We Are a Stiff-necked People: Reflections on the Readings for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Cycle A

If you haven’t already read the readings you can find them here.

Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9
Psalm: Daniel 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
John 3:16-18

In the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, the Israelites come across as stubborn; “stiff-necked” is how Moses described them. They grumble a lot, even at times expressing longing for their days as slaves in Egypt. But just as God loved them and so worked on changing them, He loves all of His creation as today’s gospel reading tells us.

Moses was raised in Pharaoh’s house by Pharaoh’s daughter. She had found him in the basket his mother had placed him in to save him from being killed. Pharaoh had decreed that the male Hebrew children should be killed because the Hebrews were becoming too numerous and strong and he wanted to keep them enslaved. Moses knew he was a Hebrew but had no relationship with God. Most of us know the story of Moses’ encounter with God in the burning bush. As with true encounters with Jesus, the burning bush made a “convert” out of Moses: it changed him.

We see in today’s reading the closeness of Moses’ relationship with God. Moses went up the mountain with the two stone tablets as God had commanded him and God came to meet Him. God initiated the meeting as He always does (He calls us first), just as He did with the burning bush. And when we respond, as Moses did, God makes His presence more evident, as we read in today’s excerpt from Exodus. In a moment of humility, Moses asks God to accompany the throng, acknowledging that “This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own."

The lesson is there for us as well, for we, too, are a stiff-necked people. Even though God calls us and offers us His grace, we resist cooperating with that grace. Perhaps we aren’t humble enough to acknowledge what Dr. Peter Kreeft notes: “God has to keep reminding us of the two most obvious truths in the world: that we are not Him, and that He is not us.” (Food for the Soul, Cycle C)

The responsorial psalm is taken from the book of the prophet Daniel. It is part of the song being sung by three of Daniel’s companions (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) from inside the fiery furnace into which they had been thrown by King Nebuchadnezzar for refusing to worship the king’s golden idol. The Lord saved them from the heat of the furnace for their steadfast faith and trust in God, and so they were alive in the furnace that was so hot it killed the men who had thrown them in. It’s no wonder that they acclaimed, “Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.”

In the second reading St. Paul is ending his second letter to the Corinthians, having chastised them and worrying over those “who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, immorality, and licentiousness they practiced.” Nevertheless, he encourages them to “Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace.” The words he uses to close this letter should be very familiar to us as they are almost identical to the opening greeting of the priest at the beginning of the Mass.

The gospel selection includes another familiar phrase as we see it often at sporting events with someone holding a sign invoking “John 3:16,” “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” The beginning condition for attaining eternal life is belief in the Son, Jesus Christ.

This quote is part of the conversation Jesus was having with the prominent pharisee, Nicodemus, who had met with Him at night. One of the important parts of this conversation was Jesus telling Nicodemus, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” Nicodemus has difficulty with this concept and Jesus challenges his lack of understanding, especially since he is a “teacher of Israel.”

If we look at Genesis we see the presence of the Trinity in God, His Spirit moving over the face of the waters, and the Son (the Word: “God said let there be light”). However, the Jews had even less understanding of the Trinity than we do. Some bible scholars speculate that the three men Abraham encountered prior to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah might actually have been the Trinity (St. Augustine considered it a possibility). Some of this confusion may also have stemmed from the shema prayer from Deuteronomy, “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!” This could also be translated (or understood) “the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)

Nevertheless, Jesus in this early conversation with Nicodemus brings the Spirit into the discussion. Later, of course, Jesus promises to send the Spirit after He ascends to the Father, and, as we celebrated last week, the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth descended upon the disciples on Pentecost.

It is difficult to understand that there are denominations that call themselves Christian yet deny the personage of the Holy Spirit. In 1 John 4:16 we read, “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.” The Spirit is the manifestation of the love between the Father and the Son, and this includes the love God has for the world as we read in today’s gospel.

So now we have reached that point in the liturgical year when we move back into what is known as “Ordinary Time.” However, there is nothing ordinary or routine about it, it draws its name from the ordinal numbering of the Sunday Masses. And it is appropriate that we celebrate the Trinity, the One God in three persons, on this occasion. The Trinity is a mystery of faith. It is a mystery, not in the sense that it is something to be solved, but in the sense that no one can fully explain it; it is a matter of faith. We know it exists because we saw its manifestation at the creation of the world described in Genesis. Jesus alluded to it when He spoke with Nicodemus, and during the Last Supper He promised to send the Spirit to the apostles. Additionally Matthew described the commissioning command of Jesus at the end of his gospel, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

When I was young it was customary to make the sign of the Cross when passing a Church or a cemetery. As Catholics we begin and end our prayers (and, specifically, the Mass) with the Trinity in the sign of the Cross. It is a simple prayer of faith that can be said anytime, day or night. Say it freely and often.