Trinity Sunday. The Gospel. Matthew 28:18. Sunday Meditation Plaine Path-way to Heaven ~ THOMAS HILL 1634

TRINITY SUNDAY 
THE GOSPEL 
Matthew 28:18

Jesus said unto his disciples: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you all days, even unto the consummation of the world.”

Sunday Meditation

The doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, being the main fundamental point of all the frame and building of the Catholic Faith (whereupon all other points are raised and built), was in the primitive Church impugned and called into question by heretics — every person of the Trinity, and almost every particular point pertaining to them. In response, the four first general Councils (next after those of the Apostles) were assembled. These consisted of all the most select and prime men of the clergy (for the laity had nothing to do therein, more than in the first Council of the Apostles at Jerusalem). In these Councils the matter was thoroughly sifted in all points, as men use to sift corn to make the purest bread possible. The opposites were confuted and condemned as heretics, the Catholic verity was declared, decreed, and promulgated. A form of belief was composed by St. Athanasius (surnamed the Great), called the Creed of Athanasius — though it is rather to be called the Creed of the general Council, which commanded him to compose it, approved it when composed, and afterwards ordained for perpetual memory these words:

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

These words (signifying equal glory) were to be said or sung in the public Office or Service of the Church after every Psalm of David, as we now see it used. A solemn holy day or festival was also instituted to the honour of all three Persons together in one God, called Trinity Sunday — which is this day. A Gospel was appointed by the Church to be said or sung at Mass, in which Christ, after his resurrection and immediately before his ascension into heaven, gave commission to his disciples to go and preach the Gospel unto all nations of the world, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost — that is, in the power and authority of those three Persons and one God, in equal terms. This main fundamental point was, by the good providence of God, so fully discussed and established by the four General Councils aforesaid, that never since has any heretic been able to lift up his head, nor so much as his finger, against it.

For this we may in some sort thank those heretics. For if their heresies had not been, the Church would never have so thoroughly discussed that point, nor armed herself so well against all impugners of it as she now is. This is the reason why St. Paul said: “There must come heresies, that they who are approved may be made manifest” — that good Catholics may be discerned from the bad, approved of God, and that the Church may be better armed and fortified against her enemies, and her doctrine more clearly declared. Thus a good effect comes from an ill cause.

Wherefore let us not be dismayed or scandalized at the heresies of these days and their long continuance. For the heresy of the Arians against the Blessed Trinity continued for three hundred years and prevailed so much that St. Jerome said the world groaned under it and wondered that it had become Arian — and yet it had an end. So let us hope that the heresies and errors of these times will also end, and that the Church will be left much more fortified and illustrated thereby.