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