HOLY TRINITY IS REVEALED IN CREATION AND SALVATION HISTORY

20260531 HOLY TRINITY IS REVEALED IN CREATION AND SALVATION HISTORY

 

31 May 2026, Sunday, The Most Holy Trinity

First reading

Exodus 34:4-6,8-9

'Lord, Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion'

With the two tablets of stone in his hands, Moses went up the mountain of Sinai in the early morning as the Lord had commanded him. And the Lord descended in the form of a cloud, and Moses stood with him there.

  He called on the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘Lord, Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness.’ And Moses bowed down to the ground at once and worshipped. ‘If I have indeed won your favour, Lord,’ he said, ‘let my Lord come with us, I beg. True, they are a headstrong people, but forgive us our faults and our sins, and adopt us as your heritage.’

How to listen

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Responsorial Psalm

Daniel 3:52-56

To you glory and praise for evermore.

You are blest, Lord God of our fathers.

To you glory and praise for evermore.

Blest your glorious holy name.

To you glory and praise for evermore.

You are blest in the temple of your glory.

To you glory and praise for evermore.

You are blest on the throne of your kingdom.

To you glory and praise for evermore.

You are blest who gaze into the depths.

To you glory and praise for evermore.

You are blest in the firmament of heaven.

To you glory and praise for evermore.

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Second reading

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

The grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit

Brothers, we wish you happiness; try to grow perfect; help one another. Be united; live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.

  Greet one another with the holy kiss. All the saints send you greetings.

  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

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Gospel Acclamation

cf.Rv1:8

Alleluia, alleluia!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;

the God who is, who was, and who is to come.

Alleluia!

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Gospel

John 3:16-18

God sent his Son so that through him the world might be saved

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost

but may have eternal life.

For God sent his Son into the world

not to condemn the world,

but so that through him the world might be saved.

No one who believes in him will be condemned;

but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already,

because he has refused to believe in the name of God’s only Son.’

 

HOLY TRINITY IS REVEALED IN CREATION AND SALVATION HISTORY

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SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Ex 34:4-6, 8-9; Dan 3:52-56; 2 Cor 13:11-13; Jn 3:16-18]

Today, we celebrate the solemnity of the Holy Trinity. At Pentecost, we have an integral experience of God as the Father who sent us the Son, and together they sent us the Holy Spirit. In other words, the inner life of God has been revealed to us through His salvific work in human history. We will never be able to enter the inner life of God fully, but we are able to catch glimpses of His inner life through His work in saving us. The heart of today’s celebration is simply this: the Holy Trinity is the mystery of love in God Himself, poured out for us.

In the Book of Exodus, Moses sought to see the face of God. Moses wanted to know God as He is. Moses said, “Show me your glory, I pray.” But God said, “You cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.” The Lord continued, “See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.”  (Ex 33:18, 20-23) Indeed, God has no face – He is pure spirit. The only way we can see God, as the Lord instructed Moses, is to see His glory. But where is His glory to be seen?

Firstly, we can see God’s glory through the works He does for us in Creation and in history. This is why, in the Responsorial Psalm taken from the Canticle of Daniel, we sing praises to God as the Creator and Liberator. “You are blest, Lord God of our fathers. Blest your glorious holy name. You are blest in the temple of your glory. You are blest on the throne of your kingdom. You are blest who gaze into the depths. You are blest in the firmament of heaven. To you glory and praise for evermore.”  Indeed, both in Creation and in the history of Israel, God demonstrated His power. For example, He worked through the Ten Plagues that Moses performed through the power of God. Most of all, God showed Himself to be the Creator and Liberator of Israel by freeing them from the Egyptians, leading them through the Red Sea, and caring for them in the harsh desert.

Indeed, through the works He did for Israel, God passed before Moses proclaiming, “Lord, Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness.“ Moses bowed down to the ground at once and worshipped. “If I have indeed won your favour, Lord, he said, let my Lord come with us, I beg. True, they are a headstrong people, but forgive us our faults and our sins, and adopt us as your heritage.”  This God that we believe in is a God of love, compassion – a God who journeys with us in our faith, or the lack of faith. Just as He formed the Hebrews in the desert for forty years, we too must journey in faith, even if it takes forty years and more, or even our whole life. In every event of life, we need to be growing and maturing in faith and love.

