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Trinity Sunday (B)

May 26, 2024

Fr. John Colacino C.PP.S.

Introit

Kyrie

Gloria

Collect

God our Father, who by sending into the world
the Word of truth and the Spirit of sanctification
made known to the human race your wondrous mystery,
grant us, we pray, that in professing the true faith,
we may acknowledge the Trinity of eternal glory
and adore your Unity, powerful in majesty.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

FIRST READING Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40

Moses assembled the people to remind them how the Lord had spoken out of the fire while they stood at the foot of the mountain. He said: 32 “Ask now about former ages, long before your own, ever since the day that God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of heaven to the other: ‘has anything so great as this ever happened or has its like ever been heard of?’ 33 “Has any people ever heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire, as you have heard, and lived? 34 Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by terrifying displays of power, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? 39 “So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. 40 Keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you today for your own well-being and that of your descendants after you, so that you may long remain in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

RESPONSORIAL PSALM Psalm 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22

R/. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

SECOND READING Romans 8:14-17

All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. In fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

ALLELUIA Cf. Rev. 1:8

GOSPEL Matthew 28:16-20

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Catena Nova

It is not easy to find a name that will suitably express so great an excellence, unless it is better to speak in this way: the Trinity, one God, of whom are all things, through whom are all things, in whom are all things. Thus the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and each of these by Himself, is God, and at the same time they are all one God; and each of them by Himself is a complete substance, and yet they are all one substance. The Father is not the Son nor the Holy Spirit; the Son is not the Father nor the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is not the Father nor the Son: but the Father is only Father, the Son is only Son, and the Holy Spirit is only Holy Spirit. To all Three belong the same eternity, the same unchangeableness, the same majesty, the same power. In the Father is unity, in the Son equality, in the Holy Spirit the harmony of unity and equality. And these three attributes are all one because of the Father, all equal because of the Son, and all harmonious because of the Holy Spirit (St. Augustine of Hippo).

Let all of us, wherever we are, in every place, at every hour, at every time of day, everyday and continually, believe truly and humbly, and keep in [our] heart, and love, honor, adore, service, praise and bless, glorify and exalt, magnify and give thanks to, the most high and supreme eternal God, Trinity and Unity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Creator of all, Savior of all who believe in Him and hope in Him and love Him, Who is without beginning and without end, unchangeable, invisible, indescribable, ineffable, incomprehensible, unfathomable, blessed, worthy of praise, glorious, exalted on high, sublime, most high, gentle, loveable, delectable and totally desirable above all else forever. Amen (St. Francis of Assisi).

Although it was by a common benevolence that the Trinity saved our race, each one of the blessed persons played his own part. The Father was reconciled, the Son reconciled, and the Holy Spirit was the gift bestowed upon those who were now God’s friends. The Father set us free, the Son was our ransom, and the Spirit our liberty, for Paul says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” The Father recreated us through the Son, but it “is the Spirit who gives life....” God bestowed many blessings on his creation in every age, but you will not find any of them being ascribed to the Father alone, or to the Son, or to the Spirit. On the contrary, all have their source in the Trinity, which performs every act by a single power, providence, and creativity (Nicholas Cabasilas).

I saw no difference between God and our substance, but, as it were, all God; and still my understanding accepted that our substance is in God, that is to say that God is God, and our substance is a creature in God. For the almighty truth of the Trinity is our Father, for he made us and keeps us in him. And the deep wisdom of the Trinity is our Mother, in whom we are enclosed. And the high goodness of the Trinity is our Lord, and in him we are enclosed and he in us. We are enclosed in the Father, and we are enclosed in the Son, and we are enclosed in the Holy Spirit. And the Father is enclosed in us, the Son is enclosed in us, and the Holy Spirit is enclosed in us, almighty, all wisdom and all goodness, one God, one Lord (Julian of Norwich).

