Since the three year set of readings for Mass was published in 1970, I have never paid this Trinity Sunday's reading any attention. Even as recently as this past Sunday I din't intend to give it a second thought. Then today I decided to use it for meditation. What a striking revelation!
From Exodus 34 we select only verses 4-9 for the Sunday reading, but it helps to know that when Moses came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the Law which God had given him and found the Hebrews worshiping the golden calf, Moses was so angry that he threw the tablets on the ground and broke them. So Moses gets two fresh tablets which God writes on and heads back up the mountain. This fact alone signals a new relationship with God.
Elizabeth Nagel in her brief commentary points out that God's willingness to give the Hebrews a second chance indicates that the future of the divine-human relationship "would always depend not on human fidelity but on God's intense desire to live with humankind."
I understand that, out of respect for Jewish sensitivities, we no longer use the Divine Name, but it is sorely missed in this passage which captures all the awe the name inspires. God passes before Moses and cries out, "Yahweh! Yahweh! a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and faithfulness." Translating the Name as "I AM," as God does in chapter 3, we have God calling out a description of God's very Self.
Nothing here about "Three Persons," but a powerful statement about the One God.
(Nagel's commentary is in the Workbook for Lectors.)
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