For Trinity Sunday
Trinity Sunday Responsorial Song Commentary.
Trinity Sunday’s liturgy is unusual in that the normal responsorial psalm is not a psalm from the Book of Psalms but a song from the Book of Daniel. It is set in the story of persecution when Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian king built a golden statue of himself which everyone had to worship. Three young Hebrew lads refused to do so and were consigned into a blazing furnace to test their faith in God. This is the song they sang as they walked into the hottest part of the furnace. Their ultimate delivery became a sign that tyranny would not last forever.
Every verse of this song blesses God with full hearts: blest as the one we learned from our parents; blest in the very name of God who is, not who was, not will be but is a sacred presence NOW; blest in every Temple or place of worship; blest on his heavenly throne; blest in the very present moment when God gazes on us now.
In our liturgy, this song follows the Exodus reading that our God is not a tyrant but a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger and rich in kindness and faithfulness. It leads into the Gospel where Jesus stresses to Nicodemus that God loved the world so much that he sent Jesus, not to condemn like a tyrant, but to bring salvation to all who would believe.
Trinity Sunday could be a day when we resolve to make the Sign of the Cross with slow deliberation as a sign of our faith commitment to Father, Son and abiding Spirit.
Commentary by Dr Noel Donnelly