Let us then all, learned and unlearned, gain this great benefit from the mystery of the Ever-Blessed Trinity. It is calculated to humble the wise in this world with the thought of what is above them, and to encourage and elevate the lowly with the thought of Almighty God, and the glories and marvels which shall one day be revealed to them. In the Beatific Vision of God, should we through His grace be found worthy of it, we shall comprehend clearly what we now dutifully repeat and desire to know, how the Father Almighty is truly and by Himself God, the Eternal Son truly and by Himself God, and the Holy Ghost truly and by Himself God, and yet not three Gods but one God (St. John Henry Newman).

Because the Christian God is not a lonely God, but rather a communion of three persons, faith leads human beings into the divine communion. One cannot, however, have a self-enclosed communion with the Triune God- a “foursome,” as it were– for the Christian God is not a private deity. Communion with this God is at once also communion with those others who have entrusted themselves in faith to the same God. Hence one and the same act of faith places a person into a new relationship both with God and with all others who stand in communion with God (Miroslav Volf).

The "name" of the Most Holy Trinity is in a certain way impressed upon everything that exists, because everything that exists, down to the least particle, is a being in relation, and thus God-relation shines forth, ultimately creative Love shines forth. All comes from love, tends toward love, and is moved by love, naturally, according to different grades of consciousness and freedom....The strongest proof that we are made in the image of the Trinity is this: only love makes us happy, beacause we live in relationm and we live to love and be loved (Pope Benedict XVI).

Homily

So was your baptism valid? The Vatican would like to make sure it was. A recent instruction warns that "one must acknowledge that liturgical celebrations, especially those of the Sacraments, are not always carried out in full fidelity to the rites prescribed by the Church." With respect to baptism in particular, the document made note of "those baptismal celebrations in which the sacramental formula was modified in one of its essential elements. Such a change nullified the Sacrament and thereby also compromised the future sacramental journey of the faithful. With grave disturbance, they had to repeat not only their Baptism but also the Sacraments they received thereafter" (Gestis verbisque 2). The local presbyterate was quick to be notified of these dangers, along with approved sources for the purchase of bread and wine for the Eucharist to ensure validity, notice of a minor change in the formula for absolution and even extensive instructions on how priests are to concelebrate Mass. Oddly, nothing to my knowledge has ever been said about priests who employ rubrics that are nowhere to be found in the current edition of the Roman Missal.

Now I am all for an orderly liturgy and am pretty much "by the book." I have always felt that what is provided in the liturgical books makes for the best celebration. Still, I agree with Pope Francis who recently commented — as he often has — "Man is for the liturgy because he is for God, but a liturgy without this union of man with God is an aberration. And an aberration, for example, would be a liturgy enslaved to rubricism, which does not foster union with God. (Address; May 10, 2024).

In any case, even though the New Testament offers two "rubrics" for baptism — "in the name of Jesus" and "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" — the former being no longer "valid" and the latter now required for "validity" — we might ask what does it mean to be baptized with the trinitarian formula without which you aren't "really" baptized. Why doesn't, in other words, the name of Jesus alone suffice? Is it just the text from Matthew's gospel where the injunction is given winning out over others?

Well, let's start with the God-concept today's feast celebrates and which is enshrined in the words of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed emerging from the Councils of Nicea (325) and Constantinople (381). God, we believe, is a Communion of Co-equal Persons whose distinction from one another does not sunder the Unity of the Godhead: One in Three Persons, Three Persons in One God. Person, in this context, meaning "relation" and not, as in modern usage, "an individual." Much less does it mean God has "parts!"

All of this, of course, may strike us as arid speculation, metaphysical abstraction, or well, a mystery we cannot comprehend so best continue using the biblical and liturgical language hallowed by centuries' use and leave it at that. Except for one thing. Human beings are made in the "image and likeness of God" and hence, of the Most Blessed Trinity. So we ought to reflect in our various relations "co-equality of person" and "unity of substance." So no subordination of people one over another and no disruption of unity due to differences. And this ought to be manifest above all in the Church since we are "a people, formed as one by the unity of the Trinity, made the body of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit" (Preface VIII in Ordinary Time). But we have a long way to go, don't we?

