Word to the Wise
Sunday, May 30, 2010 - The Most Holy Trinity
[Proverbs 8:22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15]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.....
We Catholics can be creatures of habit. One of the habits that is most familiar to us is something we do immediately on entering and leaving a Catholic church - we look for the font of holy water and we touch that water and make the Sign of the Cross! I have observed parents bringing infants in their arms and touching the little one's hand to the water and guiding it through the gesture! We also have the habit of beginning and ending prayer with that same gesture and with the same words: IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT! The first of those two habits is significant because it recalls our baptism which is accomplished in the name of the Most Holy Trinity! The second is significant because it reminds us (or should!) that all prayer and creation begins and ends with the Most Holy Trinity - our God! If the scriptures for this day (for Cycle C) seem to refer more to one of the three 'persons' of the Trinity, it may be because the scriptures don't speak much of this understanding of God except in an indirect way. The clearest reference we have is Matthew 28:19: "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..." In the Gospel of John, just before the passage assigned for today, we find these words: "When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me..." [John 15:26] Nevertheless, these passages show that from the earliest days of Christian faith, reflection on the nature of God as "trinitarian" and the use of a trinitarian formula in baptism had begun. Reflection on the mystery of the nature of God, the Most Holy Trinity, can seem very abstract, especially when we read the Church Fathers or when we recite the Nicene Creed at Sunday Eucharist! Perhaps we would prefer to stick to our simple expression of faith in God as triune yet one by that Sign of the Cross that we make. Whether we read St. Augustine's DE TRINITATE or simply look for that holy water font, the Trinity is there with us holding us all in being and reminding us that all things begin and end "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" AMEN
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