But God also knows that people are headstrong and sinful. Despite the signs and wonders that God performed through Moses in Egypt and in the desert, the people kept doubting God’s fidelity and love for them. As soon as they entered the Promised Land, they adopted the pagan practices of their neighbours and abandoned God repeatedly. They fell into idolatry and failed to live the Covenant Laws as prescribed by God through Moses. God knew that the people would not be converted by commandments written on tablets. Through the prophet Ezekiel, God said: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.”  (Eze 36:25f) 

This is realized with the coming of Christ, who reveals to us the heart of God‘s love. Jesus is the glory of God. As He said in His priestly prayer in John’s Gospel, He came that we might see God’s glory in Him. (Jn 17:1-5,24) The Lord said to Nicodemus, “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life. For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.”  Jesus is the revelation of God‘s love in person. As Jesus told Philip, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.”  (Jn 14:9-11)

What is required of us is faith in Christ, as the love of God, in order to be saved. Jesus said, “No one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already, because he has refused to believe in the name of God’s only Son.” With God on our side, nothing can trouble us. St Paul wrote, “If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” (Rom 8:31-33) Again, St Paul wrote, “since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.” (Rom 3:23-25)

To have faith in Jesus as our Saviour and the Son of God will save us because we see the glory of God in Him. We experience His love being poured into our hearts and His power at work in our lives. But this sharing of God’s love is not something abstract like a pie in the sky. St Paul wrote, “hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”  (Rom 5:5) This love was given to us at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles. At Pentecost, we receive the Spirit of God, which is the love between the Father and the Son. Receiving the Holy Spirit inserts us into the life of God – His unceasing love. In the heart of God’s love, we share in His glory and His life.

This sharing of God’s love is made concrete in the way we love and care for our brothers and sisters. St Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says, “Brothers, we wish you happiness; try to grow perfect; help one another. Be united; live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with the holy kiss. All the saints send you greetings. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”  In these words, Paul sums up concisely what it means to have faith in God as the Holy Trinity – united in love and pouring out their love for humanity and creation. If we want to be perfected in the love of God, we must also share this love with our brothers and sisters, learning to respect each other, and see each other as collaborators in making the love of the Holy Trinity real in our lives. To say that “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” is with us, means that we work for each other and with each other, and in union with the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Living in unity is the way we live out our faith in the Holy Trinity. Let us pray that our communities will have this kind of relationship with each other, building the Church and in helping each other to grow in faith, serving the rest of humanity in truth and charity.

Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections

• Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
• Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
• It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.

Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.

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Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved. 

WITNESSING IN THE MARKETPLACE

20260530 WITNESSING IN THE MARKETPLACE

 

30 May 2026, Saturday, 8th Week in Ordinary Time

First reading

Jude 1:17,20-25

Use your most holy faith as your foundation

Remember, my dear friends, what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ told you to expect. You must use your most holy faith as your foundation and build on that, praying in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves within the love of God and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to give you eternal life. When there are some who have doubts reassure them; when there are some to be saved from the fire, pull them out; but there are others to whom you must be kind with great caution, keeping your distance even from outside clothing which is contaminated by vice.

  Glory be to him who can keep you from falling and bring you safe to his glorious presence, innocent and happy. To God, the only God, who saves us through Jesus Christ our Lord, be the glory, majesty, authority and power, which he had before time began, now and for ever. Amen.

How to listen

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Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 62(63):2-6

For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord, my God.

O God, you are my God, for you I long;

  for you my soul is thirsting.

My body pines for you

  like a dry, weary land without water.

For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord, my God.

So I gaze on you in the sanctuary

  to see your strength and your glory.

For your love is better than life,

  my lips will speak your praise.

For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord, my God.

So I will bless you all my life,

  in your name I will lift up my hands.

My soul shall be filled as with a banquet,

  my mouth shall praise you with joy.

