Trinity Sunday — Year C


THE WISDOM OF GOD

Ancient Greek philosophers taught that true wisdom could be reached by unaided human mind power. To the people of the Old Testament, this was nonsense. They believed that the only real wisdom lay in the will of God. Human beings could only understand this wisdom by contemplating God's actions in history. Eventually they came to respect God's wisdom so much that they personified as a beautiful woman. Early Christians realized that this personification perfectly matched the qualities of the Holy Spirit, as revealed by Jesus. They treasured the Wisdom books of the Old Testament for this reason.

when the Lord established the heavens I was there

 

 

the love of God has been poured out through the Holy Spirit

 

the Spirit of truth will guide you to all truth

 


WHEN HE COMES, THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH

When we speak of God as "He" or "Him" we must remember that, strictly speaking, God does not have a gender. Animals and even some plants have gender differences. God is a spirit. God allows us to use gender-specific words--when referring to the Trinity--only for our convenience. Most human languages are rooted in gender-related words. Originally this probably came from the fact that certain items were used more by one gender than another. For example, "table" in French is feminine probably because dining tables were traditionally set and tended by women. Today such gender terms are becoming meaningless as traditional roles are breaking down. Still, it is difficult to refer to a person without some gender language. In Hebrew and Greek the word for "Spirit" is feminine. It was only when the Bible was translated into Latin that it took upon a masculine gender. The point is that God is people--grammatically incorrect, perhaps--but true.

Related: Resources on Sunday Readings - Clipart, homelies, articles, coloring pages, music: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John

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