Salvation is on offer to all

Sunday 31 May 2026

Trinity Sunday

Lectio Divina:*

Exodus 34:4-9 Daniel 3:52-56

2 Corinthians 13:11-13 John 3:16-18

Meditatio:

‘..For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.’  (John 3:16)

 

Commentary:

This relatively short Gospel reading for Trinity Sunday contains one of the most beautiful passages in all Scripture:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

This is the heart of the Gospel: God’s love poured out for the world.

Love entered our world in humility – born into an ordinary family, in a small and overlooked place, among a people living under the weight of empire. Yet that same divine love continues to be revealed today in the lives and actions of those who carry God’s truth into the world.

Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday - the first Sunday after Pentecost - when we focus on the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. At the heart of our faith is the belief in one God in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not three gods, but one divine nature shared fully and equally by three distinct Persons.

This mystery has been at the centre of Christian belief from the beginning. It is not something we can fully grasp with the mind, but it is something revealed to us by God and lived in faith.

What, then, is the Trinity? It is the truth that God is a communion of love – three divine Persons, co-eternal and co-equal, united in one being. The key to this mystery is the Incarnation: the eternal Word truly became flesh and lived among us in time and history. God did not begin then, but entered our human condition.

In Jesus Christ, God has drawn close to us in a new and intimate way. Through him, we are raised up and invited to share in God’s own life. This is what the Church calls divinisation – not that we become God by nature, but that we are made to share in God’s life by grace.
This begins especially through baptism, by which we are brought into the life of the Trinity, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

God, who is love, freely wills to share this life with us. We are not made as isolated individuals, but as persons called into relationship – with God and with one another: in family, in community, and in the wider human family.

Belief in the Trinity is not just an idea to be understood - it is a life to be lived. It is about experiencing communion with the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. It is about recognising God’s presence in the ordinary and unexpected moments of life, especially in relationships of love, fidelity and friendship.

Three Take-Away Points

1. Pray to God as Trinity:
   we should consciously pray to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. The Glory Be and the Our Father beautifully express this and keep us rooted in the life of God.
2. The Trinity places demands on us:
   we cannot believe in a God who is communion and remain indifferent to suffering. We are called to reach out with compassion to a broken world.
3. Witness with confidence:
   we should never be afraid to speak about what we believe. Even when we fall short, our faith – lived with sincerity – is a light to the world by God’s grace.

Some extras:

Post-Communion prayer (Roman Catholic missal of 1970)

Lord God, we worship you, a Trinity of Persons, one eternal God. May our faith and the sacrament we receive bring us health of mind and body. We ask this through Jesus Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Private prayer after Holy Communion

(from The Family Missal and Prayer Book of the Church of the Holy Spirit, Ballyroan, Dublin, 1976)

Lord Jesus, only Son of the Eternal Father, guest of my soul, I believe in you, I hope in you, I love you. Son of God, second Person of the Blessed Trinity, send the Holy Spirit on all God’s children that they may seek and find the God of tenderness and compassion, who is slow to anger and rich in kindness and faithfulness.  Heavenly Father, you loved the world so much that in the fullness of time you sent your only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life draw all men to your Son so that they may share his salvation.