http://www.theworkofgod.org/Devotns/Euchrist/HolyMass/gospels.asp?key=123
Year A - The Most Holy Trinity
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son
John 3:16-18
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (NRSV)
Inspiration of the Holy Spirit - From the Sacred Heart of Jesus
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, He also created man and woman in his image for His own glory.
God the Father willed this creation, which was accomplished through my word as God the Son, by the power or our Holy Spirit. This is the first manifestation of God as trinity, a mystery that has puzzled men for thousands of years.
God is pure spirit; God is one. Yet this mystery cannot be comprehended completely by human beings until they become one with God in the Spirit.
The whole of creation is the first compelling witness of the presence of God the Father, creator of everything that exists. No one can deny the existence of the creator, but men, instead of praising God for having brought them into existence, go about their lives offending Him and denying themselves the rights that He has offered them as His children.
Sin has become a wall between God and men, the darkness of evil stops the light of God reaching them.
God so loved the world that He sent his only Son, so that anyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life.
I came into the world to give my testimony as the Word of God. This word is the emanation of the spirit that brings the clarity of truth; the light that dispels the darkness, the purity that takes away sins, the life of God given to men so that they can obtain everlasting life.
I did not come to condemn but to save. You condemn yourselves to eternal death when you live in sin, but I offer eternal life to you if you believe in me and follow me.
I am the truth, and I came to witness the truth about God. Those who acknowledge me acknowledge God the Father, and those who live in the truth live in me and in my Father.
I came to the world to awaken everyone to the realities of the spiritual connection between God and men. Being created in the image of God you are his children, but sharing the spirit of God you must live a godly life.
When evil enters man, the Holy Spirit of God has to leave. Then the evil spirit reigns in that soul until repentance comes and the door is opened back to God for Him to enter and purify. If men dont repent and change their evil ways, they are despising the truth that calls them to live the way God has disposed, in fact, they are condemning themselves.
I suffered and died in order to pay for the sins of the whole world, to manifest the mercy of God that desires everyone to be saved.
As a token of reconciliation between God and men, the Father and I have sent the Holy Spirit into the world to accompany and to advise, to purify, to heal and to sanctify.
The Holy Spirit is the third testimony of God in the world since creation; it is the fire of our love, which enters the soul to give witness our presence.
Blessed are those who yearn for the Holy Spirit, they will be rewarded for their good desire.
Fire will cleanse the world, the Holy Spirit will purify with holiness, and the fallen creation will rise in the presence of the Lord.
Author: Joseph of Jesus and Mary
There is an old spiritual that says, My God is so high you cant get over Him. Hes so low you cant get under Him. Hes so wide you cant get around Him. You must come in, by and through the Lamb.
Its not a bad way of saying that God is other. He is beyond what human words can describe, beyond what human thoughts can conjure. On the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity we do well to remember that we are pondering a mystery that cannot fit in our minds.
A mystery, though, is not something wholly unknown. In the Christian tradition, the word mystery refers to (among other things) something that is partially revealed, something much more of which remains hidden. As we ponder the Trinity, consider that although there are some things we can know by revelation, much more is beyond our understanding.
Lets ponder the Trinity by exploring it, seeing how it is exhibited in Scripture, and observing how we, who are made in Gods image, experience it.
I. The Teaching on the Trinity Explored
Perhaps we do best to begin by quoting the Catechism, which says, The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons: [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God, whole and entire (Catechism, 253).
There is one God and each of the three persons of the Trinity possesses the one divine nature fully. The Father is God; He is not one-third of God. Likewise, the Son, Jesus, is God; He is not one-third of God. And the Holy Spirit is God, not merely one-third of God.
It is our human experience that if there is only one of something, and someone possesses it fully, then there is nothing left for anyone else. Yet mysteriously, each of the three persons of the Trinity fully possesses the one and only divine nature while remaining a distinct person.
