The Sánchez Archives

HOLY TRINITY
Year C

By
Patricia Datchuck Sánchez

A Mystery of Faith

PROVERBS 8:22-31
ROMANS 5:1-5
JOHN 16:12-15

We believe in one God in three persons. For fifteen centuries, this trinitarian dogma has been integral to the profession of Christian faith and theological dialectic. Definitively enunciated in the fourth century C.E., this formula was the product of three centuries of doctrinal development. Yet, for many believers, the Trinity remains a mental feat or a test of faith, which they accept but do not entirely comprehend. Such is the essence of mystery.

Although the Trinity is basic and central to our faith, Thierry Maertens and Jean Frisque have observed that “we see very little evidence of its influence in daily Christian life and, above all, in the work of evangelization” (Guide For the Christian Assembly, Fides Publishers, Inc., Notre Dame, IN: 1972). Indeed, the late Karl Rahner once suggested that, for many believers, the doctrine could be removed completely from the Christian deposit of the faith and that many sermons, spiritual writings, prayerful exercises and even theological treatises could remain intact with little more than verbal adjustments. On this, the annual feast of the Trinity, the gathered assembly is invited to remedy these unfortunate shortcomings by engaging itself once again in the mystery of the Trinity.

Revealed to us by Jesus Christ who presented himself as one sent by a loving God to give his life for the salvation of the world, the purpose of the revelation was twofold. In the mystery of the Trinity we are drawn toward the truth concerning the inner life of God (the immanent Trinity) as well as the manner in which the Triune God has effected the salvation of humankind (the economic Trinity).

As Richard P. McBrien (Catholicism, Harper and Row Publishers, New York: 1981) has explained, a proper theological and pastoral understanding of the Trinity depends upon our perception of the identity between the so-called economic Trinity and the so-called immanent Trinity. Unfortunately the two have, in effect, become separated and the former has been obscured. If we appreciate the Trinity only as a network of divine relationships which pertains only to God and not ourselves, except insofar as we are asked to believe in this mystery as central to our faith, then our perception and experience of the Trinity is inadequate. More than a speculative, arcane doctrine, the Trinity “is the way we express our most fundamental relationships with the God of our salvation as well as God’s relationships with us” (Richard P. McBrien, op. cit.).

Jesus, the Son of God came among us as Brother, with the good news that the God who created us, sustains us and frees us from sin and death has chosen to become personally, lovingly and salvifically involved with us in the very stuff of our human existence, within human flesh, in the context of human history. Having become so intimately involved with us, God has become known to us as the source and center of our being, and the reason and goal of our existence. Moreover, God has chosen to make an everlasting dwelling place among humankind, through the Spirit. As a consequence of its relationship with God, the community of believers have been drawn into the divine mission of salvation. Active participants, believers are to lend their best efforts to the unfolding of God’s saving plan so that others may know and come to God. Just as Jesus was sent forth from God, so are his followers who constitute his body sent forth; just as Jesus was empowered by the Spirit of God, so also is the church.

When the community of believers assembles for prayer, its worship also is essentially trinitarian. As Maertens and Frisque (op. cit.) have noted, Christians have been well instructed by Jesus as to the manner in which they are to pray. We address God together as our Father and the rhythm and structure of the great eucharistic prayer, which concludes with the Our Father, should shape and guide our spiritual life. In this great prayer, the assembled community calls upon God as Father, through Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Through this prayer, believers celebrate the sacred mysteries of Christ’s saving passion, death and resurrection and affirm their participation in the unity of persons and network of loving relationships which are God.

Today as we find renewal once again at the well of the trinitarian mystery, we are also to be renewed in our commitment, not simply know but also to live the mystery.

PROVERBS 8:22-31

In his series of lyrical and epic poems entitled Songs of Innocence, the English poet and artist, William Blake (1757-1827) shared his perception of the immanence of God in creation: “To see the world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower; Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour.” Blake’s insight into the all pervading presence of God in time and space is similar to that of the ancient author of Proverbs’ insights into Wisdom.

