June 15, 2025

June 15, 2025

Most Holy Trinity - Year C
Papal homilies from Pope Francis and Benedict XVI on the Sunday Readings with Dicastery for the Clergy notes’ Sunday Theme, Doctrinal Messages and Pastoral Suggestions.

Papal Homilies

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FORBES (7:39) – Pope Leo XIV delivers his first remarks to a U.S. audience since becoming Pontiff during his visit to Chicago, Illinois. (SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY, June 14, 2025)

Pope Leo XIV Speaks To U.S. Audience For First Time Since Becoming Pontiff

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This livestream allows viewers to witness the Pope’s addresses during Papal Audiences, as well as other Vatican events and news. The livestream is part of the Vatican Media Center’s efforts to share the latest updates on Pope Leo XIV, the Holy See, and the Church worldwide with a global audience.



Most Holy Trinity (Year C)

Dicastery for the Clergy
Homily Notes

YEAR C – 2000 ARCHIVE

“Operation Trinity”

The texts of today’s liturgy lead us towards “Operation Trinity”: a top secret operation in God’s heart, which is being revealed little by little, for example with the personification of Wisdom (first reading). In the Gospel, Jesus Christ introduces us to “Operation Trinity” by revealing to us the interaction between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Finally, the text of the Letter to the Romans shows the consequences of “Operation Trinity” on the lives of Christians, especially as a result of the work of the Spirit.

© Dicastery for the Clergy A | B | C

Doctrinal Messages

God reveals himself to us

God reveals himself to us. No human intelligence, not even the most elevated and perfect, can come to know the mystery of Trinitarian life on its own. No philosophy can reveal that God is one and triune at the same time on the basis of speculation. No religion can lift the veil of the sanctuary where the reality of God, Truth, Love and Life, dwells. What we know about the living and true God comes to us by way of his self-revelation: "With his goodness and wisdom, God wanted to reveal himself and manifest the mystery of his will" (Dei Verbum, 2). In the history of salvation, God has revealed himself first and foremost as the Creator and as Providence over all of his creatures (first reading). The Gospel text teaches us that Jesus Christ, as Son of God, has revealed to us that we are children of God. The Holy Spirit, in turn, leads us to the complete truth. That is, he helps us understand and experience better and in greater depth the reality of Trinitarian life and the consequences of this reality on our life in this world: peace with God the Father, status as God’s children as a result of the baptism, possession of God’s love with which we can overcome any trial and live in a hope that does not deceive. God does not reveal himself like a solitary old man, but as a Father with an intense family life, all of which is characterized by Truth and Love.

© Dicastery for the Clergy

God reveals himself to us and challenges us

God reveals himself to us and challenges us. In revealing himself in his most intimate life, God reveals to human beings their deepest identity and their most important task in historical existence. This is why the mystery of the Trinity is not, and cannot be, indifferent for the Christian. As the Catechism tells us, the Trinitarian mystery is the light that illuminates us (CCC, 234). It sheds light on our intelligence of creation, for the Father created the universe and man with the wise hands of the Son and of the Spirit (first reading). Thus he reveals to us not only our condition as creatures but also our contemplative and almost mystical condition. He enlightens our understanding of the relationships within the divine family (Gospel), and through them reveals to us our participation in this divine life and our reflection of it. He reveals to us our condition as listeners of the Spirit, to whom the Spirit of Truth communicates all that he has heard from the Father and all that he has received from the Word made flesh. By the action of the Spirit, he reveals to us our condition as men and women of hope vis-à-vis men and women without hope, who are the non-believers; a solid hope that does not deceive (second reading). This revelation of our identity, offered us by the living and Trinitarian God, challenges us to allow divine life to acquire a historical expression in each and every Christian. This becomes real in the unity of faith, in love as the essence of Christianity, in obedience to the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in our souls, in the magisterial role of the Spirit of divine Truth, and in the many cultural expressions of the one and only Faith.