One of the great masterpieces of the Latin Liturgy is the preface for Trinity Sunday. It compactly and clearly sets forth the Christian teaching on the Trinity. The following translation of the Latin is my own:
It is truly fitting and just, right and helpful unto salvation that we should always and everywhere give thanks to you O Holy Lord, Father almighty and eternal God: who, with your only begotten Son and the Holy Spirit are one God, one Lord: not in the oneness of a single person, but in a Trinity of one substance. For that which we believe from your revelation concerning your glory, we acknowledge of your Son and the Holy Spirit without difference or distinction. Thus, in the confession of the true and eternal Godhead there is adored a distinctness of persons, a oneness in essence, and an equality in majesty, whom the angels and archangels, the Cherubim also and the Seraphim, do not cease to daily cry out with one voice saying, Holy, Holy, Holy
Wow! Its a careful and clear masterpiece, but one that baffles the mind. So deep is this mystery that we had to invent a paradoxical word to summarize it: Triune (or Trinity). Triune literally means three-one (tri + unus), and Trinity is a conflation of Tri-unity, meaning the three-oneness of God.
If all of this baffles you, good! If you were to say that you fully understood all this, I would have to say you were likely a heretic. The teaching on the Trinity, while not contrary to reason per se, does transcend it and it is surely beyond human understanding.
Here is a final image before we leave our exploration stage. The picture at the upper right is from an experiment I remember doing when I was in high school. We took three projectors, each of which projected a circle: one red, one green, and one blue (the three primary colors). At the intersection of the three circles the color white appeared. Mysteriously, the three primary colors are present in the color white, but only one shows forth. The analogy is not perfect (no analogy is or it wouldnt be an analogy) for Father, Son, and Spirit do not blend to make God, but it does manifest a mysterious three-oneness of the color white. Somehow in the one, three are present. (By the way, this experiment only works with light; dont try it with paint!)
II. The Teaching on the Trinity Exhibited – Scripture also presents images of the Trinity. Interestingly enough, most of the ones I want to present here are from the Old Testament.
As a disclaimer, Id like to point out that Scripture scholars debate the meaning of these texts; thats what they get paid the big bucks to do. I am reading these texts as a New Testament Christian and seeing in them a doctrine that later became clear. I am not getting into a time machine and trying to understand them as a Jew from the 8th century B.C. might have. Why should I? Thats not what I am. I am reading these texts as a Christian in the light of the New Testament, as I have a perfect right to do. You, of course, are free to decide whether you think these texts really are images or hints of the Trinity. Here they are:
1. Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness (Gen 1:26)
God speaks of himself in the plural: Let us our Some claim that this is just an instance of the royal we being used. Perhaps, but I see an image of the Trinity. There is one (God said) but there is also a plural (us, our). Right at the very beginning in Genesis there is already a hint that God is not all by himself, but rather is in a communion of love.
2. Elohim
In the passage above, the word used for God is אֱלֹהִ֔ים (Elohim). It is interesting to note that this word is in the plural form. From a grammatical standpoint, Elohim actually means Gods, but the Jewish people understood the sense of the word to be singular. This is a much debated point, however. You can read more about it from a Jewish perspective here: Elohim as Plural yet Singular.
(We have certain words like this in English, words that are plural in form but singular in meaning such as news, mathematics, and acoustics.) My point here is not to try to understand it as a Jew from the 8th century B.C. or even as a present day Jew. Rather, I am observing with interest that one of the main words for God in the Old Testament is plural yet singular, singular yet plural. God is one yet three. I say this as a Christian observing this about one of the main titles of God, and I see an image of the Trinity.
3. And the LORD appeared to [Abram] by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men stood in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the earth, and said, My Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I fetch a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass onsince you have come to your servant. So they said, Do as you have said (Gen 18:1-5).
