Feast of the Most Holy Trinity
The Orthodox Churches celebrate Pentecost.

First Reading

Exodus 34,4-6.8-9

So he cut two tablets of stone like the first and, with the two tablets of stone in his hands, Moses went up Mount Sinai in the early morning as Yahweh had ordered. And Yahweh descended in a cloud and stood with him there and pronounced the name Yahweh. Then Yahweh passed before him and called out, 'Yahweh, Yahweh, God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in faithful love and constancy, Moses immediately bowed to the ground in worship, then he said, 'If indeed I do enjoy your favour, please, my Lord, come with us, although they are an obstinate people; and forgive our faults and sins, and adopt us as your heritage.'

Psalmody

Psalm 3

Antiphon

You, Lord are my defence and you lift up my head.

How may are my foes, O Lord!
How many are rising up against me!

How many are saying about me :
'There is no help for him in God.

But you, Lord, are a shield about me
my glory, who lift up my head

I cry aloud to the Lord.
He answers from his holy mountain.

I lie down to rest and I sleep.
I wake, for the Lord upholds me.

I will not fear even thousands of people
who are ranged on every side against me.

Arise, Lord; save me, my God,
You who strike all my foes on the mouth,

you who break the teeth of the wicked!
O Lord of salvation, bless your people!

Second Reading

2 Corinthians 13,11-13

To end then, brothers, we wish you joy; try to grow perfect; encourage one another; have a common mind and live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with the holy kiss. All God's holy people send you their greetings. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Reading of the Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

John 3,16-18

For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. For God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the world might be saved. No one who believes in him will be judged; but whoever does not believe is judged already, because that person does not believe in the Name of God's only Son.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Homily

The Holy Liturgy today comes to us and suggests that the first steps of the Church born on Pentecost were taken in the name of the Trinity. Everything comes from God, from the mystery of God's limitless love, which moved the Father to send his only Son for the salvation of all peoples. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life" (Jn 3:16), Jesus says to Nicodemus. And the author of the Letter to the Hebrews refers to this love, which is always flowing from God: "Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son" (Heb 1:1-2). And after his resurrection, Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit on his disciples, which would lead them to the entire truth. As it invites us to celebrate God's limitless love, the feast of the Trinity has us contemplate the Church, the Christian Community, as the fruit of the love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Church, the Christian Community, is not the work of human beings, nor is it the fruit of a simple human project. It is the fruit of God; it is the work of God's love; it is God's great gift to the world. This is one of the great victories of the Second Vatican Council: the Church is above all a mystery of love, a mystery to be contemplated, welcomed, respected, kept and loved. Only in the context of this reality is the Church a community: it is not an institution where only the organization counts. Those who listen to the Gospel with their heart are not only welcomed into an organized community, they are welcomed above all into the Trinitarian mystery, into communion with God. We live in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The beautiful tradition of the sign of the cross, which we are invited to make at the beginning and end of every activity, reminds us of this mystery of which we are part. The Church has a vocation in its very constitution: it exists in service of unity and communion. The feast of the Trinity is an urgent invitation for us to enter into God's own dynamism, to have God's ambitions, to live God's life, and to rejoice in the love that never sets. The Lord, who desires the salvation of all, saves by gathering men and women around himself in a great, borderless family. Salvation is nothing else than communion with God and among men and women. Perhaps it is a naïve dream. It certainly is beautiful. It is God's dream for the world.