Year B: The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
The Commissioning of the Disciples
Matthew 28: 16-20
The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Discussion Questions:
- In this passage the sight of the risen Jesus brought some to worship, but others doubted. Where in your life do you recognize Jesus has risen, and when do you experience doubt?
- The disciples are to go to “all nations”, for the real God is a universal reality and not the household God of one tribe or one nation.” Where do you extend yourself in faith-relationships beyond your personal religious identity? Is this important?
- “Our belief in God as Trinity, is not about making God an important factor in our lives, as much as how we are a factor in God’s life”. In what ways do see yourself participating in the redemptive work of God?
- When has the mystery Trinity, God as “right relationship, oneness, and at the same time uniqueness”, been a part of your relationship experience? Describe what happened, or what occurred to you.
Biblical Context
Matthew 28: 16-20
Margaret Nutting Ralph PHD
Last week we read John’s story of the commissioning of the disciples. This week we read a commissioning story from Matthew. The commissioning stories all have the same function, but they differ a great deal in details. The significance of the unique details in Matthew’s account is much more clearly understood if we remember to whom Matthew is writing.
Matthew is writing for a primarily Jewish audience. Those in Matthew’s audience want to be faithful to the two-thousand-year tradition of their ancestors. They know that God gave Moses the authority to do what Moses did. So, they are asking, “Who gave Jesus the authority to do what Jesus did} Did he also have his authority from God?” In response to this question Matthew presents Jesus as the new Moses who has authority from God to give the new law.
One scene in which Matthew presents Jesus as the new Moses appeared earlier in the Gospel, when Jesus was explaining the relationship between the old law and the new law. Jesus tells the people he did not come to abolish the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them (see Matt 5:17). We often refer to this sermon of Jesus’ as the Sermon on the Mount, because Matthew pictures Jesus standing on a mountain as he promulgates the new law (see Matt 5:1), just as Moses stood on a mountain when he promulgated the old law. A mountain was also the setting for Jesus’ transfiguration (Matt 17:1).
Now when Matthew tells his commissioning story, he does not have the apostles commissioned in Jerusalem but in Galilee, on the mountain. “The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.” The reference to “the eleven” is, of course, a reminder of Judas’s death. That Jesus had ordered them to go to Galilee is a reference to Jesus’ instructions when he earlier appeared to “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary” (Matt 28:1): “Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me”.
Matthew directly answers the question of Jesus’ authority in the wording of the commissioning. Jesus says, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Jesus’ authority is from God.
Jesus tells the disciples to “make disciples of all nations.” This post-resurrection directive differs from the directions that Jesus gave his disciples during his public ministry. When Jesus earlier commissioned the disciples he said, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”(Matt 10:5-6), However, by the time Matthew is writing, around AD 80, the church has come to realize that God wills that all people be invited into a relationship of covenant love. We read of the church coming to this understanding in the Acts of the Apostles when Cornelius and Peter have their dreams and Peter baptizes Cornelius and his family (see Acts 10). This later understanding has been included in the words of commissioning.
A second, later understanding that is included in the commissioning is the Trinitarian formula that the disciples are told to use when baptizing: “… baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” This formula does not appear in the descriptions of early baptisms in Acts. In Acts during Peter’s speech at Pentecost, he tells the people to “repent and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). At the baptism of Cornelius Peter orders that Cornelius and his family” be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 10:48). However, by the time Matthew is writing, the Trinitarian formula was used, and Matthew includes it in his commissioning.
This Trinitarian formula, in which the Father is named, is one more way in which Matthew responds to the question of his Jewish audience. Jesus does not have a mission separate from the mission of his Father. Jesus’ mission is God’s mission. Those in Matthew’s audience are not being unfaithful to their religious roots by embracing Jesus. Since Jesus came not to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them, to become a disciple of Jesus is to remain faithful to God the Father.
The Mystery of Trinity
Reflection
Fr. James Smith
The Trinity is the most basic doctrine of our Christian faith. And yet, if the doctrine of the Trinity were to be mislaid tomorrow, it would not leave much of a hole in the average Christian’s relationship with God.
There are reasons for this. The absolute mystery of the inner life of God is obviously beyond our grasp. We don’t need to understand the Trinity to appreciate it any more than we need to be an art critic to appreciate a painting. The more we understand, of course, the more we enjoy it. But we need not be experts in mixing paint or in analyzing relationships. We intuitively feel that there is one God; we just need to relate with the three distinct persons who comprise that one God. Since we are images of God, we have a built-in facility for relating with the three distinct persons of God. Our original human experience is that that we are creatures, that Someone made us. We gradually realize that every being is continuously held in existence by some super-being, some separate power beyond all beings. Nor is the activity of billions of beings random. We discover the evolution of various species, we analyze the hidden laws of physics directing the activity of matter, we discern a recurring pattern of history. In short, we come to believe that every single thing that happens, happens under the steady gaze of infinite wisdom and power. Some people call it God; we are graced to call it Father.
We experience ourselves as creatures, now sons and daughters of God. We have to learn how to be human in our own personal way. We must come to terms with suffering, learn how to laugh, become obedient to the facts of life. Since we did not make the world or ourselves, we cannot make up the way to be human.
We have to learn from others. Family and friends help, but they are as fallible as we, so we look for the perfect mentor, the ideal human. We find him in the Gospels, someone born into the same situation as ourselves, someone who had to deal with pain, obey the hard facts of life, find his way among people and circumstances, discover a right relationship with God, remain faithful to himself and his God and, finally, die as we do.
This model of humanity is God’s Son. History calls him Jesus; we call him Brother.
As we drift along in a macrocosmic there is a microcosm of turmoil inside us. Tsunamis of depression overwhelm us; explosions of mood swings keep us unbalanced; a multitude of fears makes us anxious; conflicting passions wear us down. Each of us is a unique, individual consciousness who must make our own sense of life, determine our own destiny, work out a private relationship with God.
All that is beyond our meager power. Our spirit is dismayed by its inability to cope with existence. Or we would be dismayed, if it were not for the presence of God in our hearts, closer to us than we are to ourselves, guiding us along the good life, the godly life. Some people call it fate; we are graced to called it the Holy Spirit of God.
This Trinity of persons is not just in our minds. It is the way God is in Godself. Nor is the Trinity just the way God deals with us; it is the way God relates with Godself. The Blessed Trinity is not just a yearly event, it is a movable feast. Every day, morning and night, we should greet the Father above us, the Son alongside us, the Spirit within us.
Selections from Breaking Open the Lectionary: Lectionary Readings in Their Biblical Context for RCIA, Faith Sharing Groups, and Lectors—Cycle B, by Margaret Nutting Ralph, Copyright © 2005 by Margaret Nutting Ralph. Paulist Press, Inc., New York/Mahwah, NJ. Reprinted by permission of Paulist Press, Inc. www.paulistpress.com.
Reflection from CelebrationPublications.org, The Mystery of Trinity, Fr. James Smith