From a purely grammatical standpoint this is a very difficult passage because it switches back and forth between singular and plural references. The Lord (singular) appears to Abram, yet Abram sees three men (some have said that this is just God and two angels, but I think it is the Trinity). Then when Abram addresses them he says, My Lord (singular). The tortured grammar continues as Abram suggests that the Lord (singular) rest yourselves (plural) under the tree. The same thing happens in the next sentence, in which Abram wants to fetch bread so that you may refresh yourselves (plural). In the end, the Lord (singular) answers, but it is rendered as So they said. Plural, singular which is it? Both. God is one and God is three. For me as a Christian, this is a picture of the Trinity. Because the reality of God cannot be reduced to mere words, this is a grammatically difficult passage, but I can see what is going on: God is one and God is three; He is singular and He is plural.
4. Having come down in a cloud, the Lord stood with Moses there and proclaimed his Name, Lord. Thus the Lord passed before him and cried out, The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity (Exodus 34:5).
When God announces His name, He does so in a threefold way: Lord! The Lord, the Lord. There is implicit a threefold introduction or announcement of God. Is it a coincidence or is it significant? You decide.
5. In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the Seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory (Is 6:1-3).
God is Holy, Holy, and yet again, Holy. Some say that this is just a Jewish way of saying very Holy, but as Christian I see more. I see a reference to each of the three persons of the Trinity. Perfect praise here requires three holys. Why? Omni Trinum Perfectum (all things are perfect in threes). But why? As a Christian, I see the angels praising each of the three persons of the Trinity. God is three (Holy, holy, holy ) and yet God is one (holy is the Lord ). There are three declarations of the word Holy. Is it a coincidence or is it significant? You decide.
6. Here are three (of many) references to the Trinity in the New Testament:
Thus Scripture exhibits the teaching of the Trinity, going back even to the beginning.
III. The Teaching of the Trinity Experienced We who are made in the image and likeness of God ought to experience something of the mystery of the Trinity within us, and sure enough, we do.
We must be careful to understand that what humans manifest sexually, God manifests spiritually, for God is neither male nor female in His essence. We may say that the First Person loves the Second Person and the Second Person loves the First Person. So real is that love that it bears fruit in the Third Person. In this way the married couple images God, for the husband and wife love each other and their love bears fruit in their children (See, USCCB, Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan).
So today, as we extol the great mystery of the Trinity, we look not merely outward and upward so as to understand, but also inward to discover that mystery at work in us, who are made in the image and likeness of God.
Readings:
Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9
Daniel 3:52-56
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
John 3:16-18
We often begin Mass with the prayer from today's Epistle: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you." We praise the God who has revealed himself as a Trinity, a communion of persons.
Communion with the Trinity is the goal of our worship—and the purpose of the salvation history that begins in the Bible and continues in the Eucharist and sacraments of the Church.
We see the beginnings of God's self-revelation in today's First Reading, as He passes before Moses and cries out His holy name.
Israel had sinned in worshipping the golden calf (see Exodus 32). But God does not condemn them to perish. Instead He proclaims His mercy and faithfulness to His covenant.
God loved Israel as His firstborn son among the nations (see Exodus 4:22). Through Israel—heirs of His covenant with Abraham—God planned to reveal himself as the Father of all nations (see Genesis 22:18).
The memory of God's covenant testing of Abraham—and Abraham's faithful obedience—lies behind today's Gospel.
In commanding Abraham to offer his only beloved son (see Genesis 22:2,12,16), God was preparing us for the fullest possible revelation of His love for the world.
As Abraham was willing to offer Isaac, God did not spare His own Son but handed Him over for us all (see Romans 8:32).
In this, He revealed what was only disclosed partially to Moses—that His kindness continues for a thousand generations, that He forgives our sin, and takes us back as His very own people (see Deuteronomy 4:20; 9:29).
Jesus humbled himself to die in obedience to God's will. And for this, the Spirit of God raised Him from the dead (see Romans 8:11), and gave Him a name above every name (see Philippians 2:8-10).
This is the name we glorify in today's Responsorial—the name of our Lord, the God who is Love (see 1 John 4;8,16).