Breaking Open the Word - Trinity Sunday, Year A
Trinity Sunday, Year A – June 7th, 2020
This Sunday we celebrated the most central and yet hardest-to-grasp mystery of our Christian faith: the Holy Trinity. This inner secret of the life of God, though only revealed in its fullness through Christ, is foreshadowed in many hidden ways even in the Old Testament. One example is in our First Reading for today, where God reveals Himself to Moses on Mount Sinai. Tradition has seen the voice as the Father, the figure standing as the Son, and the cloud as the Spirit. Furthermore, as a Sister noted in our sharing, God pronounces His Holy Name (“LORD” = YHWH = I AM WHO AM) not once or twice, but three times. This is another subtle hint that He is Three Persons in one God.
Today’s passage from Exodus is the response of God to Moses’ earnest plea: “Let me see Your glory!” One striking feature of this story is the way that words seem to break down in attempting to describe the prophet’s experience. For instance, as one Sister pointed out, is the Lord “standing” before Moses or is He “passing before him”? It seems to be both at once! Perhaps this is one way of expressing the simultaneous immanence (nearness) and transcendence (otherness) of God. And while Moses here is denied the privilege of seeing the Lord’s face, elsewhere in the Old Testament it is stated very clearly that “the Lord spoke with him face to face, as one speaks with a friend.” It seems that as intimate as he was with God, Moses still somehow fell short of fully experiencing Him.
As powerful as Moses’ closeness to God was, it pales in comparison to what we learn about God in today’s oft-quoted Gospel passage. The One Whose Face none was worthy to see now makes that same Face visible in Jesus Christ – visible not only to the holy ones like Moses, but even to those who reject and scorn Him. The revelation of God’s Face in the Incarnation is a supreme act of Divine humility, the Almighty making Himself vulnerable to defilement, disfigurement, and blasphemy. And yet, through the greatness of Divine love for the world, that very beaten and bloodied Face becomes the most eloquent sign of redemption. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” – a free gift of love on the part of both Father and Son. People throughout the ages have asked: what sort of God is this? To some, His condescension is a scandal; but to those who see in it the depths of God Who is Love, it is the most powerful motive for conversion.
Ultimately, every human person is called to share in the kind of “mad love” that inspired the Incarnation and the Redemption. Our destiny is life within the Trinity Itself, sharing in the love of the Three Divine Persons for all eternity. We wouldn’t dare aspire to such exalted heights if God had not invited us first! Even on earth, we can “practice” for the Beatific Vision through prayer, especially Eucharistic Adoration. By beginning now to sing the eternal “Holy, holy, holy,” we can even experience a foretaste of the joys that await us in Heaven!
What’s more, God has given us a model of what we are to be in eternity: the Blessed Virgin Mary. As the first fruits of redeemed humanity, she shows us the way and the goal from her throne in heaven. The one who was simply God’s lowly “handmaid” has been completely filled with the glory of His presence, and through her maternal intercession she draws us to that same destiny.