For example, the Associated Press reported recently on a trend in the Catholic Church in the United States which it titled "an immense shift toward the old ways." It claims that the reformist period following the Second Vatican Council is "increasingly giving way to religious conservatives who believe the church has been twisted by change, with the promise of eternal salvation replaced by guitar Masses, parish food pantries and casual indifference to church doctrine. The shift, molded by plummeting church attendance, increasingly traditional priests and growing numbers of young Catholics searching for more orthodoxy, has reshaped parishes across the country, leaving them sometimes at odds with Pope Francis and much of the Catholic world" (https://apnews.com/article/catholic-church-shift-orthodoxy-tradition-7638fa2013a593f8cb07483ffc8ed487; May 1, 2024).

The trend is admittedly uneven but where it appears it often contributes to a growing polarization in the church. As for the pope, in his recent interview with Norah O'Donnell on 60 Minutes, the pontiff, remarking on this trend said,"conservative is one who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that. It is a suicidal attitude. Because one thing is to take tradition into account, to consider situations from the past, but quite another is to be closed up inside a dogmatic box" (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-interview-60-minutes-transcript/; May 19,2024)

Not to be outdone by the AP, columnist Ross Douthat writing in the New York Times asked, "Can Conservative and Liberal Catholics Coexist?' He observed "as long as the ambient culture is broadly liberal, any Catholics trying to live in the world as well as in the church will find themselves cross-pressured, and there will be enduring incentives to find a middle ground between traditional teachings and contemporary mores….the entanglements between American Catholicism and American culture writ large all but guarantee that conservative and liberal forms of Catholic faith will persist together — undoubtedly in tension and conflict, but ideally in charity as well" (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/opinion/pope-francis-catholic-church.html; May 8, 2024). And most recently several bishops weighed in during a livestream chat entitled "Civilize It: Unifying a Divided Church." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izXU2n5Aj0Y&t=2s; May 14, 2024)

What does all this have to with the Most Blessed Trinity? Everything. For a church that cannot find its way to include "distinction of person" and "unity of substance" cannot claim to be made in the Triune God's image and likeness. The current divisiveness has lurking within it precisely the trinitarian heresies whose challenges led to the creedal formula we recite every Sunday and which this annual feast that celebrates: namely, the heresy of "subordinationism" that fails to honor the equality of the Persons from within Their unity and which grounds Their communion and the heresy of "modalism" which effaces Their genuine distinction making them merely modes by which God variously appears and hence is not truly triune.

So was your baptism valid? No doubt — but you might want to check that no liturgical maverick did the honors! Yet validity is only one side of the sacramental equation — "fruitfulness" being the other. Meaning, where's the evidence the Trinity is the Source and Model of your Christian life? How have those words, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" borne fruit in the relationships you enjoy, especially in the Church? If the answer is "not a whole lot," then the wondrous mystery God has made known to the human race through the agency of the Son and the Holy Spirit will ever remain but a matter of liturgical propriety and forever locked in the Creed (cf. Collect).

Nicene Creed

Intercessions (Joe Milner; The Sunday Website)

For the Church: that our experiences of God will help us recognize God's love, presence, and action in our lives and empower us to faithful service.

For the grace of understanding: that we may be more aware of our dignity as daughters and sons of God and in union with the Spirit confidently call God "Abba" as we experience God's love and care each day.

For all who are isolated from God and the human family: that they may experience welcome and acceptance as they encounter the Christian community.

For greater stewardship of earth’s resources: that we may be good stewards of God’s creation and strive to protect it for future generations.

For all who feel abandoned by God: that the Spirit will give them insight into the events in their life so that they may recognize how God is always with them.

For all who are enslaved or caught in human trafficking: that God's power will bring freedom to all who are in physical or emotional captivity.

For all who have experienced abuse, injustice, or prejudice: that God will heal their pain, give them strength to live life fully, and reveal the structures that have contributed to their pain.

For the gift of peace: that God will open new pathways for dialogue in the Middle East so that all may live in peace and each family may live in safety.

[USA] For all who have died in the service of our nation: that God’s glory will shine upon them and that they may share in the peace and joy of God’s presence.

God our Father, you have given us a share in the life that is yours with your Son and the Holy Spirit. Strengthen that life within your Church, that we may know your presence, observe your commands, and proclaim the gospel to every nation. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. (ICEL; 1998)

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