May 30, 2021 — The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
DT 4:32-34, 39-40; PS 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22; ROM 8:14-17; MT 28:16-20
Today, we celebrate an essential doctrine of our Catholic faith — the Most Holy Trinity. It expresses God as three Divine Persons, unified in One Divine nature. The Trinity is one of the most complex aspects of our faith. It is a topic we could never exhaust nor fully understand until we see God face to face.
Although it is incomprehensible, it is still deeply personal. Through God’s countless revelations to man, we get a glimpse of our awe-inspiring Creator. It is through His revelations that He has invited us into life with Him.
Today, we are called to pour out our hearts in praise and thanksgiving for our Good and Gracious God and to recognize the ways in which we can encounter Him — Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Our First Reading references Moses proclaiming the greatness of our God as he recounts what God did for the Israelites. If we recall, the Israelites struggled with the belief in one God. Yet, Moses aids them in their understanding as He expresses all that God has done for them. God spoke to them in fire, took them out of the land of Egypt through testing, signs, wonders and war. Through His mighty works, God was revealing Himself to the Israelites expressing that He is their one God.
When we reflect on our lives, let us ask ourselves, is God competing for our attention in certain areas of our lives? Have we been blind to the ways He has been encountering us?
God is revealing His love and goodness to us each day. Sometimes we notice the moments — like getting a promotion at work when you felt like you were not appreciated, finding out your family is growing after years of praying for a baby, or receiving confirmation on a health problem you have been dealing with for months. Those moments stick out to us because we feel like God has moved a mountain for us. We think, “our God is truly awesome.”
But there are also moments that we might not notice — small little occurrences throughout the day like beautiful weather, unexpected words of affirmation or a great night of sleep. These are the little moments that God reveals His love and care, and they deserve recognition, praise and thanksgiving. We just need to look through the lens of gratitude and keep our minds and hearts focused on the One who deserves all our attention so that we might notice God is with us.
Our Second Reading, from St. Paul, expresses the relationship of the three Divine Persons — Father, Son and Holy Spirit. By our Baptism, we received the Holy Spirit becoming adopted children of God. It is by the grace of the Holy Spirit that we call God, “Abba, Father!” And it is with the Holy Spirit that we can unite all of our sufferings to Christ so that we might one day rise with Him.
Our relationship with God is right before us. As we became God’s adopted children, we received His endless grace. We can cry out to our Father in a moment of joy or sorrow, invite the Holy Spirit into all that we do throughout our days, and suffer every hardship with Christ Himself. All we need to do is invoke His name in each moment.
In our Gospel, St. Matthew reminds us just how real our God is — Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We often read the Scriptures as if they are not applicable to us, distant and unrelatable. And although they were written at a different time, they were written about human beings just like us who encountered the living God. They are as applicable today for each one of us as they were when they were first written.
We have a God that literally became flesh and lived among us. He rejoiced, suffered and loved each day. And He asked people to follow Him that were sinners. It says even the eleven apostles, “worshiped, but they doubted.” He encountered people like you and me.
So, let those words and actions in our Scriptures come alive in us here and now. Let us read them, not as distant history, but real encounters with the Most Holy Trinity — living God. Let us strive to not only encounter Christ in our readings, but also by calling out to God the Father in prayer and to the Holy Spirit in our day-to-day living. May our faith and personal relationship with the Trinity be strengthened.
As we celebrate this glorious Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, may we praise God in word and deed, and may we seek moments to encounter the Father, Son and Holy Spirit each day — through Scripture, prayer, sacraments and blessings throughout our day, as Jesus tell us, “I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
