Homily for Trinity Sunday

Homily for Trinity Sunday

May 31, 2026
Collect
John 3: 16-18
Villa Maria, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

The Trinity with the Saints
(from the Breviary of Mattia Corvino)

In the course of salvation history, God made himself known gradually, revealing himself to Abraham, Moses—e.g., as we heard in the 1st reading (Ex 34:4-9)—and the prophets.  He revealed himself most fully “by sending into the world the Word of truth and the Spirit of sanctification” (Collect).

Not that we can comprehend God’s essence, the full mystery of his being.  But in the Word made flesh, the Son given to us, we begin to understand that God loves us, is close to us, and wills to draw us ever closer to himself.  “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16), and he did that entirely out of love, a love that we sinners in no way deserve.  That’s truth in the flesh, Jesus Christ, the truth that God loves us.

The Father and the Son send us the Spirit of sanctification.  “Send” is in the present tense because they do so continually, moment by moment joining us to themselves, “the source of all holiness” (EP II) so long as we keep our hearts open to them.  The Spirit wondrously transforms us from sinners into saints, friends of God who are worthy to enter his presence, destined to “acknowledge the Trinity of eternal glory” (Collect), sharing in that glory by “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God [the Father] and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor 13:13).