Until the end of the age

TRINITY SUNDAY

Collect

God our Father, who by sending into the world the Word of truth and the Spirit of sanctification made known to the human race your wondrous mystery, grant us, we pray, that in professing the true faith, we may acknowledge the Trinity of eternal glory and adore your Unity, powerful in majesty. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Dt 4:32-34, 39-40

The Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below and there is no other.

A reading from the Book of Deuteronomy

Moses said to the people:
“Ask now of the days of old, before your time,
   ever since God created man upon the earth;
   ask from one end of the sky to the other:
   Did anything so great ever happen before?
Was it ever heard of?
Did a people ever hear the voice of God
   speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?
Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself
   from the midst of another nation,
   by testings, by signs and wonders, by war,
   with strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors,
   all of which the LORD, your God,
   did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
This is why you must now know,
   and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God
   in the heavens above and on earth below,
   and that there is no other.
You must keep his statutes and commandments that I enjoin on you today,
   that you and your children after you may prosper,
   and that you may have long life on the land
   which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever.”

The word of the Lord.

Ps 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22

R. :

℟. (12b) Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Upright is the word of the LORD,
   and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
   of the kindness of the Lord the earth is full.

℟. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

By the word of the LORD the heavens were made;
   by the breath of his mouth all their host.
For he spoke, and it was made;
   he commanded, and it stood forth.

℟. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
   upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
   and preserve them in spite of famine.

℟. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Our soul waits for the LORD,
   who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
   who have put our hope in you.

℟. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Rom 8:14-17

You received a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, “Abba, Father!”

A reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans

Brothers and sisters:
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
   but you received a Spirit of adoption,
through whom we cry, “Abba, Father!”
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
   that we are children of God,
   and if children, then heirs,
   heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
   if only we suffer with him
   so that we may also be glorified with him.

The word of the Lord.

Acclamation before the Gospel
Rv 1:8

℟. Alleluia, alleluia.

Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit;
to God who is, who was, and who is to come.

℟. Alleluia, alleluia.


Mt 28:16-20

Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

✠ A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

The eleven disciples went to Galilee,
   to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.
When they all saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
Then Jesus approached and said to them,
   “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
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 to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

At the end of the Gospel, the Deacon, or the Priest, acclaims:

The Gospel of the Lord.

All reply:

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Reflection

In the beginning of today’s Gospel, we find the eleven disciples returning to Gallilee.  Gallilee was the place where their adventure with Jesus had begun: the place where they were called, the place of their decision to leave everything to follow him.  It was also the place from where they began their journey that led them to Jerusalem where they saw him who had chosen them, die on the Cross.  Now they returned to Gallilee, this time as ‘commanded’ by Jesus victorious over death and sin.

The Gospel tells us they worshipped him, ‘but some doubted’.  How true is this expression!  Who knows how many times we knelt before the Eucharist, but found ourselves doubting him, doubting his unconditional love and fidelity.

However, we are called to believe in his Word that he is with us always, to the very end of the age.  In this Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity, we are called to build a relationship with him as one God in three Persons:  the Father who created us, the Son who redeemed us and the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us.  The Trinity is a communion between three distinct persons in one God, and we as disciples are called to participate in this beautiful union.

However, as baptised Christians, we are not only called to participate in the life of the Holy Trinity, but to also share this same life with those with whom we meet.  Last Sunday we celebrated the feast of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Church.  It is true that it is not easy to be sheep amongst wolves, but the Holy Spirit is with us, with his power and gifts to help us be witnesses to that which we believe.

As Pope Francis said in one of his audiences:  And this is the grace of our faith. We really could not have hoped for a higher vocation: the humanity of Jesus—God made himself close in Jesus—made available to us the very life of the Trinity; he opened, he threw wide open this door of the mystery of the love of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (3 March 2021).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, thank you that, through you, prayer opens us up to the Trinity—to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit—to the immensity of God who is love.

 

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