For you my soul is thirsting, O Lord, my God.

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Gospel Acclamation

1P1:25

Alleluia, alleluia!

The word of the Lord remains for ever:

What is this word?

It is the Good News that has been brought to you.

Alleluia!

Or:	cf.Col3:16a,17

Alleluia, alleluia!

Let the message of Christ, in all its richness,

find a home with you;

through him give thanks to God the Father.

Alleluia!

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Gospel

Mark 11:27-33

I will not tell you my authority for acting like this

Jesus and his disciples came to Jerusalem, and as Jesus was walking in the Temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, and they said to him, ‘What authority have you for acting like this? Or who gave you authority to do these things?’ Jesus said to them, ‘I will ask you a question, only one; answer me and I will tell you my authority for acting like this. John’s baptism: did it come from heaven, or from man? Answer me that.’ And they argued it out this way among themselves: ‘If we say from heaven, he will say, “Then why did you refuse to believe him?” But dare we say from man?’ – they had the people to fear, for everyone held that John was a real prophet. So their reply to Jesus was, ‘We do not know.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Nor will I tell you my authority for acting like this.’

 

WITNESSING IN THE MARKETPLACE

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SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Jude 1:17,20-25; Ps 63:2-6; Mk 11:27-33]

In this age of secularisation, the Gospel has to be brought to the marketplace where the people are. We cannot expect people to come to our churches to look for Christ; while few might come out of desperation, the world often seems to be more appealing and attractive. It speaks louder and offers more choices. Our young people are out there, seduced by the world of music, entertainment, arts, pleasure, fun and excitement. They are glued to their mobile devices, always on Instagram, Facebook, and X. If we want to capture them for Jesus, the Church – as Pope Francis says – must go out to the frontlines of the battle where the sick and wounded are. We cannot stay in the comfort of our offices, waiting for them to seek us out for help.

Yet, there is so much danger when we try to bring the Gospel to the marketplace. In a world that is so secularised, we often feel we must become like others to befriend them – and sometimes, unfortunately, we even become one of them. This gradual process of desacralisation has taken place since Vatican II. Priests and religious tend to become more secularised in their dressing and lifestyle; no longer do we strive to be different from the rest of the world. Instead, we sometimes we even adopt the lifestyles we seek to transform. At times, we wonder what it means to be “holy” today, given the original meaning of being holy is to be ‘set apart’ and to be different. The deeper question is: Can the world tell that we are different, not necessarily in dress, but in our values and lifestyle? Perhaps, this is one of the reasons for the fall in the number of priestly and religious vocations: our lives do not seem distinct from those of the laity. This leads people to ask why is there a need to give up so much to be a priest or religious when one can spread the Gospel as a lay person anyway.

At the heart of it all is the loss of urgency in the work of evangelisation. With the doctrine that explicit faith in Christ and baptism are no longer necessary for salvation, many Catholics do not see why we should bother to bring people to Christ, since they can be presumably be saved by and in their own faith traditions. Unlike in the 15^th and 16^th centuries, when missionaries came from Europe with the conviction of saving souls for Christ, there is this implicit belief among many Catholics today that we should let those who already have a religion remain as they are. As for those without a religion, it is often felt that as long as they live a good life, it is sufficient. Indeed, faith in Christ has weakened so tremendously today that missionary zeal has been largely lost; not just among the laity, but even among priests and religious. Even for those who have joined the priesthood and religious life, some may have done so not out of a passion for spreading the Gospel, but simply because it offers a good, comfortable life, and opportunities to engage in good works now and then.

