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THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY (Cycle C)

Readings:
Proverbs 8:22-31
Psalm 8:4-9
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15

Abbreviations: NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition), NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name YHWH (Yahweh).

God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments, and that is why we read and relive the events of salvation history in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy.  The Catechism teaches that the Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).

This Sunday, the Church has returned to Ordinary Time Part II in the Liturgical Calendar, which began the day after Pentecost and continues to the Saturday before the First Sunday of Advent. Three feasts complete and carry us beyond the Easter season: the solemnities of Pentecost, the Most Holy Trinity, and Corpus Christi. They remind us that God has called us from before the foundation of the world to be His children and how deeply He loves us (Eph 1:4-5). Throughout the Easter Season, the congregation of the faithful has been celebrating the work of the Most Holy Trinity, which is probably why the Church celebrates the Holy Trinity on this first Lord's Day after Eastertime. The Solemnity helps to remind us of what we celebrate every Lord's Day: the risen Savior sends the Holy Spirit to be God's presence in us and all His creation. The readings for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity are intended to illustrate how God's word and all His works from the beginning of creation prepare us for the revelation of the mystery of the One God in Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the blessings of His divine grace in God the Son. The grace of new life is what we inherit in the Sacrament of Baptism; a gift renewed each time we receive Christ in the Eucharist.

The Theme of the Readings: The Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity
"The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is, therefore, the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the 'hierarchy of the truths of faith.' The whole history of salvation is identical with the story of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men, 'and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin' " (CCC 234).

The word "Trinity" does not appear in Sacred Scripture. It is a word the Church uses to define the mystery of the triune nature of the Almighty, Creator God. The revelation of the mystery of the One God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was unknown to the faithful in Old Testament times but hidden in the Holy Spirit inspired Scriptures until the ineffable mystery of One God in Three Persons was revealed to us by Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity.

At the end of Jesus's earthly ministry, He first revealed the mystery of God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He began to share knowledge of the Triune nature of God to His disciples in His Last Supper discourse the night before His crucifixion. The revelation became clearer after His Resurrection and before His Ascension when He instructed His disciples to baptize believers using the Trinitarian formula: "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit": Jesus came up and spoke to them. He said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you" (Mt 28:18-19)Jesus's statement in this passage refers to the oneness of God as well as the unique relationship of the "threeness" of the Most Holy Trinity. The command is to baptize in "the name," singular, of the three Persons of the unity that is the Most Holy Trinity.

Christians confess to the same profession of belief in the Trinity whenever making the Sign of the Cross and using the theological Trinitarian formula: "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen!" The sign of the cross made across our bodies is everything a Christian believes in one profound gesture. It especially takes on the fullness of a statement of Christian belief when (according to the ancient custom) a person raises the first two fingers of the right hand together to symbolize the humanity and divinity of the Christ and holds the last three (the two fingers and thumb) against the palm to represent the unique three-in-one relationship for the Most Holy Trinity. Then the motion of the hand from forehead to chest and then moving from one shoulder to the other expresses the belief that God the Son came from Heaven to earth and from suffering to resurrection to accomplish humanity's salvation.

The dogma (truth) of the Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and the doctrine that, above all others, makes the Christian faith unique among world religions (CCC 232, 234, 237, and 261). The Catholic Church defended the doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, proclaiming: "We firmly believe and confess without reservation that there is only one true God, eternal, infinite, and unchangeable, incomprehensible, almighty, and ineffable, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, three persons indeed, but one essence, substance or nature entirely simple."  In our attempt to grasp this sublime mystery, we, like St. Paul, should cry out: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways! (Rom 11:33).

In this week's readings, we take a journey through time from before the foundation of the earth or sky was established to when the Holy Spirit came to fill and indwell the new creation in Jesus's Kingdom of heaven on earth: the Universal Church. The First Reading presents divine Wisdom as being of divine origin which existed before all things. Divine wisdom, begotten by God, collaborated in the creation event and established its wondrous order.

