Deacon Tom Anthony

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
Lectionary: 165

Reading 1 Dt 4:32-34, 39-40

Moses said to the people:
"Ask now of the days of old, before your time,
ever since God created man upon the earth;
ask from one end of the sky to the other:
Did anything so great ever happen before?
Was it ever heard of?
Did a people ever hear the voice of God
speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?
Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself
from the midst of another nation,
by testings, by signs and wonders, by war,
with strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors,
all of which the LORD, your God,
did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
This is why you must now know,
and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God
in the heavens above and on earth below,
and that there is no other.
You must keep his statutes and commandments that I enjoin on you today,
that you and your children after you may prosper,
and that you may have long life on the land
which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever."

Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22

R. (12b) Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the Lord the earth is full.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made;
by the breath of his mouth all their host.
For he spoke, and it was made;
he commanded, and it stood forth.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Reading 2 Rom 8:14-17

Brothers and sisters:
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you received a Spirit of adoption,
through whom we cry, "Abba, Father!"
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
if only we suffer with him
so that we may also be glorified with him.

Alleluia Rv 1:8

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit;
to God who is, who was, and who is to come.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Mt 28:16-20

The eleven disciples went to Galilee,
to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.
When they all saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
Then Jesus approached and said to them,
"All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."

My Brothers and Sisters,

 Just as Paul says in his letter today,  we did not receive a spirit of slavery through accepting Jesus Christ as our savior but a spirit of freedom through the presence of the Holy Spirit. This means that we have become free through the acceptance of Jesus Christ and have been revealed as Children of God. This revelation is both a personal one and one that will become evident to all those whom we interact with. We are free from the chains of this world and the slavery of society. We now have the opportunity to rise above all the chaos and destruction that the world of the flesh offers and to embrace a life filled with hope and freedom. As long as we recognize God loves us, we will be safe, secure, and joyful.

As Christian, we have come to understand that God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thought. In a wonderful way, so many things that we have accepted as the truth are then revealed as untrue through our relationship with Him. An example of this is the concept of the Spirit of adoption. Through it, we are united to God and are welcomed into an existence with the Holy Trinity: The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. God’s love becomes the glue that binds us with it and makes us inseparable from it except by our own decision. It is by our choice that we receive it and it is by our choice that we can also reject it. There is no limit to how close we can become to our God. He is our Father and we are His children.

Being led by the Spirit means that we no longer have to have fear, anxiety, and reservations about the future or regrets about the past. We are forever transfixed in the present experiencing a moment of pure love with God. For everyone, this will be different. At times, we will feel this in an overwhelming way and God’s creation will be revealed in its perfection. Other times, we will find ourselves in conflict as we struggle with our self-will and push away that which challenges our perceived dominance. These times can be viewed as growing pains as we actually get closer to God. This is true in every relationship. A relationship with God is no different.

Paul tells us in his letter to Timothy that,

 “If we have died with him we shall also live with him; If we hold out to the end we shall also reign with him. But if we deny him he will deny us. If we are unfaithful he will still remain faithful, for he cannot deny himself.”

Dying with him means a surrendering of our will and our former way of life. We

Have done this through our baptism and further realization of what it actually means: receiving the Sanctifying Grace necessary for salvation and becoming a member of the Church. When we finally comprehend our relationship with Jesus Christ we can then start working to live up to the expectations of the Father. As His children, there is a natural wantonness to do so. We should want to please Him because it is through the pleasing of the Father instead of ourselves that His love for us can be experienced. Jesus takes us by the hand to lead us to the Father and the Father shows us that He loves us. Welcome to the Trinity!

Moreover, there is room for error because we are not perfect. Far from it, we were and will always be sinners until that moment of perfection experienced when we are finally totally with God in our own physical death and resurrection. This should be a consoling fact. Jesus will always remain faithful to us even in our darkest moments. We will always be protected, guided, and above all loved. He will always be with us. He will always do everything for us. He will always love us.

Deacon Tom