Sunday, June 11, 2017

THE FEAST OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

"The Most Holy Trinity"
By Rene De Cramer
From the Roman Missal


The first Sunday after Pentecost.
Feast of the Most Holy Trinity.

Today we celebrate in a special way the foundational teaching the Catholic Church that the Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit are One God and that, through the life, death and resurrection of Christ, who is God Incarnate, all those baptized in the name of the Trinity will return to it.

The dogma of the Trinity is the fundamental dogma to which all things in Catholicism are related. It is also the most often defended dogma throughout history as, outside of the many direct attacks on this Tradition, attacks on all Catholic dogmas are either knowingly or unwittingly attacks against the reality of the Holy Trinity as is notable in that a small, but growing number of Christians have lost all understanding of the Trinity due to the rejection of other dogmas that seemed superfluous to them. Ancient heresies are repeated and find their ultimate end in the rejection of the ultimate reality. That God is One, but paradoxically is also a family into which we are called to adoption through the life of the Church He founded.

The dogma of the Holy Trinity is everywhere affirmed in the Sacred Liturgy of the Catholic Church. It is in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that the Mass and the Divine Office always begin and end and it is in the same name that every Sacrament is conferred. Every psalm ends with the Gloria Patri, all hymns with the Doxology and every prayer of every lay person, priest or consecrated religious person begins and ends in the name of the Trinity. Even the dogma that Mary is the "Mother of God," the Tradition seemingly most commonly rejected by our New Protestant accusers, is an essential defense of the dogma of the Trinity.

So let us today remember the reality of the Trinity. Particularly in our highest and most essential prayer, the Holy Mass, in which we are always twice reminded that the sacrifice of the Eucharist, a participation in the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our high priest, is offered to the Holy Trinity.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the God who was, who is and is to come, One God forever.