The Solemnity of the Holy Trinity
The Trinity by El Greco
1577, oil on canvas
On the first Sunday after Pentecost, the Roman Church always celebrates the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. It's a day on which we put special emphasis on the central mystery of our faith. When we talk about a "mystery" in connection to our faith, it doesn't have the same connotation that the word mystery does in everyday speech. A mystery of faith is not like a puzzle or problem to be solved; it is rather a fact revealed by God which transcends the natural power of human reason. When we talk about the mysteries of our faith, then, we have to expect that our understanding only takes us so far. We can only grasp part of a mystery; beyond that, we entrust ourselves in faith to God and His revelation.
And so it is with the Trinity itself. We can try to explain and explicate what we mean by a Trinitarian God, but eventually we're going to come up against the limits of human reason. Our explanations are ultimately inadequate. Mysteries like the Trinity require faith and inspire worship. If you'd like a good summary of what the Church teaches about the Trinity, you can read this section of the Catechism.
When we talk about the Trinity, ultimately we're talking about the mystery of God himself and about His revelation of himself to mankind. Paragraph 234 of the Catechism says:
Interestingly enough, for the first 1,000 years of Christianity, there was no special celebration of the Trinity in the universal Church. The history of today's liturgical feast is interesting. Some of the earliest liturgical texts in honor of the Holy Trinity were written at the height of the Arian heresy, which attacked the divinity of the Son. These Mass texts, though, were not proscribed for a set day but were merely votive Masses, which are texts that can be used at any time at the discretion of the priest. By the ninth century, there is evidence of some local churches (dioceses) and even regional synods in the northern countries of Europe celebrating a special feast in honor of the Holy Trinity, usually on the Sunday after Pentecost. In the thirteenth century, both the Benedictines and the Cistercians had adopted the annual celebration of the feast, but there was still no real uniformity on the day when this feast was celebrated, even in places where it was kept annually. Finally, in 1334 Pope John XXII added the feast to the official calendar of the Western Church and ordered that it should be held everywhere on the Sunday after Pentecost.
When it became a universal feast in the Church, a new Mass text was written. Try to pay special attention to the Preface of the Holy Trinity (the preface to the Eucharistic prayer) that you'll hear at Mass today. This preface can be traced all the way back to the first text of the Sacramentary of Saint Gregory the Great, roughly around the year 600. (If you're reading this after Mass, you can read the preface on this page. Scroll down a bit to find it.) Most of the other Mass prayers for the feast are more recent; the text for the Divine Office for today's feast can be traced back to the time of Pope Saint Pius V (1572).
The picture at the top of this post is representative of a uniquely western development of the Trinity in art. Most eastern icons of the Trinity are variations on Rublev's Old Testament Trinity. Only in the west do we find depictions of the Trinity which depict Christ, God the Father as a bearded old man, and the Holy Spirit in the form of the dove. Based solely on my web search for a picture to post here today, this Trinitarian depiction seems to have first been popular during the late 1400s and appears to have really reached its zenith in the mid to late 1500s. The El Greco painting that I chose to use for today's picture has an added element: it's meant to evoke the pieta as well. Instead of Mary cradling the dead Christ, in this case we see Christ in the arms of God the Father. I chose to post this particular depiction because I think it ties in so nicely with the readings for today.
All of today's readings are about God's self-revelation. We understand more and more about who God is when we understand what He does. In the first reading from Exodus, God proclaims His name to Moses and cries out, "The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity." This is how He wants Moses to know Him. And notice how Moses first responds: before he says anything in response, he "at once bowed down to the ground in worship." Then he says, "If I find favor with you, O LORD, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own." Moses invites God to accompany the people, in spite of their stubbornness, wickedness, and sins. So from this reading we learn that God is a God of mercy, grace, kindness, faithfulness, and forgiveness...and He's also the God who comes along in our company. Remember that Scripture tells us that Jesus is Emmanuel, which means "God is with us."
The Gospel reading is perhaps one of the most famous passages in Scripture. Turn on any sports event or any other large gathering of people, and when the camera pans around the crowd you're undoubtedly going to see at least one person holding up a sign that says "John 3:16." That's a reference to the first verse of today's reading. Here's the entire reading, John 3:16-18:
In Jesus, God accompanies us in an entirely new way: by actually becoming one of us and then offering his own life to save us. This is the idea that the El Greco painting evokes so movingly: God the Father giving His Son for the salvation of the world, all out of love for us. Once again, we come to know who God is by looking at what He does.
It's in the second reading from 2 Corinithians that we get the only explicit reference to the Trinity in the readings themselves. Paul is telling us how we can participate in and continue to live in the midst of this merciful, life-giving love of the Trinity:
If that last part sounds familiar, it's because it's one of the standard greetings the priest uses at the beginning of every Mass. There are several formulas that the priest may use for the greeting; all of these greetings invoke the Trinity, and all of them are taken from Paul's epistles. (The greeting of Christ himself, "Peace be with you," is reserved for a Bishop.) Every time we gather together to celebrate Eucharist, we begin by invoking the Trinity. Our lives as Christians are lived in the midst of this central mystery of our faith: who God is and what He does for us. That's what we're focusing on today, but it's really what we celebrate every Sunday and indeed every day of our lives.
