| 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: the continuing mystery of God-in-relationship
Unlike other liturgical feasts that celebrate events, Trinity Sunday celebrates the mystery that is God’s own inner life: a single being who lives in community. The Trinity is implicit rather than explicit in Hebrew and Christian scriptures. This week’s readings trace how God’s self-revealing words and actions lead us to explore God’s three-fold nature and how we encounter God.
First reading (Dt 4:32-34, 39-40)
The first reading is from Deuteronomy, the fifth and final book of the Torah. Hebrew scripture is full of triadic formulas and triple structures that describe the people’s encounter of God: humans experience God in revelation, in redemptive actions, and also in the believing response in human hearts to God’s actions. In today’s pericope, Moses recalls God’s might acts throughout history. He begins by invoking creation (“God created humans upon the earth”) and God’s revelation to Israel at Sinai (“the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire”). Moses concludes with God’s saving action: redeeming Israel from Egypt’s slavery (“take a nation from the midst of another nation . . . with strong hand and outstretched arm”). The Lectionary editors chose this reading because it describes God’s threefold actions of creation, revelation, and redemption.
Second reading (Rom 8:14-17)
The second reading is from Paul’s letter to the Roman ekklesia, which is Paul’s final letter. In today’s pericope, Paul continues his letter’s theme: hope of glory. He states all who are “led by the Spirit” are God’s children and also heirs to God’s promises. The Spirit “leads” or shapes believers for eternal life (Rom 8:13) by making them “children of God.” In baptism, God invites a believer into a personal relationship (using the metaphor of adoption as God’s son or daughter) and pours out God’s Spirit on the believer. Through the Spirit, a believer confidently addresses God as “Father,” and more intimately as “abba” (in English, “daddy”), the Aramaic word Jesus uses for the Father (Mk 14:36; also Gal 4:6). God’s adoption makes a believer also a future inheritor (“heir”) of God’s eschatological blessings and Christ’s resurrection and glory (eternal life), the basis for Christian hope. 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 is Jesus’ final post-resurrection appearance in which Jesus commissions his disciples and promises to be present and help them forever. Today’s pericope contains Matthew’s baptismal formula, the early ekklesia‘s clearest expression of Trinitarian belief.
- Make disciples. For Matthew’s community, Jesus’ commission to baptize gentiles (“all nations”) urged a mainly Jewish Christian ekklesia to seek new members from non-Jews. Jewish Christians would understand that Jesus was the messiah. Through Jesus, God inaugurates the messianic age; this new age includes God’s gift of the Spirit. In this view, baptism has always been implicitly Trinitarian. Scholars believe this Trinitarian baptismal formula (“in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”) was already in use in Matthew’s community when he wrote his gospel (~85 AD).
- I am with you all days. In the other gospels, Jesus’ continuing presence is his gift of the Spirit. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus himself fulfills the Spirit’s function. The gospel’s final line (“I am with you all days, to the end of the age”) points back to Matthew’s Isaiah quotation that opens his gospel: “His name shall be called Emmanu-el, which means ‘God with us‘” (Mt 1:23). Jesus’ promise fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy: God’s continuing presence with God’s people.
Summary and reflection
The Trinity Sunday readings ask us to think how we personally encounter the Father, Son, and Spirit. Deuteronomy remembers God’s mighty acts of creation, revelation, and salvation. Paul reminds the Romans that baptism creates a personal relationship with God, who adopts, redeems, and empowers believers to live in God’s life. Jesus gives God’s authority to his still-hesitant followers to make disciples, while his protective Spirit remains with them forever. We should not let theology’s technical descriptions of the Trinity overwhelm our own lived experiences of God. Do we encounter God acting in history, revealed in scripture’s stories and in the words and actions of the incarnate Word? Do we encounter God when invited into relationship through sacramental words and actions that include us, feed us, and empower us? Do we encounter God when we reach out to others who seek God’s continuing presence in our world?
—Terence Sherlock
The Lectionary In Context 