Date: Sunday, June 16, 2019
On this Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity we must confess with humility that we are limited in what we can say about God. Our minds cannot fathom the mystery of God. Human words are always inadequate. “The Cloud of Unknowing”, a spiritual classic from the 14 Century, suggests to know God is to abandon consideration of God’s particular activities and attributes and be courageous enough to surrender one’s mind and ego to the realm of unknowing at which point one may have a glimpse of the nature of God. “God can well be loved but God cannot be thought.” We can detect this indirect “knowing” of God in the Sacred Scriptures chosen for this Mass.
Our 1st reading is a poem from the Book of Proverbs about the wisdom of God. Wisdom is personified as a woman. Wisdom speaks of herself as being with God before and at creation “playing on the surface of the earth and finding delight in human race.” The psalmist sings of God creating the heavens and earth and being mindful of and caring for human beings. St. Paul writes to the Romans that even in affliction they have peace with God through Jesus Christ, and they have hope because the love of God has been poured into their hearts through the Holy Spirit. At the last supper Jesus makes a promise. As he prepares to return to the Father, Jesus assures his disciples of the gift his abiding presence, the Spirit of truth, who declares the truth of the Son who reveals the Father.
“While no mystery surpasses that of the nature of the Most Holy Trinity, one God in three divine Persons, from our point of view, an equally astonishing mystery is that our infinite, unfathomable God loves us beyond our wildest dreams and deepest longing.” (Sister Mary Madeline Todd, OP) The mystery of the Trinity says something about God and about who we are – beloved by God in Jesus Christ.