Trinity Sunday—Cycle C—2016
FIRST READING Proverbs 8:22-31
Thus says the wisdom of God: “The LORD possessed me, the beginning of his ways, the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago; from of old I was poured forth, at the first, before the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no fountains or springs of water; before the mountains were settled into place, before the hills, I was brought forth; while as yet the earth and fields were not made, nor the first clods of the world. When the Lord established the heavens I was there, when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep; when he made firm the skies above, when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth; when he set for the sea its limit, so that the waters should not transgress his command; then was I beside him as his craftsman, and I was his delight day by day, playing before him all the while, playing on the surface of his earth; and I found delight in the human race.”
SECOND READING Romans 5:1-5
Brothers and sisters: Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
GOSPEL John 16:12-15
Jesus said to his disciples: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”
My sisters and brothers in Christ,
Last week we celebrated the Holy Spirit. This week we celebrate the Three Divine Persons in the One God. It is a mystery beyond our comprehension and yet we are invited to understand it just a bit from the Scriptures and from the words of Jesus Himself.
The first reading, from the Book of Proverbs, speaks of Wisdom in such a way as to lead us to understand Wisdom as at least an aspect of God and perhaps even as personal. As with much that comes to us from the Jewish Scriptures, the notion of Wisdom needs meditation and contemplation from us. We moderns often want a textbook rather than to take the time to savor the rich variety of meanings in Holy Scripture. The Holy Trinity is one of those great mysteries of our faith in which we must find ourselves at rest. We can only do this is we take time to savor and to grasp a bit the connections throughout all of Scripture.
The second reading, from the Letter to the Romans, gives us a reference to God, to the Son and to the Spirit, all in the same reading. This is not the only place in the New Testament Scriptures that we find such a reference, but it is a clear reference to the Holy Trinity. Again, we need to take time to understand who God is, who Jesus Christ is and who the Spirit is—as given to us in our Christian Scriptures. If we don’t take time, we will never know the richness of this doctrine and the wonderful gift that we have received in Jesus Christ.
The Gospel of John given to us today is another reference to each of the Three Persons of the Trinity and tells us, from the point of Jesus, a bit about the relationship of the Three Persons. First, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus and His role is to help us understand Jesus and live the mystery of Divine Life that Jesus gives to us. Jesus also tells us that all that the Father has is also possessed by Jesus because the Father has given it to Him. The Spirit takes from what is given to Jesus by the Father and gives it to us, declares it to us.
This is an incredibly powerful statement but the wording sometimes leaves us without understanding. From all the Jesus tells us, we know that He, Jesus, loves us with the same love as the Father loves Him. It would take us an eternity to understand this love, but in this life, we must come to believe this: God loves us and wants us to share His life. God does not reject us because of sin. On the contrary, because of sin, Jesus comes to save us. That is an ongoing and present action, not something that happened once and is over.
So we are invited today to share in the life of the Trinity, the very life of God. We are invited to live in a way that reflects this Divine Love in our lives. Let us walk with Jesus because only in Him can we begin to understand, however little, this immense mystery of God’s love for us.
Your brother in the Lord,
Abbot Philip