Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Proverbs 8:22-31
Psalm 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15

The Holy Spirit and the Word
Where is the Most Holy Trinity in today’s passage from the book of Proverbs? And where is the Most Holy Trinity in today’s responsorial psalm? All Scripture conceals and reveals the mystery of God, but only by the grace of the Holy Spirit does one begin to see what is concealed and to rejoice in what is revealed. The same Holy Spirit who inspired the human authors of the Scriptures actualizes them for us when we come together in medio Ecclesiae (in the midst of the Church), to hear them, repeat them, and pray them. Apart from the Holy Spirit there is no right reading of the Scriptures, and apart from the Holy Spirit the Scriptures cannot be heard or prayed rightly.
The Holy Spirit Declares the Father and the Son
The work of the Spirit is to declare the Father and the Son. To declare means to cast into the light “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. . . . He will take what is mine and declare it to you” (Jn 16:12, 14). This is why, in the Vespers hymn of Pentecost, the Church, addressing the Holy Spirit, sings: “Through thee may we the Father know, through thee the eternal Son.” Today’s solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity prolongs the light of Pentecost.

The Voice of the Word
The lesson from Proverbs bathes in the splendour of the Prologue of Saint John. It is the same mystery, the same “face-to-face” of the Son with the Father. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was toward God, and the Word was God” (Jn 1:1). Whereas in the Prologue it is John who narrates the mystery of the Word, here it is the Word himself, Wisdom, who speaks, narrating his life in the presence of the Father. “Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth” (Pr 8:23). Thus begins a series of declarations in the first person singular; it is the voice of the Word eternally begotten of the Father. “When there were no depths I was brought forth” (Pr 8:24). “Before the hills, I was brought forth” (Pr 8:25). “When he established the heavens, I was there” (Pr 8:27). “I was beside him, like a master workman; and I was daily his delight” (Pr 8:30). The last line of the passage has captured the imagination of the saints through the ages: “And my delights were to be with the children of men” (Pr 8:31). This is the voice of the only-begotten Son, “God from God, light from light, true God from true God; begotten not made, one in essence with the Father; through whom all things were made” (Nicene Creed). Follow this voice. It will you take you to the Father.
Psalm 8: In Praise of Christ
In the light of the Holy Spirit, Psalm 8 too appears full of the mystery of Christ. Jesus knew this psalm; he recognized himself in it. When the priests and scribes wanted him to silence the outcries of the children in the temple of Jerusalem, Jesus answered them in the very words of verse 2 of this psalm: “Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou has brought perfect praise?” (Mt 21:16).
In taking flesh, the only-begotten Son was “made lower than the angels” (Ps 8:5). It is this that caused astonishment among the heavenly choirs. They witnessed the Son descending through their ranks to take flesh in the womb of the Virgin, and they were amazed. In the words, “to crown him with glory and honour” (Ps 8:5), the Fathers see the mystery of the Ascension. This too causes astonishment among the heavenly choirs. He who descended through their ranks, ascends in the same way, passing through the angelic choirs in his crucified, glorious flesh.
The sovereignty of the second Adam is infinitely more glorious than that of the first Adam: “You have given him rule over the works of your hands, putting all things under his feet” (Ps 8:6). The Apostle explains this subjection of all things to the New Adam, saying, “He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Cor 15:26). The beauty of Psalm 8 lies in this immense circular movement of descent and ascension, of self-emptying and of glorification. Follow this movement: from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit, to the Father. Psalm 8, in this way, declares the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity.
Poured Into Our Hearts
In all of these things the Holy Spirit declares the mystery of the Father and the Son. Sublime as they are, however, these things would remain remote, distant, without any real effect on us, were it not for the infusion of the Spirit. The mission of the Spirit is to bring these things home to the heart, to make them immediate and personally transforming. The Spirit bonds us inwardly to the life of the Father and the Son.
O Unifying Unity
In itself, the life of the Trinity is perfect unity; the effect of the life of the Trinity in us is the restoration of unity. Trinitarian love creates unity without suppressing diversity, heals the fragmented pieces of ourselves, and orders all things in humility and charity. “The charity of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given us” (Rom 5:5). It is by the gift of the Spirit, and specifically, by the gift of the Holy Spirit in the adorable mystery of the Eucharist, that we are brought into the communion of the Trinity, not as mere spectators looking on from afar, but as partakers, called to taste and see the charity of God.
From the Eucharist to the Trinity
This is why we are compelled to offer the Holy Sacrifice of Christ today. The Eucharistic Sacrifice is the foretaste of Trinitarian charity, the taste of a humble, unifying love stronger than death. There is no better way to celebrate today’s than by passing from the Word to the Eucharist, and from the Eucharist into the communion of the Holy Trinity. The Most Holy Eucharist is the sacrament of unity because it is the Church, in all her diversity, feeding as one Body on the charity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.