Trinity Sunday

Title

The Value of Awe before the Personal God

Outline

Parts of the Church and much of this continent settles for moralistic therapeutic deism

This is a god that is behind good morality, as we conceive it

This is a god that is good for us, for we find therapeutic value in such belief and practice

This is a god who is not involved in the world and certainly does not relate to us

This is a god made in our image or imagination, not the God of the Bible

And it is no wonder that people are leaving religion in droves

The God of the Bible is our awesome creator

He is the one who created humankind but is himself uncreated: “God created humankind upon the earth”

He is the sole God, “the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other” but a personal God in that he can make people “hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire”

Therefore, his commandments are telling us how the universe functions and therefore what we must do to remain safe and in loving community

The God of the Bible is the Spirit who is the loving God within believers

“those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God”

And this Spirit enables us to be related to and to relate to the Creator as Father: “you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Abba, Father!””

Notice that this is also personal in that fathers should be in this one’s image, although often in experience this is the Father we have longed for and never experienced

The God of the Bible is the Son who became one of us and through the Spirit remains with us, leading us: “behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

We therefore live without fear and under his command, for “Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

That is why when we find people baptized into some other set of names, we do not recognize them as belonging to the personal God.

Sisters, I have not tried to explain the Trinity, but have simply made three statements that together require God to be trinitarian.

You can and probably have read Thomas Aquinas and have gotten more sophisticated expressions of this truth

But I like the biblical statements, for, with St Teresa of Avila, my current read, I can meditate on this God, especially in the Eucharist, and in meditating I enter into that I - Thou relationship that heals my soul and sends me out into mission.

May it do the same for you.

Readings

Catholic Daily Readings 5-30-2021: Trinity Sunday

FIRST READING

Deuteronomy 4:32–34, 39–40

32 Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created humankind upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? 33 Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? 34 Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, with strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the LORD, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

39 This is why you must now acknowledge, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other. 40 And you must keep his statutes and commandments which I command you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever.

RESPONSE

Psalm 33:12b

12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,

the people chosen as his inheritance.

PSALM

Psalm 33:4–6, 9, 18–20, 22

4 For the LORD’s word is upright;

all his works are trustworthy.

5 He loves justice and right.

The earth is full of the mercy of the LORD.

6 By the LORD’s word the heavens were made;

by the breath of his mouth all their host.

9 For he spoke, and it came to be,

commanded, and it stood in place.

18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon those who fear him,

upon those who count on his mercy,

19 To deliver their soul from death,

and to keep them alive through famine.

20 Our soul waits for the LORD,

he is our help and shield.

22 May your mercy, LORD, be upon us;

as we put our hope in you.

SECOND READING

Romans 8:14–17

14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Abba, Father!” 16 The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

Revelation 1:8

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty.”

GOSPEL

Matthew 28:16–20

16 The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. 18  Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Notes

Catholic Daily Readings 5-30-2021: Trinity Sunday

SUNDAY, MAY 30, 2021 | ORDINARY TIME

TRINITY SUNDAY

Sunday after Pentecost

YEAR B | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

First Reading Deuteronomy 4:32–34, 39–40

Response Psalm 33:12b

Psalm Psalm 33:4–6, 9, 18–20, 22

Second Reading Romans 8:14–17

Gospel Acclamation Revelation 1:8

Gospel Matthew 28:16–20

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