The Church Fathers understood the Psalm Reading as referring to Jesus Christ as God's "only begotten Son" who is Himself God's "divine wisdom" and instrumental in bringing forth the first Creation event. St. Paul had the same understanding of Christ's role in the first Creation when he wrote: for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible (Col 1:15-16a). This psalm passage, quoted in the Letter to the Hebrews (2:6-9), raised hope in the resurrected Jesus who brings forth the glorious world to come where Christ victoriously rules over a new creation.

In the Second Reading, St. Paul wrote that it is the redemptive work of Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. Paul identified Jesus's role as the sole mediator and reconciler of humanity to God's divine plan of salvation. He wanted to remind the Christians of the Church in Rome that the pouring out of God the Holy Spirit was a manifestation distinctive to the New Covenant Church and not part of the Old. He is the Spirit who dwells in the circumcised heart of the New Covenant believer from the moment of their baptismal rebirth and makes the believer a true child in the family of God.

The Gospel Reading is from Jesus's final discourse to His disciples at the Last Supper before leaving for the Garden of Gethsemane. He promised them that only in His departure would He be able to send them the Paraclete, the Advocate, and Counselor, the Holy Spirit of God who is the "Spirit of Truth." He would reveal the full significance of Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection, the meaning of the Eucharist, and the true nature of God in the Most Holy Trinity. He would also reveal to the Magisterium of the New Covenant order the hidden depths of the mystery of Jesus Christ and the gift of grace that is our salvation. In other words, after Jesus's Ascension, God the Holy Spirit would continue the teaching mission of Jesus to bear witness to the truth (John 8:31-32; 18:37; CCC# 687).

From Jesus's promise in our Gospel passage, the Great Councils of Vatican I and II pronounced the doctrine of magisterial infallibility. This doctrine states that the Pope alone and the Bishops united with the Pope, the successor of St. Peter and the Apostles, are divinely protected from teaching error when they define matters pertaining to faith and morals (Lumen Gentium, 25). The guidance and intervention of the Paraclete is Jesus's assurance that, during her earthly pilgrimage, the ministerial priesthood of the Church will not distort, corrupt, or misunderstand the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The First Reading Proverbs 8:22-31 ~ Eternal Wisdom is the Delight of the Father
22 The LORD begot me, the first-born of his ways, the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago; 23 from of old I was poured forth, at the first, before the earth. 24 When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no foundations or springs of water; 25 before the mountains were settled into place, before the hills, I was brought forth; 26 while as yet the earth and the fields were not made, nor the first clods of the world. 27 When he established the heavens I was there, when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep; 28 when he made firm the skies above when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth; 29 when he set for the sea its limit, so that the waters should not transgress his command; 30 then was I beside him as his craftsman, and I was his delight day by day, playing before him all the while, 31 playing on the surface of his earth, and I found delight in the sons of men.

The passage personifies "Wisdom" as a being of divine origin that existed before all things (verses 22-26). Divine wisdom, begotten by God, was with God before creation and collaborated in the creation event, establishing its wondrous order (verses 27-30 and Wis 7:23-27; 8:3, 21; 10:1-21). These verses foreshadow the plurality of the One God who was afterward revealed in the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, God the Son Incarnate, who was present and active in Creation. St. Paul wrote: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him  (see Col 1:15-16).

Psalm 8:4-9 ~The Majesty of God and God's Gift of Human Dignity
Response: O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!

4 When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and stars that you set in place, 5 what is man that you are mindful of him, and a son of man that you care for him?
Response:
6 Yet you have made him little less than a god, crowned him with glory and honor. 7 You have given him rule over the works of your hands, put all things at his feet.
Response:
8 all sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, ad whatever swims the paths of the seas.
Response:

This passage is significant as one of the Old Testament passages that foreshadow our understanding of the active role of God the Son in salvation history. The wording "son of man," which is Jesus's favorite title for Himself, and the second person "him," identify this person as Jesus, the Son of God.

