Father, Son and Holy Spirit
St. Athanasias once wrote: “God became man so that man might become God.” The Gospel reading affirms this: God the Father gave His only Son, Jesus, so that we might have eternal life. By becoming human, Jesus made it possible for us to enter into and participate in the Divine Life of the Holy Trinity. This participation, however, does not begin after we die. It begins now during every single Mass!
When the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, it is not only Jesus who is present, but also God the Father and the Holy Spirit. This means that, when we receive the Eucharist, we receive the Holy Trinity into our bodies, hearts, and souls, and we become transformed into what we partake. With every Eucharist we worthily receive, we become more like God. If this is not a fascinating and mind-boggling mystery, then I do not know what is!
As this Sunday readings gently remind us: like the Israelites in the first reading and the Corinthians in the second reading, we can be “stiff-necked people” who need to “mend [our] ways.” How do we do that? The answer is simple: through the sacraments, the source of grace. In the second reading, St. Paul closes his letter with the words, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God [the Father] and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” He wishes “grace” upon the early Christians. Why? Because grace is God’s gift. This gift has the power to transform us in such an extraordinary way that we become open to God, receptive and more responsive to Him, and ever clearer reflections of the Holy Trinity. Nowhere does this grace come to us more efficaciously and directly than in the Eucharist, which nourishes us with charity for God and for others.
And so, every time you approach the altar to receive the Body and Blood of Christ, I hope that you will remember the extraordinary promise associated with it: God became man so that we might become God.
Yours in Christ,
Father Arthur
Readings for The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity: Lectionary 164.
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