ALL GOD HAS COMMANDED!
Trinity Sunday
May 31, 2015
ALL GOD HAS COMMANDED
Oneness…fullness…completeness…totality…wholeness…The
Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity today seems to remind us of all the
foregoing concepts – and more!
The readings today were all from books written
well before the term “Trinity” was introduced in theological discourse. But
Scripture that has come down to us through the centuries reflects the “lived
theology” of the community of believers. Obviously, the reality of the Trinity
preceded the terminology. The faith in the Trinity antedated the invention of a
term (or a symbol) to stand for the truth held in faith in people’s minds and
hearts, long before the word was uttered in their mouths.
All God has taught… all God has uttered… and all God has
commanded! This represents the body of truths celebrated by the early Church in
the liturgy. An ancient dictum says it all: Lex
orandi, lex credendi. As the Church prays, so does the Church believe. What
the Church holds in faith is what the Liturgy celebrates and proclaims.
Very early on, faith in the Triune God has been part of the
whole structure, content and practice of prayer and worship of the incipient
Church. Thus could St. Paul confidently teach: “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…heirs with Christ.”
(Rm 8:14-17)
The word “Trinity” is not found anywhere in Scripture. But
the truth about this essential nature of the God who revealed Himself ever so
gradually through history and, most especially in Christ, His Son is an
incontrovertible fact that is clear in the same Scripture. The “lived theology”
of Paul, the evangelists and the early Christians is a clear manifestation of
the fullness, completeness and wholeness of their faith in the “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and the
one God and Father of all.” (Eph 4:5) “The
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the
holy Spirit be with all of you.” (2Cor 13:13) No less than Jesus himself,
after convoking his disciples for the last time, reveals yet another facet in
the nature of God again on a mountain, like he did during the Transfiguration,
like he did when he started proclaiming the Kingdom. It was on the mountain
that he gave them final instructions: “All
power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, 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.” (Mt 28:18)
Today, the Liturgical celebration forms part of a series of
Solemnities called solemnities of the Lord in which we are invited to reflect
on some aspects of our “one faith” in the “one God and Father of all.” That
faith, we would do well to remind ourselves today, is one, whole, and entire,
with nothing added, and nothing subtracted from what has been revealed to us in
Christ. Today, we claim and proclaim, by way of a fitting celebration of
worship, our faith in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, as
part of all God has taught and commanded… nothing more, nothing less, nothing
else! “Glory to the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit; to God who is, who was, and who is to come.” (cf Rev. 1:8)
Comments