THE MOST HOLY TRINITY  - CICLO C – 2019

      On the first Sunday after Pentecost the Liturgy of the Church invites us to celebrate the greatness of our God, to adore him, to contemplate him, to allow ourselves to be fascinated with his beauty and goodness

      Through the readings we will   enter into the mystery of our  one and triune God. Like Moses, we will remove the sandals from our feet because we are on sacred ground.   

      Let us enter into his presence with our imagination and our feelings and overall, with our love.      

THE BOOK OF PROVERBS  

v  When we open this book, we are surprised by his miscellaneous nature.  It contains long poems as   well as very short ones, two lines in parallel.   

v  Another thing that makes us wonder, is the apparent lack of theological reflection, it is a very pragmatic book, and we ask, why  has it  been included in the Bible, which is the word of God?  

v  Together with the books of Job, Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth),  Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus)   Wisdom  the book of Proverbs is classified as wisdom literature.    

v  I have read in a commentary that the Book of Proverbs is the most secular of these five books.   

v  Its author is not Solomon, as we could think on reading the first verse “The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel” 1.1.   In the same way as the books about the Law (Pentateuch) are attributed to Moses, the Psalms to David, the book of Proverbs is attributed to Solomon, because he was such a wise man. However, he is not the author of the book, maybe he is the author of some proverbs, but not the whole book. 

v  For an Israelite there existed only the cosmos and the web of social relationships, both realities derive from the creation made by God.   The mission of the wise person was to seek the harmony hidden within these two realities and transmit this knowledge by means of sentences and instructions, to help the human beings to live a good life, a truly human life.   

FIRST READING   Proverbs 8:22-31 

Ø  Wisdom speaks and says that she existed from the beginning.  

Ø  Wisdom describes for us the works of God. Let our imagination go to the places where Wisdom takes us: 

·         oceans, springs of water, rivers.

·         mountains and hills  

·         earth and fields   

Ø  She says that she was present when God made the sky 

Ø  when he put  the sky as a dome  over the ocean.   

Ø  when he set boundaries to the sea     

Ø  If we pay attention to what Wisdom is saying, God is building a home. The home he has prepared for us to live in.  

Ø  And Wisdoms tells us that she was there beside him as his craftsman, and that she played before him, and was delighted to be with the human race.

Ø  What a wonderful word, the Wisdom of God, God himself found and still finds his delight in the human race,  in each one of us. 

Ø  The Church sees in this Wisdom the Son of God, through whom all things were made. He became one of us.  In the Eastern Churches they see in this Wisdom an image of the Holy  Creator Spirit.    

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  Ps  8

R.  O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars which you set in place —
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet:
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth! 

ü  The psalmist is amazed to see how God takes care of his creatures.  

ü  In a very special way of the human being, to whom he has given power over them. 

ü  The psalmist  asks, what is man?  

ü  We repeat the same question, who are we that the Son of the Father became one like us, and put his tent among us?  Who are we that God comes to dwell in us.    

SECOND READING  Rom 5:1-5

      Paul speaks of the redemptive work of God for his creation.  

      We have been justified by faith, and this gives us peace with God by Jesus Christ. 

      Christ is he who has given us the grace in which we live, and at the same time we rejoice in hope of the   glory of God. 

      He says that we do not only rejoice in hope, but also in our afflictions.  

      Knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character hope.  

      He says that hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.  

      The Holy Spirit is he who completes the work that God has begun in us.   

GOSPEL  Jn 16,12-15

v  Jesus says to his disciples that, he has many more things to tell them, but they cannot bear them in that moment.  

v  The Holy Spirit will help them to understand and to live what Jesus has taught them during his earthly life. The Spirit will guide them to the whole truth. He will remind them, all the words of Jesus.

v  He will not speak on his own; he will speak what he hears in the intimacy of the Trinitarian life. 

v  He will glorify Jesus, because he will take what is Jesus' and declare  it to them.   

v  Why does Jesus say that the Spirit will not speak on his own? 

v  Jesus had said to his disciples that the Spirit was the promise of the Father, the Father was giving the Spirit to them.  However, it seems as if the Spirit was given by Jesus.

v  The answer is found in the next verse: everything that the Father has belongs to Jesus.

v  The mission of the Spirit among us has been, to make possible the creating and redemptive plan of the Father in the Church and in the world. 

v  This is our God, the Christian God, God who is a Trinity of persons, a community of persons united by the love generated between the three divine persons. He is the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sanctifier.  

        we confess your eternal holy Trinity and undivided Unity   (Prayer after Communion - Mass of the Most Holy Trinity)     

      Blest be God the Father, and the Only Begotten Son of God, and also the Holy Spirit for he has shown us his merciful love.  (Entrance Antiphon - Mass of the Most Holy Trinity)  

      Let us see what the beginning of the  book of Revelation says, before John greets the seven churches at the beginning of the heavenly liturgy: 

§  Grace to you and peace from him who is, who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first born of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth.  

§  We can simplify this greeting as follows: May the favor and peace of  the Father, of the Holy Spirit and of the Son be with you. 

§  At the beginning of our Eucharistic celebration  the priest greets the people saying: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you.

                        CLARETIAN CORNER

 His Excellency, Mgr. Claret, already consecrated a bishop was at the point of sailing for his diocese. Since God our Lord gave me a such a firm  certainty in the words this servant of God told me when he came to talk  with me, as I have said – doubting that the work would become a reality – I was unable to remove  from my memory how could it be  to profess in that convent if it was God’s will for me to go on with the work His Divine Majesty had entrusted to me. Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 95.  

In truth, the fire of love acts in a minister of the Lord in much the same way that material fire acts in the engine of a locomotive or a ship: it enables them to move the heaviest cargo with the greatest of ease.  What good would either of these two huge machines be without fire and steam to move them? None at all. What good is a priest who has finished all his studies and holds degrees in theology and canon and civil law if he lacks the fire of love? None at all. He is no good for others because he is like a locomotive without steam. Instead of being a help, as he should, he may only be a hindrance. He is no good even for himself. As St. Paul says, "If I speak with human tongues and angelic as well, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal.". Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian MIssionary Sisters, Autobiography 441   

BIBLIOGRAFÍA:

CLARET, Antonio María , Autobiography.

CONFERENCIA EPISCOPAL ESPAÑOLA, Sagrada Biblia, versión oficial, 2012

PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiography

RAVASI, Gianfranco, Según Las Escrituras, Año C, 2006

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. Comentario a La Biblia de nuestro Pueblo. 2010.