Notice the author’s association of Wisdom with time. Poured forth or brought forth before creation (vv. 24, 25), Wisdom is at the root of all that is, things, beings, events. Whereas Jewish thought tended to look to an eschatological future age, inaugurated by the messiah, wherein they would experience the fullness and foreverness of eternity, this text from Wisdom challenges that way of thinking. In anticipation of the Johannine notion of realized eschatology, the Proverbs’ author understood that the experience of eternity within time and space is not contingent upon a future earthly king. Nor does this experience belong only to the future. Because the Wisdom of God has informed all that exists from the origins of creation, the experience of eternity is available to all who will reach out to appropriate it. Like Blake, the ancient sapiential writer knew the joy of holding infinity in the palm of his hand and of perceiving eternity in an hour.

Thomas P. McCreesh (“Proverbs”, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: 1990) has explained the experience of Wisdom quite succinctly: “Coming from God, she (Wisdom) is also a revelation of God and a call from him (sic) to the world. Consequently human experience and the study of the created world can be the matrix for religious experience and can be revelatory of the divine.”

Written in the fifth or fourth century B.C.E., during the period after the exile when there was no reigning king in Judah, Proverbs also represents a transition in messianic expectation. With no human messiah, i.e., anointed one, on which to hang their hopes, a theocratic messianism emerged among the Jewish faithful. Rather than look for a shepherd from David’s lineage to lead them, the people remembered the prophet’s promises of a divine shepherd (Ezekiel 34) and placed their trust in God. Whereas they had formerly looked to an earthly throne for their champion, Israel began to look to the very Wisdom of God for leadership and protection. As Thierry Maertens and Jean Frisque (op. cit.) have observed, the attributes which had been associated with the kingly messiah of Isaiah 11:1-3, viz., understanding, counsel, knowledge, justice and faithfulness, were ascribed to Wisdom (Proverbs 8:12-14). The great banquet which symbolized the era of messianic prosperity (Isaiah 25:6-7) would be hosted by Wisdom (Proverbs 9:1-6). As is reflected in the poem which comprises today’s first reading, the faith and hope that the people had previously invested in the house of David was transferred to an attribute of God.

The personification of this divine attribute should not be misunderstood. Lawrence E. Boadt (“Proverbs”, The Collegeville Bible Commentary, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville: 1989) is correct in affirming that Wisdom does not exist apart from God, but is instead a way of expressing the purpose of the divine will as it is made manifest in the world. The Christian heirs of Israel’s Sapiential traditions recognized that the Wisdom of God has become incarnate in Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:24) and that through him, the purpose, will and very being of God have been uniquely manifested. Therefore if we would know God in this world, we need only turn to Christ.

ROMANS 5:1-5

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963), better known simply as C.S. Lewis was an Irish born literary historian and author who spent most of his sixty-four years in the rarified world of academia at Oxford and Cambridge. After a conventionally religious childhood he lapsed into atheism, where he remained until his thirties. One day, as he was traveling to a zoo in a motorcycle sidecar, he had a conversion experience which he later described as being “surprised by joy!” For the rest of his life, he seized every opportunity to share the joy of knowing Jesus Christ, a joy that had transformed his life. An excellent and prolific writer, Lewis had a facility for creating analogies and illustrations in order to relate the most sublime truths to the everyday human experience.

In many ways, Lewis’ spiritual journey was similar to that of the apostle Paul. Both were talented, well-educated men whose conversion to Christ radically transformed their lives and redirected their efforts. Both understood the necessity of making their faith a lived response to God within the day to day routine of life. Both rejoiced in discovering God and both used their considerable literary talents to help others toward a similar discovery. In today’s second reading, Paul’s exuberant joy and hope in Christ are palpable.

Writing from Corinth ca. 56-57 C.E. to the Christian community in Rome, Paul’s letter served as a means of introducing himself and his teachings. More a treatise than a letter, Romans includes some of Paul’s most profound insights into the mystery of salvation; some have called it a synthesis of the good news. In today’s short text, Paul rejoices in the knowledge that believers have been justified by faith and in the results of that justification. By justification, Paul meant that those who believe in Christ’s saving death and resurrection are acquitted of sin and stand in right relationship with God.

