Today we are reminded of God’s providence. We live in a world that feeds us and shelters us and supplies us with everything that we need to grow and to thrive, and all of this comes to us from the hand of God. God certainly cares passionately for each of us (not even a sparrow falls without God knowing it), but God’s concern is for the whole people. We are first and foremost members of a people. As unique as we may be, we are a unique expression of a communal reality. God created a race; God formed a people; Jesus died for the world. By the grace of God, we belong to the community. As members of the people of God, we are called to a way of life that is noble, not selfish. We are to live with each other in humility and gentleness, with patience. We are to bear with one another in love. Through baptism we all live by the same Spirit of Jesus; we are all united through the bond of God’s love. The bread that we receive from the hand of God is the bread of full life, life in all its dimensions, life in Christ.
There are so many searching people in the world today, people hungering for instruction, good people looking for direction. They are people who are looking for answers and for meaning. They are like sheep without a shepherd, and Jesus looks to us to shepherd them. In the midst of this confusion, there are reliable shepherds who walk with us in the dark valleys. They are willing to share the dangers through which we pass, even at the risk of their own safety. They do not pit one segment of the community or one theological perspective against another, scattering the sheep and driving them away. Instead, they work to dismantle the walls that divide us. They speak the word that gathers us together. They reconcile us with God and with each other. They may not give us easy answers, but their primary concern is to lead us to Jesus, the one who is our peace.
Jesus inaugurated the reign of God on earth. He chose disciples and sent them out to continue the work that he had begun, to preach his gospel and, through healings and exorcisms, to conquer the forces of evil that threatened that reign. And now we have been called; in him we have been chosen, in all of our brokenness and vulnerability. The task to which we have been called is awe-inspiring; and every spiritual blessing in the heavens has been bestowed upon us so that we will be able to accomplish it. If we allow Christ’s saving power to take possession of us, we too will further his prophetic ministry. We will bring the saving grace of God to the world that is terrified and that writhes in pain; we will bring it to those places where healing is needed and where demons still hold sway. We will bring all things under the headship of Christ.
True believers recognise and admit their human frailty. They also know that genuine weakness does not impede the saving action of God. In fact, God seems to prefer to act where pride and self-satisfaction do not prevail, for such attitudes are obstacles to personal transformation. However, when we open ourselves in humility and honest piety, the power of God can flood our minds and our hearts and shine forth from us to all around. When this happens, there will be no doubt in any mind as to the origin of this wondrous reality. It will be very clear that though it comes through us, it comes from God.
God’s graciousness toward us should prompt us to be generous toward others. What we receive as life-enhancing gifts, we must share with those in need, those to whom life has not been kind. As we have been favoured by the healing touch of God, so we must extend that same loving touch to others. The love of Christ impels us to be openhanded as we approach those in need. Following Jesus’ lead, we must not only give to them, we must also allow them to take from us. At times this will require that we share material resources; at other times it might mean that our energy will be drained in our service of them. In all of this, Jesus has set the example for us to follow.
Job’s new insights enlightened his understanding of creation, of the Creator, and of himself, a finite creature. Several of the disciples were seasoned fishermen. They knew that sea quite well. Living close to Jesus, they knew him too. Now they saw him in a different light. In both cases, faith opened their eyes. Like the disciples, we begin to realise that this man who shares in all of our human vulnerability is able to direct the power of the Creator. We need eyes of faith to recognise the power of God at work in the events of our lives. Like Job, faith moves us from viewing God as a deity who is so distant from us that the circumstances of our lives appear to be irrelevant, to realising that everything is ultimately in God’s hands and everything follows the course on which God has set it. For our part, all we can or need do is entrust ourselves to this loving God who cares if even a sparrow falls to the ground.
In many ways, parables are brain-teasers. Jesus states that the reign of God is like seed that takes root and grows and produces in secret places within human reality. In fact it is usually found in places where one would least expect to find it – among the poor and despised, in the hearts of those who suffer, in the lives of the persecuted. The potential of the reign of God is often contained in what appears to be inconsequential. Yet it thrives in its own mysterious ways. The parables of Jesus forced his hearers to stretch their imaginations and to make connections that they might not ordinarily make. The presumption was that those who followed Jesus were always willing or able to do this.
Throughout the Gospel of Mark, the author explores the question of who people believe Jesus to be. Whilst his disciples have a less than perfect understanding of the question, ‘Who do you say I am?’, those whose faith reveals the truth of Jesus are quickly sworn to secrecy. In today’s gospel, the misunderstanding of Jesus’ family and the misunderstanding of the Scribes show their incomplete grasp of who Jesus is. Whilst the language about Satan, evil and unclean spirits is unfamiliar language today, the gospel writer uses this imagery to further his point that Jesus is the Messiah, the one who saves the world.
This feast celebrates the incomparable love of Christ. He offered himself for the expiation of our sins; he spread a banquet table for us at which we are able to eat the bread of companionship and share the blood of the new covenant. How shall we make a return to the Lord for all the good that we have received? The only appropriate response to God’s graciousness is thanksgiving (eucharistía). We have been chosen; we have been delivered; we have a witness in heaven; and now we have been given the bread of eternal life and the blood of salvation. What return can we give? A life of gratitude lived in the presence of God; a life of union with all those who eat the same bread and drink from the same cup; a life of faithful expectation, waiting for the coming of the reign of God in all its fullness.
Trinity Sunday celebrates the core Christian conviction that God is a communion of relational love. In today’s Gospel, Jesus commands his disciples to make disciples of all peoples and to baptize in the name of the Trinity. Jesus is named Emmanuel, “God with us” and with Jesus’ final assurance, “know that I am with you always”, we find ourselves gathered into the very life of God. Furthermore, St. Paul reminds us in today’s second reading that God is not a distant God, but rather a God whose Spirit draws us, as “joint heirs with Christ”, into God’s own life of love and relationship. Trinity Sunday is the day we set aside to celebrate the mystery of God and the nearness of God who invites us into the dynamic cycle of life and love, a cycle that reaches out beyond the human community and embraces the entire cosmos. As we make the sign of the cross, a symbolic action with a two millennia history, we might become more and more attentive to the wonder of the divine life that dwells in us and in whom we are privileged to dwell.