The first thing we should really do first is revise the Athanasian Creed, aka. Quicumque vult…
As I must have mentioned before, the feast of Pentecost used to have an octave of eight days, and the eighth day after the feast day – the octave day – was a commemoration of the Most Blessed Trinity, and in England has become known as Trinity Sunday.
If we think of the great feast day of Christmas, with its octave of eight days, the octave day – which happens to be New Year’s Day – commemorates Christ’s entry into the family of the patriarch Abraham through circumcision (for every Jewish boy was circumcised on the eighth day after birth), and for Catholics it is a feast day of our Lady. Similarly, the octave day for the Easter Octave is called many names, such as Low Sunday, Quasimodo Sunday, and most recently Divine Mercy Sunday.
| The feast day | The eighth day after |
| Christmas | New Year’s Day, Circumcision of Christ, feast day of our Lady |
| Easter | Low Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday |
| Pentecost | Trinity Sunday |
Octave days seem to intensify the feast day before them, and show us new aspects of that feast day. In the case of Christmas, when Christ has emerged in the likeness of men, the feast of His circumcision and the celebration of His mother locate Him as a Jew and a child of Abraham, and a member of His Mother’s tribe of Judah. In the case of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost descends in all His glory upon the Apostles and Our Lady, Trinity Sunday locates Him among the three Persons, Whom we now honour with the adoration that is due to the Creator God.
In our days, when the octave of Pentecost has been removed, Trinity Sunday has been retained by Holy Church, although isolated somewhat from Pentecost, and we are left to meditate upon this great mystery – that the one God of Israel lives in a relationship of love between three divine Persons. This is not a mystery we shall try to solve, but one we shall treat as Moses does in the extract from the book of Exodus in our first reading this weekend – with great respect, falling prostrate to the ground without much ado…
“So Moses carved two tablets of stone, like the others; and he rose at dawn and went up mount Sinai at the Lord’s bidding, with the tablets in his hand. The Lord came down to meet him, hidden in cloud, and Moses stood with Him there, calling on the Lord’s Name. Thus the Lord passed by, and he cried out, ‘It is the Lord God, the Ruler of all things, the Merciful, the Gracious; slow to take vengeance, rich in kindness, faithful to His promises. He is true to His promise of mercy a thousand times over; shame or sin or guilt is none but He forgives it; yet, before Him, none can claim innocence in his own right, and when He punishes, the son must make amends for the father’s guilt, to the third and the fourth generation.’ Then, without more ado, Moses fell prostrate with his face to the ground in worship. ‘Lord,’ he said, ‘if Thou dost look on me with favour, I entreat Thee to go with us on our journey, stiff-necked as this people is; guilt of our sins do Thou pardon, and keep us for Thy own.”
Book of Exodus, 34: 4-9 [link]
Moses wants to see the face of God, but is not permitted, but he manages to arrange for the mysterious and faceless God to accompany the people on their journey through the desert and into the Promised land. God is no longer entirely faceless to the Church, for in the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Our Lord Jesus Christ, He has become visible to us. But we would still struggle to know and love Him, and so we ask the assistance of our Lady and the Saints (who have known Him better than we can manage to), and we pray with them and with Moses that He accompany us on our journey through the deserts of this life and to the Promised land of happiness with Him in heaven.
“Finally, brethren, we wish you all joy. Perfect your lives, listen to the appeal we make, think the same thoughts, keep peace among yourselves; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with the kiss of saints. All the saints send you their greeting. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the imparting of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”
The second letter of S. Paul to the Corinthians, 13: 11-13 [link]
With the presence of the Blessed Trinity in our lives, we shall by the grace of God be every day more perfect, as S. Paul says in this our second reading this weekend; we shall help one another physically with the requirements of life, and spiritually through prayer; with the help of Mother Church and our bishops, we shall be united in worship, in prayer and in our lives as Christians, and thus thinking the same thoughts; we shall live in peace among ourselves, and extend that peace beyond our families, and our circles of friends, and outwards into society.
Who is God, in the end? He seems to play hide and seek with us most of the time. There’s a whole book in the Old Testament of the Bible about that, and its called the Song of Songs – originally a correspondence between King Solomon and at least two of his many wives, but preserved by first the rabbis and then by the Apostolic Church as a love letter between the elusive God and the people who call Him bridegroom and lover.
The one thing about God that we can be absolutely certain about is His devotion to His people, no matter how unworthy we may be of Him individually (while Holy Church as a whole remains glorified with the glory of Christ Himself), no matter how difficult life may seem to us. He is a God Who being unable to suffer, took human nature upon Himself in Christ in order that He would be able to suffer and (as the gospel reading this weekend says) be given in dreadful sacrifice for the sake of the people whom He loves.
“God so loved the world, that He gave up His only-begotten Son, so that those who believe in Him may not perish, but have eternal life. When God sent His Son into the world, it was not to reject the world, but so that the world might find salvation through Him. For the man who believes in Him, there is no rejection; the man who does not believe is already rejected; he has not found faith in the Name of God’s only-begotten Son.”
The Gospel of S. John, 3: 16-18 [link]
And so we end with love, for God is love. From all eternity the Father has loved the Son, and that love is so powerful that the Holy Spirit is, the Holy Spirit Who flows through the Church and knits her into the divine love, so that we can share that divine Life to an extent even in this world – through the sacramental life of the Church – and in its fullness when all things are drawn to an end, and God is all in all.
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 