© Dicastery for the Clergy

The Spirit, a transforming power

The Spirit, a transforming power. The hurricane wind that blows over the Last Supper symbolizes the origin of the power of the Spirit, which is God himself, and refers us back to when man was first created, when God blew on the first man made of mud. With fire, reference is made to the experience of Moses on Sinai and the transformation that this non-consuming fire brought about in him. The Spirit transforms the human being from within. In this way, he brings about a new creation, a new generation: that of God’s children in Jesus Christ.

The Spirit, a power promoting the Gospel. According to Philon of Alexandria, on Mount Sinai fire was transformed into a tongue. According to the rabbinical interpretation of the Covenant on the Sinai, God’s voice on Mount Sinai was divided into seventy voices, into seventy languages, as many as the known nations, so that all the nations in the world could listen to and understand the Law. At Pentecost, the Spirit works this miracle: the Gospel of Jesus Christ reaches all peoples, and becomes incarnate in their languages and cultures. Thanks to the Spirit, the voice of the Gospel resounds in the sphere of the entire earth, with no exceptions whatsoever.

The Spirit, the witness and life-giving author of our divine sonship. The essence of Christianity lies in being children of God. This is why the Spirit bears witness to this fundamental condition of Christian existence in our soul. The witness of the Spirit is concealed, but it is always life-giving, because it is by being children of God that we receive life. He is both witness and author of the divine sonship in us, because he cannot bear that we live as slaves when we have been called to live as children.

© Dicastery for the Clergy

Pastoral Suggestions

Mystery of faith and love

Mystery of faith and love. This is a mystery in which we must not only believe, but which we must also love. I believe, we believe, in one God alone, who gives us life as the Father, who as the Son calls us to live fully the experience as sons in which he gives us to share, and that as Spirit makes into an exchange of love between the Father and Son, teaching us that the essence of God and of all creatures lies in love. I trust this God who is Life, Communion, Truth and Love. I believe and trust that by possessing these great "divine" valuables, I shall find my human and Christian fulfillment. As a Christian, I express my faith by loving the greatness and beauty of the triune God. With my love for each of the divine persons I aim to stress that the triune God is not an abstraction, not a beautiful and well constructed mental world, not a game of concepts with which we can understand the reflections of theologians, but a three-personal God whom I love as a son, whom I obey as a creature, whom I worship because he is my God and Lord. I think it is very positive and necessary that from the very first catechism classes, children be introduced to a personal and adoring relationship with the Father, the Son and the Spirit. For this catechesis on the Trinity, we may be helped by a basic explanation of Holy Mass, which begins and ends in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. In it, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, talks to us human beings (children and adults) on the basis of the Gospel. In it, all of our prayers are addressed to God the Father, the source of all gifts and grace. In it, the Holy Spirit is present and active in a very special way at the time of the consecration, to see to it that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, and to convert our poor existence by means of the Body of Christ, which we receive during Mass. If God is a mystery of love, won’t love be the best way to enter the mystery?

© Dicastery for the Clergy

The glory of the Trinity

The glory of the Trinity. The Trinity is glorified when human beings live and acquire a meaning and purpose. What does it mean for human beings to live? It means for them to be what they are. For them to be fully human and, if they have been called to the Christian vocation, for them to be fully Christian. Here lies the drama of the Trinity, which is also the human drama: often the glory of the Trinity is tarnished, darkened by human beings. Human beings are not what they should be, when they believe that they are autonomous demigods instead of dependent creatures, when they manipulate life and creation to their advantage. Human beings are not what they should be when they forget that they have been created in God’s image and likeness and think that their most perfect image is found in the animal kingdom. Human beings are not what they are when they think that they have not been created out of love and to love, and when they think that their personal fulfillment is proportionate to their power and dominion over others. Human beings are not what they should be when they believe that they are the masters of life and thus can do with it what they please, rather than being grateful recipients, who administer their lives wisely because they have received them from God himself.

© Dicastery for the Clergy


Francis

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Pope Francis

Most Holy Trinity (Year C)

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Catechism of
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Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI

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St. John Paul II

Saint Pope John Paul II

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Most Holy Trinity (Year C)

First Reading

READING 1 | READING 2 | GOSPEL

Proverbs 8:22-31

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Second Reading

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Romans 5:1-5

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Gospel Reading

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John 16:12-15

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