Reflections on today's readings

When I was trying to walk out the door at 7:31 to play at 8:00 mass and didn't have the right keys hanging where they belong, I decided on plan B. I'll have to find them before too much longer here, but I wasn't going to lose my mind trying to find them after I was already supposed to be at church if I was going to play.

Today's readings

Sometimes I completely understand why the bishops skip over verses in the assigned readings, because they don't fit with - or even distract from - the main point of the reading which they're trying to emphasize. And sometimes I just shake my head and fear that they've actually failed to underscore the most important part of what we need to hear. For instance, in today's reading from Deuteronomy, here is the passage they've omitted, after "before your very eyes?"

To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him. Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you; and on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.  And because he loved your fathers and chose their descendants after them, and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as at this day; - Dt 4:35-38

The passage then continues: "this is why you must now know . . . "

Perhaps the bishops are trying to avoid controversy over the history of Israel and the idea that God provided this land for his chosen people. But it seems to me that it is important for us to know that it we need to focus as much on what the Lord is doing in our own lives, even those things that are in fact discipline or correction for us, as on what he has done in the past. I have been greatly blessed by God, my heavenly Father, and need to keep in mind that his direction for my life is intended for further blessing rather than caprice and control.

The psalm was of course written before we were given much inkling of the triune Godhead, and was a song of the Jewish chosen people, but it resonates even more for me today as a follower of Christ who has filled me with his very presence by pouring out the Holy Spirit, choosing me to be his own in a far more intimate way than even the Jewish people were first chosen. I have read that salvation history has been a continual journey from a chosen person (Adam, then Abraham) to a family (Abraham's descendents, down to Jacob's family in Egypt) to a nation (those delivered from slavery in Egypt to the promised land of Israel) to include the entire world (to the ends of the earth). The Incredibles got it wrong when they said that "if everyone is special, then no one is." We are all special, each chosen individually in our unique way to enter into this relationship with God the Father through Christ Jesus in the Holy Spirit.

The second reading is fairly short, and is worth including in its entirety here:

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. - Rom 8:14-17

(btw, I continue to use the RSV translation, which doesn't exactly match the USCCB link above because the bishops are probably using the NAB.)

How wonderful that this follows last week's epistle reading, in which we are assured that no one can proclaim Jesus as Lord except by the Holy Spirit. This passage brings out the roles of the persons of the Trinity in our lives. It isn't that they act individually to do separate things, but that God works together in our lives in various ways to draw us into relationship with him, indwelling us with his very self that we might carry on the mission on which Jesus has sent us as he himself was sent. We have the boldness of the Spirit to carry us through the trials we might be asked to bear in his name, for a season or for our lives, so that God is glorified by the works he has prepared for us in which we walk.

Passages like this should disabuse us of the notion that Christians are destined for an easy path because of our faith.

The Gospel reading is the most succinct confirmation of the triune Godhead, for why would anyone have any need of being baptized in any name except that of God himself?

Some scholars try to reduce today's feast and the concept of the Trinity to a pantheistic concept. There is value in knowing and reflecting upon the presence of God in all things. But there is also value in taking one day out of the year, not to put the Divine Persons of the Trinity into a box of orthodoxy, but to consider the implications that the God who loves each of us so much as to have created this universe for us with all its marvels to reveal his glory then humbly came among us to reveal his glory in redeeming sacrifice and even more humbly reveals his glory by dwelling within us even though we still choose our own wishes over God's greater dreams for us - and to know that all of these actions are really one united expression of a love that we barely begin to know in this life.

And so it turns out that this time soaking in God's presence was probably better than playing at an extra Mass this morning.