The Sánchez Archives TRINITY SUNDAY Year B

By
Patricia Datchuck Sánchez

You! You! You!

DEUTERONOMY 4:32-34, 39-40
ROMANS 8:14-17
MATTHEW 28:16-20

Today, we celebrate the God who has chosen to be revealed among us “up close and personal.” This Father-Mother God, is also a Son and Brother God as well as an abiding Spirit God. Three persons in one God - this is the doctrine of the Trinity which has boggled the human mind for centuries. Doctrinally, theologically, finite human intelligence can only approach the Triune mystery but never possess it with full intellectual comprehension. Nevertheless, there is no limit to the human capacity for knowing God because God, in infinite love, has invited each of us to that personal experience which we have come to experience as covenant. The God who is utterly transcendent has elected to be a God who is with us, a God-for-us, a God within us.

The God who is the eternal, ineffable One, the God who has made me the “I” who I am deigns to be known and addressed by me as “You” . . . You-Father, You-Mother, You-Son and Brother, You-Spirit. It is within the embrace of this I-You relationship that I become fully who I am and more fully who God is. Martin Buber (1878-1965) called this I-You relationship an experience of encounter that profoundly changes and shapes our lives. But, as Walter Brueggemann (The Psalms and the Life of Faith, Fortress Press, Minneapolis: 1995) has noted, long before Buber’s formulation, the people of ancient Israel understood that life never begins in “I”, but always in “You”. The “I” is by definition derived from and attuned to the “You”; the movement of speech (or prayer) from “I” back to “You” is a yielding acknowledgment of the source and ground of life that lies outside ourselves.

In order to call upon the persons of God as You and engage in the “I-You” encounter which sustains life, believers must take a sabbatical from human arrogance, autonomy, pride and despair. We must become aware that life is constituted for us but is not created by us.

The Deuteronomist, in today’s first reading, invites his readers to marvel at the many experiences of encounter that have shaped our saving history. With a series of questions that chronicle the deeds of the eternal “You”, the ancient author reminds every “I” among us that the only plausible response to God’s loving, personal involvement is a loyal faith, lived out in obedience to God’s every word.

Paul, in his letter to the Roman house churches, revels in the fact that the Trinity of Persons, who are sufficient unto themselves, have chosen to offer humankind a sharing in their relationship. Through Jesus’ saving death, by virtue of the Father’s love, and in the power of the Spirit, we have become the adopted children of God. What is theologically and doctrinally a Trinity of three is also spiritually and experientially a community of many, which includes loved and chosen children without number!

In today’s gospel, the Matthean Jesus commissions those who are already privy to the “I-You” experience of God to reach out in ministry to those who do not yet know and share in it. While this mission is still underway, each of us is strengthened and encouraged by the promise: Know that “I” am with “You” always, until the end of the world. An old rabbinic prayer (Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, Schocken Books, New York: 1947) invites us to delight in this promise of triune presence.

DEUTERONOMY 4:32-34, 39-40

When Hitler wished to initiate his plan for establishing a “new order” in Germany and the rest of Europe, he composed his manifesto, Mein Kampf. When political parties wish to express their vision for the future and establish an agenda for achieving it, they construct what is known as their party platform. In a sense, the book of Deuteronomy could be similarly understood and appreciated. Composed during a time of crisis in Israel’s history, Deuteronomy was intended to set the tone and strike the path toward a better future. However, whereas Hitler’s manifesto evoked one of the darkest periods in human history and partisan political visions are often myopic and short-lived, the book of Deuteronomy has proven to be one of the most significant and influential contributions in all of biblical literature.

Since the nineteenth century C.E., scholars of the Hebrew scriptures have identified Deuteronomy as the book of the law “discovered” in the temple by the high priest Hilkiah during the reign of Josiah (2 Kings 22:8ff). As such, this great “find” became the basis for Josiah’s religious reform, intended to restore Israel to its covenantal loyalties and traditions. However, a consensus of contemporary scholars agree that while this book certainly contains material from the seventh century B.C.E., (and earlier), it probably received its final form during the Babylonian exile (587-538 B.C.E.). As Leslie Hoppe (“Deuteronomy”, The Collegeville Bible Commentary, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville MN: 1989) has explained, during the exile, as the nation stood on the brink of extinction, the Deuteronomic authors presented Israel with the challenge of obedience to what was really an updated recension of the law and called for the nations to choose - life or death - which shall it be? Deuteronomy was composed in order to provide a new pattern of life for a people that had lost sight of their original vision.

In its present literary form, Deuteronomy is comprised of four addresses or discourses, purported to be delivered to Israel by Moses. Today’s excerpted reading, one of the high-points of the entire book, represents the conclusion of Moses’ first discourse. As Joseph Blenkinsopp (“Deuteronomy”, Pentateuch, Sheed and Ward, London: 1971) once noted, the Deuteronomist understood that the very action of the self-disclosing God has constituted Israel and forever sustains it. This self-disclosing of God is something mysterious, like fire; it is unusual in that while the history of religions records humankind’s search for God, the Hebrew scriptures relate the story of God’s search for humankind. The starting point of the divine self-revelation is not a concept or religious idea but a social experience. God called humankind into existence (v. 32) in order to enter into a dialog that would lead to that intimate knowledge which forges a lasting relationship (vv. 33-34).

To hold up its end of the conversation with God, the believing community is to be firm in faith, single-hearted in its love (v. 39) and ever responsive to the terms of its relationship by hearing and keeping God’s words or commandments.

Today’s feast gives us pause to consider whether we have been lagging or have become lapse in the on-going, life-sustaining conversation with God. We who are the recipients of God’s most profound self-disclosure in Jesus Christ, the incarnate word, are all the more responsible for maintaining an open ear, an open heart, listening and ready to respond to every divinely initiated “I-You” communiqué.

