Commentary on Lectionary for June 19, 2011

Trinity Sunday

Genesis 1:1-2:4a; Psalm 8; 2 Corinthians 13:11=13; Matthew 28:16-20

This time after Pentecost is often called “Ordinary Time,” maybe because the lectionary uses ordinal numbers, like “Second Sunday in Ordinary Time.” This year it coincides with the beginning of summer, and I’ll be taking some time off from writing this blog.

In the spiritual life, however, there is no such thing as “ordinary time.” Pentecost changed that idea forever for all believers. The Spirit is working, creating, motivating, driving, getting results. One translation of that opening line in Genesis reads: “The Spirit of God swept over the waters.” Then creation happened, and all humans for all times have been awestruck at the magnitude of it, and the complexity and the beauty of it.

No wonder Psalm 8 is a favorite prayer of many: “O Lord, our Lord, how glorious is your name over all the earth…When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you set in place—What is man that you should be mindful of him?”

In Second Corinthians 13, Paul ends the letter by saying: “Put things in order; listen to my appeal. Live in peace, and the bond of love and peace will be with you.” When I look at my house or my office, the command to “put things in order” is so appropriate. When I look up and out to my community, my state, my country and my world, that is a tall order indeed. It is not an ordinary time. A LOT of people will have to work very hard to make it possible for us to “live in peace.”

We have our work cut out for us. It will not be easy, following this discipleship role. The good news is that we don’t have to do it alone. “Behold, I am with you always,” Jesus promised (Mt. 28:20). How? --Through the presence of His Spirit—the one that works wonders with chaos!

And now we come to the amazing revelation of this first Sunday after Pentecost—the revelation that God is a family: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"—that’s how to make disciples of all nations. Introduce them to this family and slowly, slowly they may come to realize what we dare to believe: that we are part of this Divine Family. “Holy Father, keep them in your name…that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them and You in Me...” (John 17:11, 22). He breathed on them and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22).

What an unfathomable gift! What a way to start this “Extraordinary Time!”