Trinity Sunday and Mary
The Feast of the Holy Trinity is an opportunity to ponder Mary living the great joy of Pentecost. Her relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit continued to grow after Pentecost – as did that of all the disciples. They had received “power from on high”, and Mary was to care for the young Church, as she had cared for Jesus!
The Indwelling of the Trinity had been infused into the soul of Mary from her Immaculate Conception, and Mary continued growing in her fullness of Grace. When the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and Jesus became flesh in her womb, what a wonder! How humbly and lovingly her “Yes” continued, and now she continues to “mother” Him in every soul who receives Him!
In Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 260, we read:
The ultimate end of the divine economy is the entry of God’s creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity. (cf John 17:21-23). But even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: “If a man loves me”, says the Lord, “he will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him”…
Too few Catholics, it seems to me, are aware of our call into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity. Too few have been taught or remember what the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us in paragraph 265:
By the grace of Baptism, “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” we are called to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity, here on earth in the obscurity of faith, and after death in eternal life…
The picture I’ve included in this blog entry is an artist’s conception of Mary. The artist has captured something of the reality of God at work in Mary from the first moment of her conception. As Jesus hung on the Cross, He said to the beloved disciple John, “Behold your Mother”, giving her not only to John but to us all. I believe Jesus wants us to behold in our Mother the work of the Holy Spirit.
When we behold our Mother Mary, we see how a simple human person can say, “Yes” to His Word, and truly be a “dwelling place for God”. Our Baptism was the beginning of our supernatural life. Though we were not immaculately conceived as Mary was, we were cleansed of sin and infused with Sanctifying Grace which is a participation in the very life of God the Trinity. God the Holy Spirit continues to sanctify us, as we listen as Mary did and do the Truth we hear.
God intends us to grow in His life, to be nourished as Mary was by His Word, by the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, by every encounter with Him as He continues to work within us. The Holy Spirit is given to us to brings into the complete Truth of Jesus, to sanctify us as He sanctified Mary and all the saints who have gone before us. When we behold our Mother we see in her His Truth: “nothing is impossible with God”.
As we celebrate Trinity Sunday, let us gratefully renew our Baptism and begin anew — growing, answering God’s “call to be a Dwelling of the Most Holy Trinity” (cf. CCC 260). Each day, may His Light shine more brightly in His Church as He did in Mary. By His Grace let us behold our Mother by faith now, until we behold her in eternity with God, the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
