First reading: Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33
Second reading: Romans 8:14-17
Gospel reading: Matthew 28:16-20
"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations".
For the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, the gospel of Matthew,
chapter 28, verses 16-20, will be proclaimed in the Sunday Mass.
This gospel passage is found at the very end of Matthew's gospel.
Since it concludes his gospel, Matthew has Jesus proclaim a very
important mandate: His missionary mandate to His disciples. And
this missionary mandate to go to all peoples and make disciples of
all nations, by baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is a command not only His
apostles are to carry out, but we also are to follow and obey. By
doing so, we shall have the knowledge and understanding that the
Lord is with us "always, until the end of the world!"
The doctrine of the Holy Trinity, is a doctrine that has been
fought over for us by the Church Fathers of the early Christian
eras. In the early Christian Church, Christian doctrine was
slowly being formed, as these Church Fathers, in docility to the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, discerned how to pass on orthodox
teaching to the succeeding generations. What the Church Fathers
have achieved has become an essential part of our Catholic
tradition. Therefore, even if we do not see the word or term
"Trinity" in the Bible, this is because it has become part of our
Catholic tradition - one that involves the life, prayer, and work
of the apostolic community and their successor bishops and
clergy.
We will know how essential the Trinity is in our life because we
begin every prayer and celebration of the Eucharist by invoking
the Blessed Trinity with the sign of the cross. And also, we
realize how essential this doctrine is when we recall how John
Paul II prepared the Jubilee Year 2000, with a year for the Son
(1997), a year for the Holy Spirit (1998), and a year of the
Father (1999). This is how important the Holy Trinity is in our
Christian lives and for the whole Catholic Church. Our task now
is to teach this important doctrine to our children, so that when
they grow up to be fully mature Catholics, they too will pass on
this very important doctrine and teaching of the Church, to their
own children.
