Last Sunday, we celebrated the sending of the Spirit, which sealed God's new covenant and made a new creation.

In this new creation, we live in the family of God, who has revealed himself as a Trinity of love. We share in his divine nature through his body and blood (see 2 Peter 1:4). This is the meaning of the three feasts that cap the Easter season--Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and Corpus Christi.

These feasts should be intimate reminders of how deeply God loves us, how he chose us, from before the foundation of the world, to be his children (see Ephesians 1:4--5).

Today's readings illuminate how all God's words and works were meant to prepare for the revelation of the Trinity and God's blessing in Jesus Christ--the blessing we inherited in baptism, and renew in each Eucharist.

By God's word the heavens and earth were filled with his kindness, we sing in today's Psalm. Out of love, God called Abraham and chose his descendants to be his own people, Moses says in today's first reading (see Deuteronomy 4:20,37). Through the Israelites, he revealed to the nations that he alone is Lord and there is no other.

In Jesus, God's word took flesh as a son of Abraham (see Matthew 1:1). And Jesus reveals in the Gospel today that the one God is Father, Son, and Spirit, and that he desires to make all people his own.

As he led Israel out of Egypt, God freed us from slavery, Paul says in today's Epistle. As he adopted Israel (see Romans 9:4), he gives us the Spirit by which we can know him as "Our Father."

As God's heirs, we receive the commissions of Moses and Jesus today. We are to fix our hearts on him, and to observe all that he has commanded. The Eucharist is his pledge--that he will be with us until the end, that he will deliver us from death to live forever in the promised land of his kingdom.

Readings:

Dt 4:32--34, 39--40

Ps 33:4--6, 9, 18--20, 22

Rom 8:14--17

Mt 28:16--20



- Scott Hahn is the founder and president of the Saint Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He is also the bestselling author of numerous books including The Lamb's Supper, Reasons to Believe, and Rome Sweet Home (co-authored with his wife, Kimberly). Some of his newest books are The Creed, Joy to the World and Evangelizing Catholics.