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The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity celebrates the mystery of mysteries, “the central mystery of our faith and life” (CCC, 234): God is one God in Three Divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
“The belief in one God in three divine persons…is unique to the Christian faith but as so defined (re: nature and relations, etc) was reached only in the 4th and 5th centuries AD. It must be understood that the unity of nature does not appear as a problem in NT and indeed could only rise when a philosophical investigation of the term nature as applied to God was begun.
(For the development of the Trinitarian doctrine, cf s1S#33 “Trinity”, 5/30/21).
What we have from the Scriptures are citations like mentioning the three in the same context, e.g. in the baptismal formula of Mt 28:19, (cf also 1 Cor 12:4-6; Eph 4:4-6; 1 Pt 1:2); and the “apostolic blessing” and considered earliest formula known in 2 Cor 13:13, where Christ stands at the center as the immediate source of grace (Rom 16:20; 1 Cor 16:23), and the love of God that brought about the mission of Christ and is the ultimate source of all gifts, including the Spirit who binds the community in fellowship with one another and the community with the trinitarian community“ (cf s1S#89 Trinity, 6/12/22).
Today’s gospel (Mt 28:16-20) narrates that the apostles when they see Jesus worship him, though some doubt that Jesus has really risen from the dead. Then Jesus tells them, “All power in heaven and earth has been given to me” (v. 18). Jesus is declaring that he has universal power. “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, teaching them all that I have commanded you” (v. 20). With universal power, he sends the disciples on a universal mission, “to all the nations.” The mission of the disciples was once limited to Israel (see Mt. 10:5-6). In the commissioning, the baptismal formula contains the clearest expression of Trinitarian belief in the New Testament. “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (v. 20). Jesus is Emmanuel, God-with-us (see Mt. 1:23). His presence is assured wherever and whenever the mission is being conducted.
What the Trinity is all about we may not totally comprehend. But living the “Trinitarian life” we can try to emulate. Remember that from baptism we receive the indwelling of the three divine persons. They live in us, but do we live in them? How? With God the Father whose love brought about the mission of Christ for our salvation (John 3:16), ‘knowing what we need even before we ask Him’ (Lk 12:22, 39-31), we should live daily in complete trust in his fatherly providence. With Jesus whose coming and total self-giving brought us life (John 15:13), life to the full, we should follow his humble life of service and self-donation to others. With the Holy Spirit who was promised by the Son and sent by the Father in his name who will teach us everything (John 14:26), we should listen continually to the Spirit especially for its guidance and direction so that we can learn God’s will for us and be able to accomplish it making us truly the adopted children of God our loving Father! And as the economy of salvation has revealed to us the different roles of the three divine persons yet remain one God, may each one of us help build the one body of Christ which we constitute by sharing the unique gifts each one of us has received.
Amen.
