Daily Gospel Reflection
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May 31, 2026
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner. The full readings of the day from the Lectionary are available here.
Growing up, I understood belief in God much like how I believed in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. Belief to me was simply whether something existed or not. And for a long time, I thought answering that question was enough. I had intellectual agreement that Jesus existed, and that was what faith was. But this kind of belief didn’t ask much of me. It didn’t change how I lived, how I treated others, or really any part of my daily life.
It wasn’t until I attended a youth group, after encouragement from my father, that something began to shift. I encountered people my age who truly trusted Christ, who brought their real fears and doubts to him. That’s when I began to understand what John actually means by the word believe. It’s about entrusting our whole selves, relying on and committing to God.
When Jesus says that whoever believes in him will not be condemned, it is not a reward for correct theology. He is inviting us into a living relationship like that of the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in a communion of self-giving love, and we are called to enter that same life. God’s movement toward us has never been one of judgment or condemnation. It has always been one of love. Love that went so far as to give his only Son for us.
So today, let us ask where in our lives we are still treating faith as intellectual agreement. What would it look like, in a relationship, a fear, a habit, a wound we’ve been carrying, to actually entrust that to God? Not just to know Jesus exists, but to let him in? That is the belief John is pointing us toward.
Prayer
Dear Lord, Through the Holy Spirit, we are invited into the love of God the Father and the Son so that we may be one as the Trinity is one. On this Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity, we ask to be drawn ever closer to the heart of this relational reality. Open our hearts, calm our minds, and envelope us in your presence. 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!