| Reading 1 | Response | Reading 2 | Gospel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dt 4:32-34, 39-40 | Ps 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22 | Rom 8:14-17 | Mt 28:16-20 |
| RCL: Is 6:1-8 | RCL: Rom 8:12-17 | RCL: Jn 3:1-17 |
Trinity: continually revealing the divine mystery
Unlike other liturgical feasts that celebrate events, Trinity Sunday celebrates the mystery of God’s own inner life: a single being who loves and lives in community. In Hebrew and Christian scriptures, the Trinity is implicitly described rather than explicitly named. This week’s readings invite us to explore our place in God’s mysterious relationship.
First reading (Dt 4:32-34, 39-40)
The first reading is from the book of Deuteronomy (a Greek word meaning “second law”), the fifth and final book of Torah. The author imagines Moses addressing the assembled people before they enter the promised land. Written during the Assyrian period in the seventh century BC and redacted after the Babylonian exile, Deuteronomy is about reform and restoration of both the community and the individual. Deuteronomy calls every person to respond to God’s covenant and instructions today.
In today’s pericope, the author calls the people to covenant fidelity. At the conclusion of his first discourse, Moses reminds the Israelites what God has done for them and their corresponding obligation to observe God’s statues and commands. Using images of remembering and forgetting, the author urges his hearers to remember God’s actions (“Did anything so great ever happen before?”) and covenant (“did any god take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation?”). The covenant’s human side is always at risk: the people not remembering and not teaching the next generation (“your children after you may prosper”). Keeping God’s covenantal “statues and commands” ensures God’s continuing favor and protection (“you may have long life”).
The Lectionary editors chose this reading because it describes God’s threefold actions of creation (“God created man”), revelation (“hear the voice of God”), and redemption (“take a nation from the midst of another nation”).
Second reading (Rom 8:14-17)
The second reading is from Paul’s letter to the ekklesiai (multiple communities) in Rome. Romans, written in 56-57 AD, is Paul’s final letter. He has completed his missionary work in Asia and now plans a missionary trip to Spain, with a stop in Rome. He writes to the Roman believing communities to introduce himself and to give an authentic and acceptable account of the gospel he preaches.
In today’s pericope, Paul says that the life in the Spirit that believers experience now is only a preview of full life with God at the end time. Through baptism and the Spirit, God adopts believers as daughters and sons (“children of God”) and Jesus’ siblings (“brothers and sisters”). Through this spiritual adoption into God’s family, believers can rightly call God “Abba” and “Father.” Believers have a dual witness to divine adoption: the Spirit “bears witness” and our human nature itself (“our spirit”) is a witness. God’s adoption makes believers not only God’s children, but future inheritors (“heirs”) of God’s eschatological blessings and of Christ’s resurrection and glory (eternal life). Believers “sufferings” are part of Christian life, not something they add or seek out.
The Lectionary editors chose this reading because it summarizes the Father’s (adoption), the Son’s (eternal life) and the Spirit’s (empowerment) roles in a believer’s life.
Gospel (Mt 28:16-20)
Matthew’s gospel concludes with Jesus commissioning the eleven to make disciples, to baptize, and to teach, and promising to remain present with the community forever.
- Called to Galilee. Jesus meets the disciples on “the mountain” in Galilee. Matthew’s mountaintop setting recalls Moses receiving Torah and Jesus as the new Moses giving a new Law.
- Worship but hesitate. The eleven disciples worship Jesus, although they hesitate (διστάζω/distázō, = “wavier” or “doubt”). Matthew doesn’t say why the disciples doubt. Some scholars think the disciples may have doubted the Galilee encounter experience itself. Other scholars think the disciples doubted the appropriateness of worshiping Jesus. For devout Jews, God alone is worthy of worship. Still other scholars believe the disciples are worried about their expanded mission to “all nations,” rather than to only “the lost sheep of Israel” (Mt 10:6, Mt 15:24). Such a concern reflects the reality of Matthew’s mixed believing community in the 80s, which was quickly becoming more gentile than Jewish.
- The commission. Jesus tells the eleven to “make disciples,” “baptize,” and “teach,” following Jesus’ model and with Jesus’ authority. Matthew includes an early Christian liturgical formula (“in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”) in Jesus’ baptismal instruction. This formula suggests the trinitarian understanding of God was present in the late first century, although it would take another 300 years for believers to agree on the nature and relationship of God.
- With you always. Although Jesus criticizes the disciples’ lack of faith (Mt 8:26) and Matthew often notes the disciples’ failures, Jesus promises to remain with the believing community forever. Jesus’ promise of his continuing real though invisible presence echoes the name Emmanu-el (“God-with-us”) given to him in the infancy narrative (Mt 1:23).
Summary and reflection
The Trinity Sunday readings invite us to look into God’s self-revelation in the scriptures. The Deuteronomic author asks us to think about the meaning of covenant with God. Paul asks us to think about the meaning of adoption by God. Matthew asks us to think about the meaning of God’s presence with us forever.
Trinity Sunday homilies are often long on theology and short on God-with-us. We ask the wrong questions about the trinitarian mystery: “How is God one-in-three?” or “Who does what?” The reference to “one” and “three” is not a trick math problem, but a way to describe a single being (“one”) who lives in community with others (“three”). The Trinity is teaching us about the mystery of how to live in relationship with ourselves and with others (parents, siblings, spouses, children, friends, strangers, communities, and so on), while at the same time inviting us into an intimate and personal relationship with the divine that lasts forever. When we stop looking at God from the outside, we can start experiencing God-in-relationship. Are we ready to step into the Trinity’s mystery?
—Terence Sherlock
The Lectionary In Context 