Verses 5-7 are in the Letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament, quoting from the Greek Septuagint and shedding light on the meaning of this passage. The inspired writer (believed to be St. Paul) interprets the verses as applying to Jesus Christ (underlining identifies the quote from Psalms 8): For it was not to angels that he subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking.  6 Instead, someone has testified somewhere: "What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him?  7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor, 8 subjecting all things under his feet."  In "subjecting" all things to him, he left nothing not "subject to him."  Yet at present we do not see "all things subject to him," 9 but we do see Jesus "crowned with glory and honor" because he suffered death, he who "for a little while" was made "lower than the angels," that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone (Heb 2:5-9). The point the writer of Hebrews makes is that in His humanity God made Jesus, the divine Son of Man, "a little lower than the angels" but who, in His suffering and resurrection, was "crowned with glory and honor" in His divinity, being raised above all creation and in whom all things became subjected to His authority (Dan 7:13-14).

St. Paul also applied Psalm 8:6-7 to Christ in 1 Corinthians 15:27, in Ephesians 1:22, and the verses were again alluded to by Peter and applied to Jesus in 1 Peter 3:22. Paul used Psalm 8:6 to teach that through His suffering, death, and resurrection, Christ achieved victory over death once and for all, and all creation is now made subject to God through the redemptive work of God the Son.

The Second Reading Romans 5:1-5 ~ Justification by Faith in God
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, in knowing that affliction produces endurance, 4 and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

St. Paul wrote that the first effect of justification through faith in Jesus Christ is that the believer experiences "peace." Paul was not using the word in the sense of "peace of mind" or "peace" resulting from the absence of conflict.  Instead, he uses the Greek word eirene, pronounced, i-ray'-nay (see Strong's Greek Lexicon #1515), with the same meaning as the Hebrew word shalom, peace from the fullness of a right relationship. In this case, it refers to the peace that comes from fellowship with God and the justification established in that right relationship with Yahweh through the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus the Messiah.

St. Paul speaks of peace/shalom in the same sense as Yahweh's holy prophet Isaiah prophesied the outpouring of the Spirit of God in Isaiah 32:15-20. Keep in mind as you read the Isaiah passage that "the desert" is the spiritually parched souls of Old Covenant believers that God's Spirit will transform into "productive ground": until the spirit is poured out on us from above, and the desert becomes productive ground, so productive you might take it for a forest. Fair judgment will fix its home in the desert, and uprightness live in the productive ground, and the product of uprightness will be peace, the effect of uprightness being quiet and security forever (Is 32:15-20 NJB; also see Isaiah 54:10; Psalms 85:10-11).

When human beings enter into a relationship with God through the covenant in the blood of Christ (Lk 22:20), they are no longer under the penalty of God's wrath as a child in the sinful family of Adam. Instead, as adopted sons and daughters through the Sacrament of Baptism, Christians are at peace by being reborn into God's family, where the perfect sacrifice of Christ justified them before God and removed all wrath. This gift of reconciliation is a gift of God's grace resulting in the inner peace that comes from unity in the life of the Trinity. St. Paul wrote that it is Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God (verse 2). Paul identifies Jesus's role as the sole mediator and reconciler of humanity to God's plan of salvation. The redemptive work of Jesus Christ is foremost on Paul's mind in Romans 5:1-21; he will identify Jesus's role as redeemer and mediator five times in 5:2, 9, 11, 17, and 21.

To enter into God's glory is to be united to the divine life of the Most Holy Trinity for eternity. In verse 2, Paul expands the theme of the Christian's hope in receiving God's glory in the eschatological (last) gifts promised through the redemptive work of Christ:

The promise of entering into God's "glory" would trigger for Paul's Jewish Christian audience the recollection of several Old Testament passages, including the event in salvation history when man first became deprived of God's glory. Paul referred to the hoped-for future glory in Romans 1:23; 2:7, 10; & 3:23. He also made this connection in 8:18-30, 9:4, and 9:23. According to Genesis 1:26-28 and Psalm 8:5-8 in the Old Testament, "glory" denotes the Biblical tradition of "likeness of God" based on man being created to bear God's image (Gen 2:26). The process of salvation history and the promises made to the covenant people through God's holy prophets would be complete when those justified by the saving work of Jesus Christ arrived at the fullness of "glory," fulfilling God's original intent for His relationship with man first established in Eden, bearing His image in righteousness and immortality.

