This Sunday is an unusual feast day because it focuses on a central doctrine of our Catholic faith. And this year there is an additional specialness: 2025 is the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. That gathering of bishops in 325 gave us the Nicene Creed that we say together at most Sunday Masses. In this Creed, we affirm our belief in one God whose life or being (essence) consists of the three internal relationships of Father, Son and Spirit. And we affirm that the Son, whom we know as Jesus the Christ, is “consubstantial” (the Greek term was homoousios) with the Father, meaning he equally shares divine essence with the Father, as the Spirit also does. After the Eastern Orthodox and Protestants separated from the Catholic Church, they mostly retained the Nicene Creed, or belief in the Trinity, so this doctrine is a point of unity with them. In fact, when someone from another credal Church becomes Roman Catholic, they are not re-baptized; they only make a profession of faith in the Catholic Church.
This anniversary is a big deal! Before his death, Pope Francis planned to visit Turkey (where Nicaea is) to mark the occasion, and there is speculation that our new Pope Leo XIV will still do that. All that said, as we mark this solemnity, we bump up against a big mystery. We don’t have adequate language to express God’s inner life, the Trinity. This creed is the best we’ve been able to do after many centuries! Perhaps we can understand this a little by reflecting on our humanness. Each of us is a little mystery, too. We always remain somewhat of a mystery even to ourselves, and certainly no one else can completely convey our very selves in words. The part of our triune God that we can really know and speak of is the effects of God, God’s “work” (the “economic Trinity” as it is spoken of in theology). We see and experience God’s creating love (God as Father at work), God’s saving love (Jesus the Christ’s at work), and God’s unifying and completing love (the Spirit at work). The author of St. John’s Gospel calls attention to the Spirit’s love-work in our Gospel today: “When he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth…” Our troubled world so needs the truth the Spirit reveals. Today we profess our faith that the Spirit has come, and is with us now today, on this the octave of last Sunday’s feast of Pentecost.
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia
The post June 15, Trinity Sunday, Mystery: a Sunday Scriptures blog first appeared on Sisters of the Precious Blood.