Holy Trinity Sunday:[A]: Ex 34: 4b-6, 8-9; II Cor 13: 11-13; Jn 3: 16-18

Holy Trinity Sunday:[A]: Ex 34: 4b-6, 8-9; II Cor 13: 11-13; Jn 3: 16-18

Introduction: Holy Mother Church’s Magisterium (the highest teaching authority) teaches on the Trinity. Definitively, she teaches that the Trinity is first a mystery and as such a Dogma which must be believed. This dogma on the Trinity could therefore be summed up as follows: “The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the “consubstantial Trinity”. The divine persons do not share the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire…The divine persons are really distinct from one another. “God is one but not solitary.” “Father”, “Son”, “Holy Spirit” are not simply names designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really distinct from one another…The divine persons are relative to one another. Because it does not divide the divine unity, the real distinction of the persons from one another resides solely in the relationships which relate them to one another (CCC253-255, p.82-83). We believe in this Mystery of Holy Trinity because Jesus who is God taught it clearly, the Evangelists recorded it, the Fathers of the Church tried to explain it and the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople defined it as a dogma of Christian Faith.

Anecdote: The shamrock, a kind of clover, is a leguminous herb that grows in marshy places. St.  Patrick, the missionary patron saint of Ireland, used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity.  The story goes that one day his friends asked Patrick to explain the Mystery of the Trinity.  He looked at the ground and saw shamrocks growing amid the grass at his feet.  He picked one up one of its trifoliate leaves and asked if it were one leaf or three.    Patrick's friends couldn't answer – the shamrock leaf looked like one but it clearly had three parts.  Patrick explained to them: "The mystery of the Holy Trinity – one God in Three Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - is like this, but more complex and unintelligible.”     St. Cyril, the teacher of the Slavs, tried to explain the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity using sun as an example.    He said, "God the Father is that blazing sun. God the Son is its light and God the Holy Spirit is its heat — but there is only one sun. So there are three Persons in the Holy Trinity but God is One and indivisible." St. John Maria Vianney used to explain Holy Trinity using lighted candles and roses on the altar and water in the cruets. “The flame has color, warmth and shape. But these are expressions of one flame. Similarly the rose has color, fragrance and shape. But these are expressions of one reality, namely, rose. Water, steam and ice are three distinct expressions of one reality. In the same way one God revealed Himself to us as Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.”

Exegesis:  On this Most Holy Trinity Sunday, our celebration is a song of praise to the Almighty God who has taken us up to share in the very life of the Trinity. Two of the most complete, heavily loaded, and yet very concise prayers and blessings are this: “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you!” and “May the Almighty God bless you the Father, the son and the Holy Spirit. I call these Trinitarian formulas and fellowship. In these prayers, and blessings, the Trinitarian God unite to perform this function for which they are being consulted. Paul knew this and so, constantly employed this Trinitarian formula in concluding of most of his letters to the churches he wrote to (1 Cor, 16, 23; 2Cor 13, 14; Gal 6, 18; Phil 4, 2).

Joke: At Sunday school they were learning how God created everything, including human beings. Johnny was especially intent when the teacher told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam's ribs.

Later in the week his mother noticed him lying down as though he were ill, and said, “Johnny, what is the matter?”

Johnny responded, “I have pain in my side. I think I’m going to have a wife.”

Practical Applications: 1) Let us respect ourselves and others because everyone is the temple of the Holy Spirit where all the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity abide. 

2) Let us practice the Trinitarian relationship of love and unity in the family relationships of father, mother and children because by Baptism we become children of God and members of God’s Trinitarian family.

Introduction: Holy Trinity Sunday

Message: God sent his son to save us and to forgive us, making us his adopted children.  Like the Trinity, may we be united in peace and love through the Spirit, through whom we offer God praise and glory.

Saints and Events in this week: 15-Fifteenth - Fathers Day; Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time; 19-Nineteenth – Thursday- Saint Romuald, abbot; 21-Twenty First-Saturday, Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, religious;