SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST BLESSED TRINITY
(White) Cycle A/ Year I (June 11, 2017)
Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9/2 Cor 13:11-13/Jn 3:16-18
Before the coming of Jesus Christ, the Jews believed in Yahweh who is the almighty God, creator of heaven and earth. When Jesus arrived, He revealed that this God who revealed Himself to Abraham and Moses is a personal God and that it has three divine persons: the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. This knowledge about the Holy Trinity could never be attained by any human being except through the divine revelation. We are lucky indeed because the one who revealed the identity of God is God Himself through the second person, the Son.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). The second person – the Son – of Divine Trinity was sent by the Father into the world. He incarnated and became like us in the very person of Jesus Christ. Jesus, God-made-man, revealed the first person of the Divine Trinity when He taught His disciples to call God, “Our Father.” As a father, God loves and cares for us. He never abandons us especially at the hour of our needs even though many times when feel we are abandoned by God because of our problems. God hears our prayers and is willing to grant us our needs for as long as these can help us to deepen our relationship of love for God and neighbor.
Jesus revealed the third person of the Holy Trinity not only when He talked about Him but most especially when, together with the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit to the Church through the apostles and Mary. Pentecost Sunday is the day when the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit to the Church founded by Christ. We are now in the time of the Holy Spirit, the time of the Church. Because of the Holy Spirit, all are made possible: the evangelization, faith, conversion, repentance, sacraments, worship, sanctification, liturgy, catechesis, ministry, etc. Indeed, we move and have our Christian being and identity through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The reason for the sending of the Son and the revelation of the Holy Trinity is no other than love. God loves us so much and because of that fatherly love of God, He wants our eternal salvation. For this purpose, God sacrificed His Son on the cross so that through the death of the Son we might live and be converted into children of God. By pouring His blood on the cross, Jesus shared with us His divine life and we have become sons and daughters of God. Such divine love that caused the two divine sending or missions – of the Son and of the Holy Spirit – demands that we respond with love. Consequently, Jesus taught us that the first and the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, mind and being.
As Christians and children of God, we have to love God and neighbors the way He has loved us. Jesus said: “Love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus Christ has loved us by sacrificing His life on the cross for our sake and our salvation. We must also love God and our neighbors by sacrificing for them. We must spend time with God through prayers and the sacraments. We also must help our needy brethren through our own personal capacity. It is when we help our neighbors that we truly love God and it is when we care for the needy that we worship God. For Jesus said: “Whatever you do to the least, you do it to me; whatever you do not do to the least, you do not do to me.”