3 Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, in knowing that affliction produces endurance, 4 and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Paul uses the word "boast" = kauchaomai [kow-khah'-om-ahee] five times in Romans 2:17, 23; 5:2, 3, and 11 (Strong's Greek Lexicon # 2744; kauchaomai = boast, glory, joy, rejoice). Before Chapter 5, Paul uses "to boast" in a negative sense but not in Chapter 5. In the previous passages, "boasting" was baseless through the works of the Law, but when God's grace is at work in the believer's life, we have every reason to boast.

Trial develops perseverance, and perseverance develops a "proven character," which gives us hope. Paul was evidently reflecting on his own experiences when persecution served to strengthen his resolve (see 2 Cor 4:7-12 and 11:23-29). Paul's point was that affliction and suffering endured with the grace of God allows us to "image" Christ and His suffering in our bodies that are as frail and temporal as earthenware pots. Our suffering gives us hope because we receive evidence of God's grace working in our lives, and we are strengthened by the experience with the knowledge that God's grace holds the promise of eternal life!  See CCC# 618.

The Holy Spirit is the source of our hope: 

In verses 4-5, Paul assured the Christians of Rome that the hope we place in the promises of God, which is a gift of the Spirit, does not let us down or disappoint us, nor will it put us to shame. This "hope" is not an illusion but is instead founded on an unshakable source because our hope is based on God's love for us, evidenced by the gift of God the Holy Spirit, who is a pledge of His love.

Human hope can disappoint or deceive, but God cannot lie; He is always faithful and true. God the Holy Spirit is the love that binds the Father to the Son, and by His active presence in us, we are not only bound to the Most Holy Trinity in the love of the Spirit, but it is the same love which He pours into our hearts that flows out to the human family. It is the same love with which the Father loves the Son, and the Most Holy Trinity loves us. Initially, the Greek word agape meant "spiritual love associated with the Greek gods." But Christians transformed this pagan word to give it a distinctively Christ-like character; agape for the Christian is self-sacrificial love! It is the love with which Christ loved us and the love He commanded us to share with others (John 13:34-35; 15:7-13; etc.; read St. John's discourse on love in 1 John 4:7-5:4).

5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
This line invokes the powerful visual image of life-giving water being poured out upon humanity as prophesied in Isaiah 44:3 and fulfilled at Pentecost in the Upper Room in AD 30 (Acts Chapter 2) and also what Jesus cried out in the Jerusalem Temple on the Feast of Tabernacles in John 7:38-39.  Compare Isaiah 44:3 with John 7:38-39:

"Let anyone who is thirsty come to me!  Let anyone who believes in me come and drink!"  As Scripture says, "From his heart shall flow streams of living water."  He was speaking of the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive; for there was no Spirit as yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

However, this visual image also looks forward to the eschatological (end times) event of the outpouring of the Spirit prophesied in Ezekiel 47:1-12, and St. John's vision in Revelation 22:1-5 revealed decades after St. Paul's letter to Rome. Paul's point was to remind the Romans that the pouring out of God the Holy Spirit was a manifestation distinctive to the New Covenant Church and not part of the Old. He is the Spirit who dwells in the circumcised heart of the New Covenant believers from the moment of their baptism and makes the believer an heir of Jesus Christ and an adopted child in the family of God (Rom 8:15-16; Gal 4:4-7; Eph 1:5).

The Gospel Reading John 16:12-15 ~ The Spirit of Truth
Jesus said to his disciples: "I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. 13 But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. 15 Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason, I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you."