As a result of being justified by faith, believers are also “at peace with God” (v. 1). As Joseph Fitzmyer (Spiritual Exercises Based on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, Paulist Press, New York: 1955) has explained, this does not mean merely peace of mind, or peace of conscience about sins committed and forgiven, or the absence of conflict and war. Rather, peace with God is the experience of shalom, i.e., complete well being and a God-given integrity and wholeness.

Justification also affords the believer access to grace here and now and the promise of glory yet to come. Access or prosagoge in Greek means: (1) to be ushered into the presence of royalty; (2) to find safe haven or harbor. Through grace, believers are ushered into the presence of God, wherein they find the safety, strength and security necessary to bear with and even to boast of affliction (v. 3). Thlipsis (Greek) or affliction is literally rendered as pressure. Not solely a contemporary experience, pressures weighed heavily on the early Christian community. Pressures from without stemmed from Roman and Jewish opposition. From within, the community knew the pressures of discord in their ranks due to conflicting interpretations of the gospel and lingering doubts as to the sufficiency of Jesus’ cross. Never one to avoid pressure, Paul encouraged the Romans to accept their share of affliction as an opportunity for character-building. Affliction can foster endurance; endurance will result in tested virtue and tested virtue produces hope (v. 4).

Those, in whom hope has grown, will never be disappointed or disillusioned because it is grounded in the certainty of God’s love. Paul had been surprised by that love in his way to Damascus; C.S. Lewis was surprised by it on his way to the zoo. We, for our part, are daily surprised by God’s love each time we open our eyes to discover God anew, in the sacred word, in the sacraments, at the Eucharist and in the gathering of two or three in Jesus’ name. That love remains an ever present experience for us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Paul’s description of the triadic structure of the Christian experience lent itself to later theologians in their development of the trinitarian doctrine and continues to encourage all believers to endure and to hope.

JOHN 16:12-15

Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament, Doubleday, Hew York: 1997) has suggested that Jesus’ Last Discourse as it appears in the fourth gospel (of which today’s gospel is an excerpt) is a unique composition, comparable to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount or to Luke’s collection of Jesus’ words spoken on the way from Galilee to Jerusalem. As Jesus’ final message in John’s gospel, the discourse resembles a last will and testament or farewell address in which Jesus: (1) announced his imminent departure (John 13:33; 14:2-3; 16:16); (2) recalled his words and works (13:33; 14:10; 15:3, 20; 17:4-8); (3) enjoined his own to continue his work (14:12), keep his commandments (14:15, 21, 23; 15:10, 14), and remain united (17:11, 21-23); (4) wished his followers peace and joy (14:27; 16:22, 33); (5) prayed for them (17:9); (6) predicted persecution (15:18, 20; 16:2-3); and (7) promised a successor (Paraclete passages).

In today’s gospel, Jesus explains some of the functions of his Spirit-successor. Picking up where Jesus had left off, the Spirit will continue to guide the community to all truth (v. 12). By identifying the Paraclete as the Spirit of truth, Jesus affirmed the permanence of his work as Revealer. The fact that the Spirit will reveal to the disciples the “much more” that Jesus had to tell them is not an allusion to the development of dogma. Rather, the Spirit will enable each generation to hear the revelation of Jesus within its own share of the human experience and be inspired as to how to live and respond to its challenge.

While guiding Jesus’ disciples to all truth and in bringing that truth to bear on the ever evolving circumstances of life, the Spirit will, in effect, be glorifying Jesus (v. 14). To glorify Jesus means to reveal who he is and what he has done for the salvation of humankind. Who Jesus is, i.e., his identity, is bound up and defined by his oneness with God (10:30; 14:11; 17:11); for this reason Jesus could say, “who sees me, sees the Father” (14:9). In that union, the disciples of Jesus are to find their own identity. Jesus’ saving work must also be a means by which his followers are identified, and through which, Jesus continues to be glorified.

Inasmuch as the church remains faithful to Jesus and to the Spirit of truth in all its proclamations, preaching, teaching, words, works and worship, it will be an authentic means by which the world will be able to identify and know the triune God. Inasmuch as it falls short of or obscures the truth, it will be an imposter, empty unto itself and useless to the world.

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