The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Today's Mass Readings

 

The liturgy today opens with the words: “Blest be God the Father, and the Only Begotten Son of God, and also the Holy Spirit, for he has shown us his merciful love.” This acclamation of praise gives voice to our faith in the Most Holy Trinity, the focus of our reflection on this first Sunday after Pentecost.

In the first reading from the book of Proverbs (8:22-31), we hear the personification of the wisdom of God: “I was poured out at the first before the earth… When the Lord established the heavens, I was there… I was beside him as his craftsman and I was his delight day by day.” In the eyes of Christian faith, we see this “I” as the second person of the Blessed Trinity, the Son of God. The responsorial refrain from Psalm 84:2 continues this description of the relationship between Father and Son through the act of creation: “O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!” Psalm 84 uses the important phrase “son of man,” the title that Jesus applies to himself in the gospels. “You have given him rule over the works of your hands, putting all things under his feet.” The Son, who was with the Father from the beginning as his “craftsman” is Lord over all creation.

It is in the second reading from Romans 5:1-5 that the role of the Spirit is specified: “the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” The gospel from John 16:12-15 further clarifies the role of the Spirit as the bearer of truth. “But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.” This truth is conveyed from the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. Jesus says that “Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason, I told you that he [the Spirit] will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”

The text of the communion antiphon from Galatians 4:6 defines our relationship to the Holy Trinity: “Since you are children of God, God has sent into your hearts the Spirit of his Son, the Spirit who cries out: Abba, Father.” Because we have been incorporated into the Body of Christ through baptism (“in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”), we now have access to the Father in such a unique way that we are able to call the Father by the intimate title “Abba.”

For today: When I pray, do I remember that I am a child of God and can freely call upon God as Father in the name of the Son, through the Holy Spirit?

Reflection by Br. Michael Marcotte, OSB