Readings for June 14-15, The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
By Fr. Jack Treloar | For On Mission
In the reading from Romans for Trinity Sunday, Paul describes the pattern of Christian life, “in accord with the peace we have from God through our Lord Jesus Christ … because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
Given this statement of our faith, Paul outlines a pattern of Christian living.
Briefly, he states the fact that we all experience afflictions. Afflictions, far from being pointless, teach us endurance. Endurance creates proven character. Proven character introduces hope. Hope does not disappoint, for it is the source of the love of God poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
One problem with any consideration of the Holy Trinity is that it can become very abstract and ethereal, causing us to give up on any real understanding of the Trinity.
We might feel that the Trinity has no real effect or meaning for our day-to-day life. Paul’s brief exposition helps us see that the Trinity undergirds our lives on every meaningful level.
If we start with the universal experience of human affliction, we have a means for acknowledging our need for God. Sometimes one is afflicted with a disease that debilitates and does not yield to any treatment by current medical science. This is a true affliction, forcing us to depend on God or simply live in despair.
If we depend on God, we learn the virtue of endurance. Such endurance does not mean that we simply grit our teeth and put up with the affliction. Endurance is a means of growing in many virtues such as patience, holiness and allowing others to help us. A person who relies on a wheelchair or is confined to bed often becomes deeply aware of their need for assistance — a shift that can be both humbling and difficult.
If one lives in endurance, Paul tells us we develop “proven character.” Such character is not simply a collection of good actions, but actually a way of life. When we speak about character, we understand that a person has acquired a habit of right action governing each and every individual action.
A proven character develops hope. Our affliction will not last forever; we endure it as a gift from God, and we live in such a way that right action is our characteristically habitual way of proceeding.
Paul finally concludes his exposition of Christian living by saying that we can do this “because the love of God has been poured in our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” He has told us that our afflictions, endurance, proven character and hope all have deep spiritual meaning only open to a true believer grounded in belief in the Trinity.
When we turn to the Gospel for this Trinity Sunday, Jesus consoles his disciples by saying “when the Spirit comes, he will guide us to all truth.” We should not get discouraged when we cannot get our mind around the doctrine of the Trinity. Our questions help us move toward Father, Son and Holy Spirit as we follow Paul’s life-fulfilling admonitions.
Fr. Treloar is an assistant director at Jesuit Retreat House in Oshkosh and has served as a professor, lecturer, author and academic administrator
The readings for Sunday, June 15, can be found at The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity | USCCB.