SUNDAY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY  -  A - 2023

ü  Before we submerge ourselves in the daily living of our faith, the liturgy invites us to meditate on the adorable mystery of our God and, next week on the mystery of the Eucharist. 

ü  Our God is a community of persons, and he has created us in his image, and thus able to enter into relationships, and with the need to communicate with other human beings.  

FIRST READING:   Exodus 34: 4b-6,8-9

Ø  God has called Moses and, very early in the morning, he goes up to Mount Sinai with two stone tablets. 

Ø  God comes down in the cloud, which is one of the symbols that Scripture uses to represent the presence of God.  In the story of the Ascension a cloud conceals the vision of Jesus, and the disciples do not see him anymore. This wants to let us know that Jesus has entered a new form of life, a new relationship with us.   

Ø  And the book of exodus continues saying that God proclaims his name. 

Ø  His name is LORD, and he continues to explain who he is. 

o   He is merciful and generous.    

o   Slow to anger and rich in love and faithfulness.   

§  God is rich in kindness, tender al welcoming love.  

§  God is faithful to himself, to his word, to his love for his creation.

Ø  On hearing the words of God, Moses prostates himself in adoration, this is the posture of man before God, in his presence there cannot be any arrogance, we all feel our nothingness and thus we incline ourselves to the dust. 

Ø  But Moses feels that God loves him, that God is good, and that God listens to he who speaks and asks something from him. 

o   If I have your favor, I ask you to journey with us.   

o   Even if sometimes we are a stubborn people.    

o   Forgive our sins and accept us as your own. 

Ø  Jesus is the God- with- us who has come to dwell and journey with us.   He has said that he will be with us until the end of time, and he has also said that he who sees Him sees the Father, that is to say, that Jesus is the image of the Father, the sacrament of the Father.  

 RESPONSORIAL PSALM– Daniel 3:52-55

R. (52b) Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;
And blessed is your holy and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory,
praiseworthy and glorious above all forever.
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you who look into the depths
from your throne upon the cherubim,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
R. Glory and praise for ever!.

v  The Lord is the God of our fathers.   

v  The temple of the Lord is his creation and especially the human being.  

v  His gaze fills everything with his love and tenderness.  

SECOND READING  2Cor 13:11-13

      Paul invites us to   

o   Encourage one another.  

o   Live in peace    

      And he continues saying that God who is the God of peace and love will be with us.  

      He invites us to greet each other with the holy kiss.  

      And he says that the saints, greet us. Who are this saints? All those baptized.

      I want to share with you something about the saints that I have heard in a homily on Pentecost.

      The priest asked the assembly, who are the saints? And he gave this beautiful answer, a saint is someone in love, in love with God.   And he invited all the assembly to let God  make them fall in love with Him. For this we need to get closer to Him through prayer, adoration, the Eucharist, the good deeds.

      Yes let us allow God to make us fall in love with Him!

GOSPEL, Jn 3:16-18

v  God has loved the world so much that he has given us his only son.  We may say: God loves the world so much that he gives us his only Son. (in the present tense) 

v  Why? Because God is always present,  he is neither “I was”  nor “I will be”. 

v  And he has given us his son so that believing in him we may be saved, that is to say, we may be able to welcome his salvation which is given us plentifully without having previously done anything to receive it. 

v  And God sends his son not to condemn the world but to save it.  

v  We condemn ourselves to be far from God when we do not believe, when we do not welcome the gift that is offered to us graciously.  

v  I pondered, as I do frequently, and I asked myself, where do we get the idea that if we do such and such we will be condemned. But on the contrary God through the Gospel of John says to us, that neither the Father nor Jesus the incarnate son of God condemns anyone, on the contrary Jesus is sent and comes to us   to share with us his being the Son and to save us.

C CLARETIAN CORNER 

My God, One and Triune, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  In your infinite wisdom,   give me, O Lord,   your light  to know you and to know me. To know also all that you want me to do, to serve and love you with all my being as much as it is possible in this life with your divine grace.  O my God, teach me what is good for the family you have entrusted to me and for each one of my beloved sisters. Please enlighten them so that they may know all that you want each one to do, in order to be docile and do not oppose  your divine inspirations and most holy will. Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Fragment of Maria Antonia’s Morning Prayer.

 

The first ideas I can remember date back to when I was five years old. When I went to bed, instead of sleeping—I never have been much of a sleeper--I used to think about eternity. I would think "forever, forever, forever." I would try to imagine enormous distances and pile still more distances on these and realize that they would never come to an end. Then I would shudder and ask myself if those who were so unhappy as to go to an eternity of pain would ever see an end to their suffering. Would they have to go on suffering? Yes, forever and forever they will have to bear their pain !

This troubled me deeply, for I am by nature very compassionate. The idea of an eternity of torment made such a deep impression on me, either because of the tenderness it evoked in me or because of the many times I thought about it, that it is surely the thing that to this day I remember best. The power of this idea has made me work in the past, still makes me work, and will make me work as long as I live, in converting sinners, in preaching, in hearing confessions, in writing books, in distributing holy cards and pamphlets, and in having familiar conversations...  Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 8 and 9.