GOD’S WORD FOR THE DAY (based on Catholic Liturgical Readings)
DATE: 11TH JUNE 2017
THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY
FIRST READING: Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9
PSALM: Daniel 3:52-56
SECOND READING: 2Corinthians 13:11-13
GOSPEL: John 3:16-18
THEME: I BELIEVE IN ONE GOD
The bedrock of any love relationship is COMMUNICATION. It takes communication to start a relationship and it takes communication to sustain it. We do not say everything about ourselves the very first day we enter into a relationship with someone. Self-disclosure is gradual and it deepens as the relationship matures.
In entering into a relationship with the human race, God chose to communicate and to reveal himself gradually. The First Reading gives us one of the early written accounts of God’s self-revelation to humanity. On Mount Sinai, God is said to have passed before Moses and proclaimed: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation” (Exod. 34:7-8). Although Moses heard him, at this stage of self-disclosure, God remained invisible.
With the passage of time, the invisible God made himself visible in and through the person of His Son Jesus Christ. This second stage of the self-disclosure of God is captured in our Gospel text: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16). To encounter Jesus is to encounter the God who spoke on Mount Sinai.
The person of the Holy Spirit completes the threefold self-disclosure of God. Thus Paul, in the Second Reading, writes: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:13).
The Church has never disputed the fact that there is only one God. In fact the Catechism of the Catholic Church states emphatically that “We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons…” (CCC 253).
There are three important lessons that we can learn as we celebrate Trinity Sunday. First and foremost, Trinity Sunday should make us humble. Often, we are tempted to think that our minds are the yardsticks for all truth. The revelation of the Most Holy Trinity has taught us that God is greater than our minds.
Secondly, the celebration of Trinity Sunday is a call to re-examine the image we have of God. One’s image of God influences one’s character. We bear the image of the one we worship. If God, for you, is a warrior, you will end up being a warrior. If your God is a God of wrath, you will emulate his anger. For us Christians, we call our God, “Abba, Father” and this loving Father has revealed himself to us in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
Thirdly, Trinity Sunday should inculcate in us the spirit of unity and cooperation. Just as the three Divine Persons come together to accomplish the work of salvation, we too will need oneness of vision and purpose to accomplish great things in our families, parishes and nations.
May the Holy Triune God live in our hearts and in the hearts of all people.
PRAYER: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, it is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen
Andrews Obeng, svd
DIVINE WORD MISSIONARIES
BIBLICAL PASTORAL MINISTRY
(Ghana Province)
“May the darkness of sin and the night of unbelief vanish before the light of the Word and the Spirit of grace. And may the heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all people” (St. Arnold Janssen).