May 26 | Trinity Sunday, Year B
Isa. 6:1-8 Ps. 29 or Cant. 13 or Cant. 2 Rom. 8:12-17 John 3:1-17
In a beloved hymn attributed to St. Patrick, the saint announces the near and enveloping presence of Christ: “Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me” (“I Bind Unto Myself Today”). The saint would have us see that the Word is not far off but near, nearer to us than we are to ourselves.
The Lord Jesus Christ, who is so near us, remains of one substance with the Father and the Holy Spirit, which is to say that the Triune God is near, an indwelling presence in our lives. This indwelling, however, does not contain or constrain God within the small scope of our lives. Rather, God is an expansive presence, a presence transcending all created beings. God is, no less, the Word eternally begotten before all worlds and the Word become flesh in time and in our midst. God is the Spirit within, bearing witness with our spirit that we are his children.
Provided we hold firmly to the doctrine of one God, we may, to our edification, think of God in three ways, which correspond to common spiritual experience. As an aid to our reflection, here are a few words from St. Athanasius, who defended the Nicene Creed against the world: “Accordingly, in the Church, One God is preached, one God is above all things, through all things, and in all things. God is above all things as Father, for he is principle and source; he is through all things through the Word; and he is in all things in the Holy Spirit” (Ep. 1 ad Serapionem).
Setting our mind on things above, we ascend to the Father, the source of all being. The prophet Isaiah gives a stunning image: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; … And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the earth is full of his glory’” (Isa. 6:1-3).
The Father is high and lifted up, beyond time and being. Contemplating the Father, we enter a “cloud of unknowing.” In a sense, however, God is known; for the glory of the Father, through the Son, “fills the whole earth.” The world is, therefore, a grand sacramental sign, an outward expression of a divine source.
As St. John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being” (John 1:1-3). Jesus Christ, the Word of the Father, calls all things into being and orders all beings as the Logos, who gives order, law, and purpose. Christ is, as St. Patrick teaches, all around us, an enveloping presence spiritually discerned by those who are “born from above.”
God is in all things as the Spirit. The Spirit whom we receive is not “a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,” but “a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!,’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:15-16). Above all things, through all things, in all things — set your mind before this great mystery.
Look It Up: Canticle 13 or 2
Think About It: Be enthroned in majesty and yet beholding the depths: transcendent, near, within!