Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9; Daniel 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18
We opened this Mass by the priest saying, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God and the communion [fellowship] of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” These words come from today’s second reading, Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. The Mass opens with these words because, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, the Trinity, which these words affirm, “is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself.” (CCC, 234)
Why is the mystery of the Trinity the central mystery of our faith? The Trinity reveals who God is and not simply what he did for us, such as being born in the flesh, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead. To really know a person, it is important to know who the person is as well as what the person does. However, who I am explains why I do what I do.
The revelation of the Trinity that there is one God in three persons, as Paul affirms, tells us that God is love, and because God is love, he does what he does, such as be born in the flesh, die on the Cross, and rise from the dead. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, and the mutual love between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit, as St. Augustine states.
Paul affirms in today’s second reading that God is one, comments Pitre, by teaching, “God so loved the world”. In this verse, Paul refers to God as one, in the singular. God is one nature. Then, Paul describes who God is in this one nature that has no beginning and no end. Paul does so by referring to God the Father giving his Son “the Lord Jesus Christ” and “the Holy Spirit” to us so that we can be in fellowship, in communion with one another, because by our Baptism we participate in Trinitarian love in which relational diversity, the three divine persons, are in unity in the one divine nature.[1]
The Gospel passage today from John’s Gospel clearly teaches us that the Son, “the Lord Jesus Christ”, that God the Father sent to us in the love of the Holy Spirit, is uniquely different from any other son. The original Greek for “only son” is Huion ton monogenē (Υἱὸν μονογενῆ μονογενῆ).[2] These words literally translate as the only begotten son, meaning, emphasizes Pitre, that unlike angels, who Scripture refers to as sons of God, and human beings who also, at times in Scripture, are referred to as sons of God, Jesus is the only begotten son since Jesus, unlike humans and angels, is not created. Jesus is eternally begotten by the Father in the love of the Holy Spirit. We will soon clearly state our belief in Jesus’ unique sonship when reciting the Nicene Creed, “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages”. [3]
Heavenly Father, at this Mass when we celebrate the Mystery of the Holy Trinity may we be given the grace to more clearly understand that we go to Mass not only to receive the Eucharist individually but also to receive you and the Holy Spirit corporately, as a body of believers, as one mystical body of Jesus Christ, where our genuine diversity is brought into unity, by you, O Holy One, oh three persons in one divine nature. [4]
May the Lord bless you all abundantly – Father Peter
[1] Brant Pitre, “The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity,” catholicproductions.com.
[2] “John 3:16,” biblehub.com, https://biblehub.com/interlinear/john/3-16.htm.
[3] Brant Pitre, “The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity,” catholicproductions.com. Pitre cites the first chapter of Job, Romans 8 and Galatians 3.
[4] Brant Pitre, “The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity,” catholicproductions.com. Pitre cites the first chapter of Job, Romans 8 and Galatians 3.
Catholic Evangelization 