This passage is part of Jesus's final discourse to His disciples at the Last Supper before leaving Jerusalem for the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. He has promised them that in His departure, He will be able to send them the Paraclete: the Advocate and Counselor who is the "Spirit of Truth." Jesus repeats the title "the Spirit of Truth" three times in His discourse (Jn 14:17; 15:26; 16:13). The Holy Spirit will unveil the full significance of Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection, the mystery of the Eucharist, and the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. He will also reveal to the Magisterium of the New Covenant order the hidden depths of the mystery of Jesus Christ and the gift of grace that is our salvation. In other words, God the Holy Spirit will continue the teaching mission of Jesus to bear witness to the truth (Jn 8:31-32; 18:37; CCC# 687).

From this promise, the Great Councils of Vatican I and II pronounced the doctrine of magisterial infallibility. It states that the Pope alone and the Bishops united with the Pope, the successor of St. Peter, are divinely protected from teaching error when they define matters pertaining to faith and morals (Lumen Gentium, 25). The guidance and intervention of the Paraclete is Jesus's assurance that Gospel will not be distorted, corrupted, or misunderstood by the ministerial priesthood of the Church during her earthly pilgrimage.  See CCC# 768, 889-892

14 "He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. 15 Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason, I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you."
In this passage, Jesus reveals some of the aspects of the mystery of the Holy Trinity concerning the unity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He is teaching that the three divine Persons have one and the same nature when He says that everything that the Father has belongs to the Son, and everything the Son has belongs to the Father and that the Spirit also has what is common to both God the Father and God the Son.  See CCC 253-55.

What the Three Divine Persons of the Trinity have in common is the divine essence of the Godhead: It is the same concept expressed to the covenant people over a thousand years earlier in the Shema, the first profession of faith in Deuteronomy 6:4 ~ the Lord [Adonai]  your God [Elohim], the Lord [Adonai] is ONE!  When the Paraclete fills and indwells believers at Pentecost, He will give each generation of baptized believers a share in the divine life and authority of Jesus Christ. As St. Peter wrote to the Church: By his divine power, he has lavished on us all the things we need for life and for true devotion, through the knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and goodness.  Through these, the greatest and priceless promises have been lavished on us, that through them you should share the divine nature and escape the corruption rife in the world through disordered passion (1 Pt 1:3-4; bold added for emphasis).  Also see John 6:63, 16:13-14, Romans 8:14, and CCC 690.

The Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity

Jesus's revelation of the mystery of God as Trinitarian posed a problem for the Jews. The many century's old tradition of monotheism had to be explained in the context of One God in three Persons and seemed to Old Covenant Jews to be the blasphemous return to polytheism. Jesus's claim that "I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:30) and "before Abraham was I AM," using an allusion to the Divine Name (Jn 8:58), led to charges of blasphemy and attempts to stone Jesus because He "called God His father, making Himself equal to God" (Jn 5:16-18).

Christians accepted Jesus's relationship to God and His command to baptize "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt 28:19) and prayed that "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (2 Cor 13:14). However, it became necessary for the Church to define the mystery more fully, thus dispelling certain heresies like the belief in three gods (tritheism) or that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit referred not to a real distinction within the Godhead but to different ways in which God relates to us (the heresies of Monarchianism, Sabellianism, Atripassianism and Modalism). The most grievous heresy that threatened the Church was Arianism, the view that only the Father is God while Jesus is a created creature, and although superior to other humans in a relationship with the Father, the Son was inferior to the Father. The Church called the 4th century Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381) to combat the Arian heresy and produce creeds that defined the nature and relationship of the Trinity. We profess our belief in the Trinity in the Creed of Nicaea-Constantinople that the congregation recites in the liturgy of the Mass.

