Sunday Scripture readings, June 12, 2022: Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
1) Prv 8:22-31 Psalm 8:4-9
2) Rom 5:1-5 Gospel: Jn 16:12-15
Reflect on the divine community that exists in the heart and life of God
While dining out, it’s not uncommon to see a group of people pulling out their mobile phones as they sit down to share a meal around the table. Even as we socialize with family and friends, our electronic devices are close at hand, in case of need. I’ve even seen a group of college students taking photos of their meal and sharing it with the person sitting across the table!
Human beings are social creatures. We come into this world within the first community of our immediate family, and we grow and flourish in ever expanding communities at home, school and work.
And even as electronic devices have changed the way we experience social interactions, we cannot escape this basic fact of our human existence. We are essentially social beings who exist in community from beginning to end.
This Sunday, the church invites us to reflect on the divine community that exists in the very heart and life of God, who we praise as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity is not a theological abstraction but a graced opportunity to contemplate the wondrous love of God who is a community of divine persons. This divine love of the Holy Trinity overflows into the world and into our lives.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit directs our gaze to a simple truth about who God is and who we are in relationship to God and one another. We believe in God who is a community of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and into whose life we are incorporated in baptism. We are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and made members of the family of God!
The psalmist invites us to praise the goodness of the divine community of Father, Son and Holy Spirit as he gives thanks for the heavens, the moon and the stars, animals, birds and fish of the sea. These marvelous works of God, the divine artist, are crowned by the creation of man and woman, created from the beginning to exist in a community of love.
As the psalmist sings, “You have made him little less than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor.” The author of Proverbs echoes the same song of praise to God for creating the heavens, the seas, all earth’s creatures, and for finding “delight in the human race.”
In the Gospel, Jesus promises the gift of the Spirit of truth who will guide the church in the truth that comes from God. Jesus is the face of the invisible God, his Father, and their divine love is poured out in the gift of the Holy Spirit on the church.
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity recalls our baptismal incorporation into the divine community of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit that deepens every time we gather around the table of the Eucharist.
And we know this with the certainty of faith “because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us,” as St. Paul tells the Romans. In the joy of belonging to the community of the Holy Trinity with faith we pray, “speak to me, Lord.”
Reflection Question:
What does it mean to belong through baptism in the community of the Holy Trinity?
Sullivan is a professor at The Catholic University of America.
