Commentary on the Gospel of
On the Trinity Sunday, the Church invites us to meditate on the mystery of the One God in Three Persons. And the Gospel gives us a method for this meditation – to go up the mountain. The scene told in today’s passage is set on a mountain in Galilee (v. 16). The mountain, in biblical language, indicates the location of the revelations of God. And the invitation is to climb the 'mountain'. It is not to climb ‘a’ mountain. It is not a material mountain. If you do not climb the mountain, if you stay on the plain, you will just be an admirer of Jesus, but would never get to experience the loving communion of the Father and the Spirit with Jesus.
During his public life, Jesus had introduced to us three mountains: First is the Mount of the Beatitudes. If we do not go up that mountain and we do not start to live the Beatitudes at his side, together with him, we will never fall in love with Jesus. The precepts of the life of a disciple – like the 10 commandments of the Old Testament – are introduced as our life-principles - there in the sermon on the Mount.
The second mountain is that of the Transfiguration. You have to climb that mountain. It is there where you will see the true identity of Jesus. The one who took the form of a servant, the one in his loincloth of the slave, who washes the feet of the disciples, but now is seen on the mountain, in his royal glory. It is this experience on the mountain that gave certainty to the disciples about the Messiah whom they were following.
The third mountain is that of bread distribution. The mountain on which the Master makes us understand God's sense and design about the goods of this world. All that you have, are given to you and therefore, they are not yours. Give them away and be concerned about the needs of people. If we do not go up this mountain, we begin to cling to all possible goods and we idolize the goods of this world. We do not use them for the purpose to which God has destined them. We consider them ours and we feel owners.
The image of the Church today is that the people are afraid to climb the mountain. They do something ... some devotions ... but they do not go up the mountain to fully assimilate the thought of Christ. And this is the invitation Jesus makes to his disciples. Experience and share the perfect loving communion of the three persons of the One God.
For your reflection
If living as a Christian is to love as God loves, how do I love those around me?
