The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Lectionary: 164

Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship. Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own."

 

As a home run sails over the wall in the bottom of the ninth, a sports broadcaster might announce, “It’s all over but the shouting.” That will go on for some time. The ecstatic home town crowd cannot refrain from cheering their victorious team and congratulating themselves for keeping their seats when all seemed lost.

 

The Church finished the Easter Season last Sunday with Pentecost but we’re still shouting hosannas and alleluias. How can we keep from singing about the victory God has won for us, and the great mystery he has revealed to us?

 

As we finish every prayer with the Sign of the Cross and the invocation of the Trinity – “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit” – we cap off the Easter Season with Trinity Sunday.

 

This doctrine assures an answer to the prayer of Moses, “Do come along in our company.” God the Eternal Father has sent his Son and his Spirit to be with us.

 

When I was a kid the Archdiocese of Louisville would meet each year at Churchill Downs to celebrate Corpus Christi. I always remember the sonorous voice of the priest as he led the Rosary and prayers; he invariably finished with the closing words of Saint Matthew (28:20), “Remember I am with you always, even unto the end of time.”

 

Those words follow immediately after the Lord’s injunction, 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.

 

The doctrine of the Trinity is God’s assurance, “I am with you always.” We would not know the Son of God if he were not sent to us. We could not imagine the Holy Spirit if he were not poured upon us in the sacraments. Nor could we obey his command to make disciples of all nations without the animating, encouraging and informing Spirit.  Every virtue we need to do God’s work is provided by the Son and the Spirit.

 

Beyond our work is God’s comforting, healing presence when we are sick, distressed or troubled.  I am with you is the reason we take comfort in hospitals, nursing homes, jails and prisons. Exiles and refugees know the Lord Jesus walks with them as they seek a welcome in strange land among hostile people.

 

The doctrine of the Trinity offers endless reflection as we return again to “Ordinary Time.”