ROMANS 8:14-17

Counselors and social workers whose special vocation it is to advise adoptive parents often tell them to explain to their adopted child that he/she is very specially loved and chosen. As the child grows to fuller understanding of the circumstances of his/her birth and belonging to the adoptive family, self esteem and self assuredness also grow and develop. The realization that one has been a valued and cherished person from the very beginning enables the maturing child to overcome the inevitable moments of confusion, doubt and the pain of feeling like an unwanted burden or accident. When Paul described the believer’s relationship to God in terms of adoption ( v. 14), he wished to instill in them a similar sense of dignity and self-respect.

In the verses (vv.12-13) immediately preceding this pericope Paul described the Roman Christians’ former status, i.e., before their conversion to Christ, as a life indebted to the flesh and bound for death. But, after turning to Christ in faith, believers become empowered by the Spirit to shake off the debt of sin and the evil deeds that lead to death so as to be led by the Spirit and live as sons and daughters of God.

The word for adoption or huiothesia in Greek is a technical term borrowed from the realm of Greco-Roman law. A very serious matter, adoption was made more difficult in the Roman world because of the patria potestas or absolute power of the father over his family. Roman sons, no matter what their age, never outgrew the patria potestas; adoption meant passing from one patria potestas to another. . . no easy feat.

However, as William Barclay (“Romans”, The Daily Study Bible, The St. Andrew Press, Edinburgh: 1975) has observed, it was the consequences of adoption which were most significant for Paul: (1) the adopted person relinquished all rights in his former family and gained all the rights of a legitimate son in the new family; (2) the child became a legal heir to the new father’s estate. Even if sons were born after him, it did not affect his rights; he remained co-heir with them; (3) legally, the adoptee’s former way of life was wiped out; all his debts were cancelled. Paul explained to his Roman readers that as God’s adoptive children, they were now the legal heirs of their heavenly Father’s estate. All former debts were cancelled; their sins both great and small were forgiven and forgotten -wiped out, as if they never existed.

With yet another parallel drawn from Roman adoption procedures, Paul reminds believers that the very Spirit of God bears witness to the fact that we are God’s children. Legal adoptions required the presence of seven witnesses. Should any dispute arise, any one of the seven could vouch for the legality of the adoption; thus the adoptee’s rights and inheritance were guaranteed.

For Christians, who have become God’s adopted children in Christ, the abiding Spirit is ever present to bear witness and assure our God-given rights and inheritance. Today the Spirit bears witness to the blessed reality that every “I” among us has been loved into legitimacy by God and given the absolute right to call upon the eternal “You” as Abba - Papa - Daddy!

MATTHEW 28:16-20

Many scholars regard this pericope, which concludes Matthew’s version of the good news, as a key to understanding the entire gospel. Generally accepted as a Matthean composition, this text rounds out the gospel by bringing the revelation of God in Jesus full circle and by pointing ahead to the subsequent mission of the church. Within these five verses, the evangelist has made three important statements.

The first is a christological one. By attributing to Jesus full authority (exousia) both in heaven and on earth (v. 18), Matthew assures his readers that the resurrected and exalted Lord has realized the ancient vision regarding the Son of Man. Recall the apocalyptic description in Daniel 7:13-14 wherein the book’s protagonist saw “One like a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven; when he reached the Ancient One and was presented before him, he received dominion, glory and kingship; nations and peoples of every language serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed.” The early Christians recognized Jesus as this promised Son of Man with authority over all.

John P. Meier (Matthew, Michael Glazier Inc., Wilmington: 1983) describes this Matthean scene as the exalted Jesus coming in a “proleptic-parousia” to his church, anticipating his final coming in glory to all. What the entire cosmos will see and experience at the end of the world, the believing church sees and experiences from the death-resurrection onwards. The church alone experiences this anticipated event in the present moment, for the church is the only place where the kingdom of God is not only an objective reality but also a subjectively appropriated experience, the only place where the Son of Man not only rules but is also acknowledged, obeyed and praised.

That brings us to Matthew’s second important statement, and ecclesiological one. Because of their faith in and experience of Jesus’ risen and exalted, it devolves upon the disciples to reach out in mission to the rest of humankind. Just as Jesus’ authority is over all, so must the church’s mission be extended to all. Whereas before Jesus’ death and resurrection, the ministry of the disciples was focused upon the Jews (Matthew 10:5), it is now to be extended, panta ta ethne, to all the nations. The universal vision prophesied by Isaiah (ch. 60) was to become a reality through the mission of the church.

Matthew’s final statement is a soteriological one. In order to extend the saving grace of Jesus to all peoples, the disciples are to preach the gospel (evangelization), baptize those who believe (sacramental initiation) and continue to teach those who have become Christian (catechesis) as regards the day-to-day living of the good news (vv. 19-20).

The gospel concludes with the assurance of Jesus’ continued presence. As Daniel Harrington (“Matthew”, Sacra Pagina, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville MN: 1991) explains, in Matthew, the risen Jesus fulfills the functions attributed elsewhere in the New Testament to the Holy Spirit. John P. Meier (op.cit.) adds, “Unlike Luke-Acts, there is no departure or ascension. Jesus does not ascend from his church; he comes to it, to remain with it all days.”

With the Matthean Jesus’ final statement, “I am with you always. . .,” the gospel comes full circle. Jesus, who was proclaimed as Emmanuel, God-with-us, at his birth (1:23) and who promised his presence to two or three who gathered in his name (18:20) remains forever with the church (28:20). By virtue of this promise, believers can rest assured that their I-You dialog and life-giving encounter with God never ends.

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