with this expression: only one substance in three persons. God is not solitude, but perfect communion. For this reason the human person, the image of God, realizes himself or herself in love, which is a sincere gift of self.

We are contemplating the mystery of the love of God shared in a sublime way in the Most Holy Eucharist, the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, the representation of his redeeming Sacrifice.