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Word To Life
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Sunday Scripture Readings: June 3, 2007
By Dan Luby
Catholic News Service
June 3, Most Holy Trinity
Cycle C Readings:
1) Proverbs 8:22-31
Psalm 8:4-9
2) Romans 5:1-5
3) Gospel: John 16:12-15
Everything in the crowded workplace refrigerator is labeled with someone's name. Frozen meals in manufacturers' packaging, leftovers in plastic tubs, badly wrapped slices of cheese hardening at the curling edges, cans of soda, containers of yogurt and zippered bags of ancient salad -- all are marked to indicate private ownership. The lines between what's ours and what belongs to others are sharply drawn.
The Gospel for Trinity Sunday hints powerfully at a different vision of reality where such distinctions are provisional, a stage in our development which we are called to transcend.
Gathered with his disciples at table, Jesus speaks passionately about the mutuality of God. The "Spirit of truth," that he promises to send "will not speak on his own," but will reveal that truth which resides in God's inner life.
"Everything the Father has is mine," Jesus reminds us. Within the heart of that divine community of Persons which we call the Trinity, there is no possessiveness. Nothing is held back from the other divine Persons who make up the community. Nothing is marked "Mine."
Made in the divine image and likeness, we are not on our own either. We are built for communion, with God and with each other. We are destined for life within God's own heart, where petty distinctions and false dichotomies are, once and for all, dissolved. We cannot see it clearly yet. The Lord acknowledges that our capacity to take in the sublime truth to which the doctrine of the Trinity points is limited: "You cannot bear it now."
The time will come, though, when everything that separates us from him and from one another will vanish. In the meantime, we continue the journey of faith in confidence, knowing that because "the love of God has been poured out into our hearts," as Paul tells us, we have a hope that "does not disappoint."
QUESTIONS:
About what in my life do I tend to be unnecessarily possessive? What's one specific way I can deepen my communion with someone from whom I feel separated?
SCRIPTURE TO BE ILLUSTRATED:
"He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you" (John 16:14).
END
Copyright © 2006 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS Word To Life column may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
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