THE MOST HOLY TRINITY
31 MAY 2026
Today’s
Gospel contains the best-known verse of the Bible. We see John 3:16 at sports events – behind
home plate in baseball, in the end zones at football games, behind the baskets
at basketball games, and others. It
summarizes the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In his secret meeting at night, Jesus tells Nicodemus how much God loves
the “world” (kosmos). John uses the word kosmos nearly 80 times, painting a picture of a system that is
fundamentally opposed to God. He describes this negative kosmos in three distinct ways.
First, he
points out that the world is spiritually blind, and that the world simply
cannot perceive or comprehend spiritual truth.
In the first chapter of his Gospel, John says that the One who shared in
the creation of the world entered it at his birth. The world had become so spiritually blind
that humanity did not know who he was.
Later in the Gospel, Jesus says that the world cannot accept the Spirit
of Truth, “because it neither sees him nor knows him.”
Second, the
world is actively hostile to the truth, because the light of truth will expose
the brokenness of the world. Jesus tells
his disciples that the world hates him, because he testifies to what is evil in
the world. After Pentecost, the
disciples found that the world hates them and persecutes them, because it hated
their Lord.
Finally,
the world is under dark leadership.
Jesus presents kosmos as a
rebel kingdom working directly in opposition to God’s kingdom. As he approaches the cross, Jesus insists
that it is the time of judgment of this world, and the prince of this world
will be driven out. Standing before
Pilate, Jesus draws a final, stark contrast: “My kingdom is not of this world.
John paints a picture of the world
that looks incredibly dark. It can be
blind, hateful, and ruled by a dark power.
For Nicodemus and the Jewish people, the kosmos includes the Roman Empire and the corrupt Sanhedrin. Today, we do not have to look far to see the darkness
in our own world. Despite much progress,
we know that racism is still very much part of our world. We see the systemic
exploitation of the vulnerable. Too
often, the powerful ignore their needs so that they can maintain and expand
their power. People tend to us euphemisms
to ignore the reality of abortion. They
insist that it is “health care.” Too
many people in authority prefer to use their power to control, instead of
entering into dialogue. Leaders wage
wars, because the world sees them as legitimate ways of furthering their own
objectives.
Despite so
much darkness in our world, John insists that God so loved the world that he
sent his own Son, so that all who believes in him might have new life in the
world redeemed by Jesus Christ. That
love is evident in today’s readings.
Instead of destroying his people when they worshipped a golden calf in
the absence of Moses, God does not give up on them. His love, kindness, and fidelity know no
end. In the Canticle which replaces the
Psalm, the three young men who emerge unharmed from the fiery furnace praise
God for his faithfulness and love. Saint
Paul urges the Corinthian community torn apart by division to embrace the peace
of Christ and live it, abandoning the Roman cultural values of dominance and
competition. In living the peace of
Christ, they embrace the values of humility, submission, and self-sacrificial
love. He concludes by invoking the
Trinity: the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
On this Solemnity of the Holy
Trinity, the Lord does not tell us to withdraw from this world and go into
hiding. Instead, he calls us to be
honest about the darkness of our world and open ourselves to the many ways in
which the Holy Spirit is drawing us into the trinitarian love of God. That is our hope, not only for eternity, but
also for our continued journey in the world.
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