The dogma of the Trinity, as defined by the Catholic Church, is composed of three crucial elements:

  1. God is one substance or being and three Persons. There is only one God because there is only one divine substance. Three Persons constitute one God because each is consubstantial with the other two, with each possessing one and the same divine substance (a rejection of the tritheism heresy).
  2. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three distinct Persons within the Godhead.  Since all three possess the fullness of the divine substance, all three are co-equal and co-eternal.  They are distinct from one another because each possesses the fullness of divinity in a way different from the other two, and yet they are inseparable from one another since they share the same divine substance or being (a rejection of modalism and Arianism).
  3. With regard to the Trinity, the word "Person" is a technical term that designates the three distinct subsistent relations within the Trinity: the Father (paternity), the Son (filiation), and the Holy Spirit (passive spiration). These three relations are rooted in the two "processions" that make the inner life of the Trinity:
    • The Father eternally begets the Son and
    • The Holy Spirit proceeds (spirates) from the Father and the Son.

The conclusion is that the three Persons of the Trinity are, therefore, differentiated from one another by virtue of the different relations they have to one another.  See CCC 232, 234, 244, 237-38, 251, 261, 684, 732 and the www.agapebiblestudy.com document "Monotheism and the Mystery of the Triune God."

Endnote:

1. Definitions of the heresies concerning the nature of the Most Holy Trinity:

From the standpoint of the doctrine of the Trinity that professes one divine being existing in three persons (Nicene Creed), these beliefs are considered heretical since they simply do not take into consideration and cannot make sense of the New Testament's many teaching on the interpersonal relationship of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Therefore, take joy in celebrating this Solemnity in which our Scripture readings reveal to us that God's word and all His works, from the beginning of Creation, prepare us for the revelation of the mystery of the One God in Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the blessings of His divine grace in the Second Person of the Trinity: Jesus Christ, God the Son!

Catechism References (* indicates Scripture quoted or paraphrased in the citation) :
Proverbs 8:22-31 (CCC 288*)

Psalms 8:6 (CCC 2566, 2809)

Hebrews 2:5-9 (CCC 624, 629*)

Romans 5:3-5 (CCC 2734*, 2847); 5:5 (CCC 368*, 733, 1820, 1964, 2658)

John 16:13-15 (CCC 2658*); 16:13 (CCC 91*, 243, 687, 692, 1117, 2466, 2671*) 16:14-15 (CCC 485*); 16:14 (CCC 244*, 690*)

The Trinity is the central mystery of the faith (CCC 202*, 232*, 233-237, 238*, 239*, 240*, 241*, 242, 243*, 244*, 245-247, 248*, 249*, 250-256, 257*, 258, 259*, 260*, 261, 684, 732)

The Trinity in the Church and her liturgy (249*, 813, 950, 1077*, 1078, 1079*, 1080-1082, 1083*, 1084*, 1085*, 1086, 1087*, 1088*, 1089, 1090-1093, 1094*, 1095-1098, 1099*, 1100-1104, 1105*, 1106, 1107*, 1108*, 1109*, 2845*)

The Trinity and prayer (CCC 2655*, 2664-2665, 2666*, 2667*, 2668*, 2669-2670, 2671*, 2672*, 2673*, 2674*, 2675*, 2676*, 2677*, 2678*, 2679*, 2680-2682, 2683*, 2684-2690, 2691*, 2692-2696, 2697-2699, 2700, 2701*, 2702-2707*, 2708, 2709*, 2710-2711, 2712*, 2713*, 2714*, 2715, 2716-2718, 2719*, 2720-2724, 2725-2727, 2728*, 2729*, 2730*, 2732*, 2733*, 2734, 2733-2735, 2736*, 2737*, 2738, 2739*, 2740, 2741*, 2742*, 2743, 2744*, 2745*, 2746*, 2747*, 2748*, 2749*, 2750*, 2751*, 2752-2758, 2759*, 2761-2762, 2763*, 2764, 2765*, 2766*, 2768, 2769*, 2770, 2771, 2772*)

The family as an image of the Trinity (CCC 2205)

Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2013; revised 2022 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.