Walking with Jesus: The Most Holy Trinity

For Sunday, June 12, 2022

Proverbs 8:22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15

What do I know about God? John tells us: “God is love, and whosoever remains in love remains in God and God in them.” [1 John 4:16] So if God is love, every time I witness love or share love, I am finding out more about God’s love. Do I reflect on this? Do I realize that these moments are when I am actively involved in God’s mission to share Jesus? To be God right now and right where I am in my living module? Even more importantly, do I reflect on these moments of love because they are telling me about God and His love for me and those I am with? Do I trust the Holy Spirit in leading me and enabling me to Be God in these moments? We might want to say, “Lord, I’m not worthy” ... but it’s not about our worthiness. It’s about God choosing you and me to bring about God’s union of love to His creation. How blessed we are.

Consider this encounter in The Little Burgundy Book:

One day, a visitor to the monastery asked the monk, “You must be able to do a lot of praying and feel very close to God when you’re working out in the peace and quiet of the orchard.” The monk stopped, and a tear crept into his eye, “Oh, indeed I do, I love these trees and I know them well. I always think of John’s Gospel when Jesus says that He is the vine and we are the branches and that the Father prunes away the branches that are in the way. While I’m pruning, I say to the Lord, Thanks for doing that to me. You have pruned me, shaped me and helped me become what I never could have become without you. I’m not perfect, and I know I need more pruning, but You are always there to make me more into Your image. The Lord has done wonderful things for me.”

The Lord has done and continues to do these things for us, and He keeps giving us deeper insights into His gifts of love, patience, forgiveness, care and compassion. This is the mystery of God, because God is love.

Today's first reading is from the book of Proverbs. Its introduction in the Catholic Study Bible states:

Its primary purpose, indicated in its first sentence, is to teach wisdom. It is thus directed particularly to the young and inexperienced (1,4); but also to those who desire advanced training in wisdom (1,5f). The wisdom which the book teaches covers a wide field of human and divine activity, ranging from matters purely secular to most lofty moral and religious truths, such as God’s omniscience, power, providence, goodness and the joy and strength resulting from abandonment to Him.

Solomon is attributed as being its author. A note: It is a wonderful practice to read and study the Old Testament. Jesus did.

Proverbs emphasizes that God continues to steer people along the path of salvation with His protective love always present. It teaches us throughout how to serve God and live on this Earth that He has carefully prepared for us. Am I listening? Am I willing to learn?

In his letter to the Romans, Paul is asking us if we trust God. Even our sadness, worry and afflictions bring us closer to the Lord because they point out the basis of hope in future glory since we have confidence in God’s love for us. (5:8)

The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the central Christian affirmations about God: The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three persons in the one Godhead. Today we hear the final teaching in Jesus’ Last Supper farewell discourse about the role of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is leading us constantly to listen to Jesus’ teachings and apply them to what is coming in our lives and make us aware of things for which we need to prepare ourselves. While it remains a mystery, it is centered on God’s forever plan for us in His world. Everything brings us back to our response of faith and trust in God. St. Thomas Aquinas, perhaps one of the most outstanding philosophers and theologians of all time, said, “We cannot know what God is; only what God is not.” We cannot explain the intimate relationship among Father, Son, and Spirit, but faith enables us to accept this mystery. When we look at the universe; at the intimacy with a human person; at the beauty that surrounds us in nature; in a flower; in the birth of a child; in all that we see, hear, feel, taste and touch; we are in the midst of God’s beauty. We can so beautifully proclaim: We have an awesome God!

So I reflect on:

• Is my God someone who is just there and useful when I need Him?
• Does God the Father/Son/Spirit make me smile, flood me with friendship and bring me joy in being together in love?
  

Sacred Space 2022 states:

“The mystery of the Trinity is at the heart of this passage. Pope Francis reminds us that ‘everything’ in Christian life revolves around the mystery of the Trinity and is fulfilled in this infinite mystery. Let us look, therefore, to keep high the ‘tone’ of our life, reminding ourselves to what end, for what glory we exist, work, struggle, suffer, and to which immense prize we are called.’

“St. Augustine summed up the heart of the Church’s belief in the mystery of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit by stating simply, ‘If you see charity, you see the Trinity.’”