And so it is with the Trinity itself. We can try to explain and explicate what we mean by a Trinitarian God, but eventually we're going to come up against the limits of human reason. Our explanations are ultimately inadequate. Mysteries like the Trinity require faith and inspire worship. If you'd like a good summary of what the Church teaches about the Trinity, you can read this section of the Catechism.
When we talk about the Trinity, ultimately we're talking about the mystery of God himself and about His revelation of himself to mankind. Paragraph 234 of the Catechism says:
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 history 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."
Interestingly enough, for the first 1,000 years of Christianity, there was no special celebration of the Trinity in the universal Church. The history of today's liturgical feast is interesting. Some of the earliest liturgical texts in honor of the Holy Trinity were written at the height of the Arian heresy, which attacked the divinity of the Son. These Mass texts, though, were not proscribed for a set day but were merely votive Masses, which are texts that can be used at any time at the discretion of the priest. By the ninth century, there is evidence of some local churches (dioceses) and even regional synods in the northern countries of Europe celebrating a special feast in honor of the Holy Trinity, usually on the Sunday after Pentecost. In the thirteenth century, both the Benedictines and the Cistercians had adopted the annual celebration of the feast, but there was still no real uniformity on the day when this feast was celebrated, even in places where it was kept annually. Finally, in 1334 Pope John XXII added the feast to the official calendar of the Western Church and ordered that it should be held everywhere on the Sunday after Pentecost.
When it became a universal feast in the Church, a new Mass text was written. Try to pay special attention to the Preface of the Holy Trinity (the preface to the Eucharistic prayer) that you'll hear at Mass today. This preface can be traced all the way back to the first text of the Sacramentary of Saint Gregory the Great, roughly around the year 600. (If you're reading this after Mass, you can read the preface on this page. Scroll down a bit to find it.) Most of the other Mass prayers for the feast are more recent; the text for the Divine Office for today's feast can be traced back to the time of Pope Saint Pius V (1572).
The picture at the top of this post is representative of a uniquely western development of the Trinity in art. Most eastern icons of the Trinity are variations on Rublev's Old Testament Trinity. Only in the west do we find depictions of the Trinity which depict Christ, God the Father as a bearded old man, and the Holy Spirit in the form of the dove. Based solely on my web search for a picture to post here today, this Trinitarian depiction seems to have first been popular during the late 1400s and appears to have really reached its zenith in the mid to late 1500s. The El Greco painting that I chose to use for today's picture has an added element: it's meant to evoke the pieta as well. Instead of Mary cradling the dead Christ, in this case we see Christ in the arms of God the Father. I chose to post this particular depiction because I think it ties in so nicely with the readings for today.
All of today's readings are about God's self-revelation. We understand more and more about who God is when we understand what He does. In the first reading from Exodus, God proclaims His name to Moses and cries out, "The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity." This is how He wants Moses to know Him. And notice how Moses first responds: before he says anything in response, he "at once bowed down to the ground in worship." Then he says, "If I find favor with you, O LORD, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own." Moses invites God to accompany the people, in spite of their stubbornness, wickedness, and sins. So from this reading we learn that God is a God of mercy, grace, kindness, faithfulness, and forgiveness...and He's also the God who comes along in our company. Remember that Scripture tells us that Jesus is Emmanuel, which means "God is with us."
The Gospel reading is perhaps one of the most famous passages in Scripture. Turn on any sports event or any other large gathering of people, and when the camera pans around the crowd you're undoubtedly going to see at least one person holding up a sign that says "John 3:16." That's a reference to the first verse of today's reading. Here's the entire reading, John 3:16-18:
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
In Jesus, God accompanies us in an entirely new way: by actually becoming one of us and then offering his own life to save us. This is the idea that the El Greco painting evokes so movingly: God the Father giving His Son for the salvation of the world, all out of love for us. Once again, we come to know who God is by looking at what He does.
It's in the second reading from 2 Corinithians that we get the only explicit reference to the Trinity in the readings themselves. Paul is telling us how we can participate in and continue to live in the midst of this merciful, life-giving love of the Trinity:
Brothers and sisters, rejoice.
Mend your ways, encourage one another,
agree with one another, live in peace,
and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the holy ones greet you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
If that last part sounds familiar, it's because it's one of the standard greetings the priest uses at the beginning of every Mass. There are several formulas that the priest may use for the greeting; all of these greetings invoke the Trinity, and all of them are taken from Paul's epistles. (The greeting of Christ himself, "Peace be with you," is reserved for a Bishop.) Every time we gather together to celebrate Eucharist, we begin by invoking the Trinity. Our lives as Christians are lived in the midst of this central mystery of our faith: who God is and what He does for us. That's what we're focusing on today, but it's really what we celebrate every Sunday and indeed every day of our lives.
posted by LC @ 12:06 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home