Today, the Church has a celebration that is a sort of an oddity. It is the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. And it is a sort of an oddity because every celebration is always first and foremost for the greater glory of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But, if nothing else, it provides us with the opportunity to pay closer attention to the core mystery of our faith. Sometimes, we hear somebody saying that all religions are the same. The truth is that, in reality, the perception or understanding of God’s mystery is different. The Roman Catholic Church embraces the Revelation given by Jesus Christ (recall the Gospel read two weeks ago from Matthew 28). Today’s readings give us some texts that lead us to a better perception of God’s being.
The first reading comes from Exodus 34, a critical moment in the history of Israel. Shortly after striking the Sinaitic covenant (Exodus 24), the people of Israel went astray by worshipping the Golden Calf (Exodus 33). The breach was so serious that Yahweh threatened to wipe Israel out entirely, but Moses’ intercession was able to stop Yahweh from doing it. Today’s paragraph brings a few verses from the positive resolution of the conflict, which, as we read, was possible because of God’s nature: “The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity” (v. 6). This verse is referred to in several parts of the Old Testament. And the last couple of terms, here translated as kindness and fidelity, “express summarily the riches of the divine name” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 214; read the whole explanation in numbers 214-221).
RELATED | God brings His inner Trinity unity to the Church through the Holy Spirit
It is important to remember that the God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament. The certainty of this assertion had to be defended by the Church in the first centuries against some heretics who pretended they were two different and unrelated “deities.” The truth is that the believers of the Old Testament were already aware of God’s merciful disposition and His willingness to save (remember that the Hebrew verb “to save” is the root of terms such as salvation, Jesus / Jehoshua, Hosanna; hence, every time the term salvation appears, e.g. in the Psalms, the Hebrew language presents the name of Jesus somehow).
The second reading is more specific in its reference to the Holy Trinity. And the triad of the terms grace, love, and fellowship/communion are intrinsically interrelated. This prompts us to imagine the three divine persons in their interrelationship, which is described by a specific term: perichoresis. Perichoresis is a theological term from Greek antiquity (meaning “mutual indwelling” or “co-inherence”) that describes the intimate, dynamic relationship between the three persons of the Trinity. Literally, peri-choresis could be translated as “going around” (if you like dancing a waltz, you can easily imagine this, but perhaps you prefer the intimacy of tango). It is like a “divine dance,” a sort of harmonious, rhythmic circling of love. You can now understand the deep meaning of using these words as a liturgical greeting at the beginning of the Mass. It is like an invitation to enter into this dance.
RELATED | The gifts of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts
Such an invitation is very subtly recalled in the reading of the Gospel. The very beginning of the celebration of the Mass (and every important activity we perform in God’s Name) reminds us of it. In fact, we begin by making the sign of the cross while saying “in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The mention of the Trinity is a reminder of our baptism when we were literally immersed (Greek baptizo means that) in the life of the Holy Trinity. Guardini presents a beautiful reflection on how we should perform that sign: “When we cross ourselves, let it be with a real sign of the cross. Instead of a small cramped gesture that gives no notion of its meaning, let us make a large unhurried sign, from forehead to breast, from shoulder to shoulder, consciously feeling how it includes the whole of us, our thoughts, our attitudes, our body and soul, every part of us at once, how it consecrates and sanctifies us” (Romano Guardini, Sacred Signs, “The Sign of the Cross”). It includes the whole of us; it invites us to dance with God. That is what every Mass is about: the celebration of God’s love that invites us to dance with Him.