The Most Holy Trinity (A)
God sent his Son so that through him the world might be saved.
The Word This Week
We begin our Summer 'Ordinary Time' by celebrating a strange feast - not of a particular saint or event, but of the awesome paradoxes of our God, the Three-in-One, Father, Son and Spirit: so immeasurably distant, yet so amazingly close, so full of power and so full of love. It is love that is the key to the mystery: the revelation of God, to Moses and in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, shows a perfect love - a perfect unity. In the beginning, in the story of Creation in Genesis, God made man and woman 'in the image and likeness of God', to live together as a community of love. So too, the Church is an image of this perfection of community which is Father, Son and Spirit. We, as many members of one Church, strive in our everyday lives to imitate God who is Three and One, perfect unity and perfect love.
Notes for Readers
First
A remarkable reading - very short and simple, but with immense depth and meaning. Notice one thing: at the beginning of the second paragraph, it is the Lord God who speaks, saying Lord, Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion... This is the peculiar richness of this reading: that God himself proclaims his own tenderness, compassion, kindness and faithfulness. It fulfils something God says to Moses just before this reading: I will let all my splendour pass before you, and I will pronounce before you the name of the Lord. (Exodus 33:19) So here we have God telling Moses who he is - what he is like. This could easily be missed, so the reader will have to concentrate on bringing it out. There is a strange, almost mystical feel to the reading, as Moses shares this awesome but intimate moment with the Lord. Allow this to influence the way you read, especially emphasising what the Lord does and says: the Lord descended..., the Lord passed before him and proclaimed... Above all, take your time, especially with the words God speaks.
Second
Another brief reading (which is always an excuse to take time over it), but with great riches. God is revealed as Three-in-One, united in perfect love: the members of the Church in
Wordsearch
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