Daily Gospel Reflection
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May 30, 2021
The eleven disciples went to Galilee,
to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.
When they all 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.”
“They worshiped, but they doubted.”
This line in today’s gospel stood out to me because I have done the exact same thing. How many times have I gone to Mass to worship, even when my faith was weak and faltering? I have doubted, just as the disciples doubted. The disciples knew Jesus, they walked with him, heard his message, and talked with him face to face. At this point in Matthew’s Gospel, they have even witnessed his resurrection. Yet, they still doubted.
I once fell into a conversation with a person whom I consider a spiritual mentor on the topic of faith and doubt and he told me this: real faith isn’t the absence of doubt, just like true courage isn’t the absence of fear.
Courage requires us to face our fears and act courageously in response to those fears. Faith requires us to face our doubts and live with fidelity to the Gospel in spite of our doubts. In fact, if we didn’t have doubts, we wouldn’t need faith. If we had pure certainty, what would be the point of faith? Nothing!
The last line of the gospel passage is the real takeaway, for me. Jesus tells us, “I am with you always, until the end of the age.” While it can be difficult to know that Jesus is actually with us, he promises that he will be. That might not prevent us from doubting, from time to time (just like the disciples), but it can never diminish Christ’s promise. He is with us.
Prayer
God of wisdom and truth, you reveal to people of faith your oneness amid the diversity and uniqueness in the world around us. Make yourself known to us and to all people, as the one God, living and true. Affirm your truth in our lives that we may be witnesses of your unchanging presence. May your declared truth in the life and teachings of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, be our salvation and guide. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
That God is Triune has been the clear teaching of the Church since the fourth century, when we began reciting the creed at Mass every week. We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of God. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
This reality is a mystery to us, which is not to say that we can know nothing of it. It is a mystery in the sense that it is always beyond us—we cannot come to the end of knowing it.
The doctrine of the Trinity is a way for us to articulate God’s inner life. To say that “Trinity” is a name for God is to say that God’s very essence and being is communion and relationship. Made in God’s image, we, too, are created for relationship. This belief sets the foundation for all we experience and believe as humans.
“God relates to us in three distinct ways of being present to our history: as Father, as Son, and as Holy Spirit; as Creator, as Redeemer, and as Sanctifier,” explains Father Richard McBrien in his encyclopedic work, Catholicism. “The triune God who created us, who sustains us, who will judge us, and who will give us eternal life is not infinitely removed from us, but is absolutely close to us, communicated in the flesh and present in our hearts, our consciousness, and our history as the source of enlightenment and community” (330).
An ancient schematic describes the relationships between the persons of the Trinity well, and it is depicted in stone on the outer wall of the chapel of Howard Hall on campus. Written in Latin, it states that the Father is not the Spirit, which is not the Son. ("Pater non-est Spiritus Santus non-est Filius.") At the same time each of those persons is God (“est Deus”). They are three persons, distinct from each other, each fully God, yet preserving the one-ness of God.
On this feast of the Holy Trinity, let us grow in our union with God as creator, redeemer, and sanctifier!