Surely, most of us would not think that those who are not baptised are condemned to hell, but rather that God, in His own way, would save them. As the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World says, “Pressing upon the Christian to be sure, are the need and the duty to battle against evil through manifold tribulations and even to suffer death. But, linked with the paschal mystery and patterned on the dying Christ, he will hasten forward to resurrection in the strength which comes from hope. All this holds true not only for Christians, but for all men of good will in whose hearts grace works in an unseen way. For, since Christ died for all men, and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with this paschal mystery.” (Gaudium et Spes §22) The Constitution on the Church reiterates this teaching when it says, “Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience. Nor does Divine Providence deny the helps necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God and with His grace strive to live a good life. Whatever good or truth is found amongst them is looked upon by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel.” (Lumen Gentium §16)

In the light of such challenges, how do we defend the need of spreading the Gospel? How do we continue to witness to Christ in a world that is highly secularised, multicultural and multi-religious? Once again, we need to find the authority for what we are doing. This was the question posed to the Lord in the Gospel when the Jewish religious leaders asked, “What authority have you for acting like this? Or who gave you the authority to do these things?” The truth is that the Jewish leaders were not interested to know the answer; they were simply trying to disprove and discredit Jesus so that their authority would be not eroded in the eyes of the people. They were both envious and intimidated by Jesus, whom they saw as a threat to their status quo and their institution. Instead, Jesus exposed their hypocrisy by countering them with His own question about authority. Indeed, they were not sincere in seeking the truth; they were actually afraid of it.

Similarly, in the work of evangelisation, we need to be clear about our own conviction of Jesus if we want to present Him as the Saviour of the world. Is our faith found in Him alone? As St Jude says, “Glory be to him who can keep you from falling and bring you safe to his glorious presence, innocent and happy. To God, the only God, who saves us through Jesus Christ our Lord, be the glory, majesty, authority and power, which he had before time began, now and forever. Amen.” Otherwise, the situation is precarious when we try to witness to Christ in the world. Instead of changing the world, the world changes us. This was the situation the Christian community was confronted with during the time of St Jude. They were faced with the danger of religious leaders teaching heresies and apostasy, as many drifted away from the faith and turned away from the Lord. This was because of a weak foundation in their faith, as they followed the bad examples and lifestyles of the so-called Christians. Like them, many of our Catholics today are so secularised that they live only for this world. Many Catholic parents are weak in the knowledge of their faith and are poor examples of Christian life – so much so that we should not expect their children and the generations after them to be fervent in their faith, except by the grace and mercy of Christ.

It is for this reason that St Jude gave us guidelines to remain firm in our witness. He wrote, “Remember, my dear friends, what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ told you to expect. You must use your holy faith as your foundation and build on that, praying in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves within the love of God and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to give you eternal life.” As Catholics, we need to strengthen the foundation of our faith through the ongoing study of doctrines and the Sacred Scriptures. Unfortunately, many of us not only do not update ourselves in the teachings of the Church, but we also neglect to read the Word of God regularly or be nourished by the Word of life. When we do not build up our faith, we become potential victims for the Evil One, as the world confuses us and we eventually lose our faith.

Secondly, St Jude urges us to pray in the Holy Spirit. We must never forget the importance of prayer and a personal relationship with the Lord, which is made possible when we pray in the Holy Spirit and live and walk in the Spirit. Like the psalmist, we must thirst for Him, the living water, to quench our spiritual thirst.  “So I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory.  For your love is better than life, my lips will speak your praise.”  Only in the Holy Spirit, can we witness with faith and love.

Thirdly, St Jude reminds us of the hope of the Lord’s return. We do not only live for this world, but for eternal life. This life is short, and in the blink of an eye, we will be no more. So, let us not deceive ourselves into thinking that we will not eventually join our forefathers. Our time will come; and while we must live fully in this life, it is vital to keep our sights on the fullness of life eternal with Jesus Christ forever.

Only when we are rooted in the Truth, filled with the Holy Spirit, and living in the ambience of God’s love are we ready to witness to Christ. We do so by strengthening our fellow Catholics who are weak in their faith; as St Jude says, “when there are some who have doubts, reassure them; when there are some to be saved from the fire, pull them out.” To those outside the faith, we must be watchful that in trying to reach out to them, we do not lose our identity, our values, and faith in Christ. St Jude cautions us: “but there are others to whom you must be kind with great caution, keeping your distance even from outside clothing which is contaminated by vice.” Let us not betray Christ by our conduct, our lives, our words, and our deeds.

Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections

• Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
• Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
• It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.

Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.

---

Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.