Happy Sunday!
DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Exodus 34,4b-6.8-9; 2 Cor 13,11-13; John 3, 16-18: Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity: 7th June 2020)
Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When one thinks of the Trinity, for the most part, only the aspect of the mystery comes to mind: there are three and they are one, one God in three Persons. Instead, today's liturgy draws our attention to the aspect of love that is expressed by the mystery of the Trinity. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one, because God is love: The Father gives everything to the Son; the Son receives everything from the Father with gratitude; and the Holy Spirit is like the fruit of this mutual love of the Father and the Son. The texts of this Mass speak a lot on the theme of love. They do not speak so much of the three Persons - there is only one sentence in the second reading which mentions the three Persons: the Lord Jesus Christ, God and the Holy Spirit, and the mention is in reference to love.
Today we celebrate the feast of the God of love. This feast can give us great joy, because it offers us a very positive perspective. God is not conceived as a solitary single monolith, but as the union of three persons in love. These persons are also full of love for all creatures and, in particular, for us men.
The first reading, taken from the book of Exodus, expresses a surprise, because the revelation of the love of God comes after a very serious sin on the part of the people. The covenant has just ended, and the people already become unfaithful to God. Since Moses has gone away and did not return, the people asked Aaron to make for them a visible god who can be honoured with idolatrous ceremonies. Aaron consented to the people’s request. Descending from Sinai, Moses realised this very serious sin and broke the tables of the covenant (boards on which the conditions of the covenant with God are written) and which, therefore, represent the covenant. But despite this very serious sin of the people, God, through the intercession of Moses, decided to forgive them. He invited Moses back to Mount Sinai with two other stone tablets similar to the previous ones, to receive his law again, this fundamental gift that allows man to have a privileged relationship with him. Moses then asked God to reveal himself, to show him his face. And God revealed his being as full of mercy and love: The Lord stepped before Moses proclaiming: The Lord, the Lord, merciful and compassionate God, slow to anger and rich in grace and faithfulness. This definition of God manifests his merciful love: a love that conquers sin, covers and eliminates it. There can be no clearer revelation. We have a God who renounced destroying sinners but, instead, wants to manifest his love in an even more profound and surprising way on the occasion of sins.
The gospel completes this revelation, because it shows how God revealed his mercy. John affirms: God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die, but have eternal life. The world is bad, men are sinners, God could come to judge this world and, therefore, destroy evil and chastise sinners. Instead he loves the world, despite its sin, and sends into the world what he holds most precious: his only-begotten Son. Not only does he send him, but he gave him to the world: God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son. We know what this giving entails: God gave his only-begotten Son to erase the sins of men with his sacrifice, to save sinners by his death. God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world would be saved through him. The gift of God is his Son, born for us, lived for us; the Son who dedicated himself with such generosity to heal the sick, forgive sinners, welcome everyone and teach the divine truth to illuminate all our existence. Responding to the love that comes from the Father, the Son gave his life for us. He himself says: The Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life in ransom for many (Matt 20,28 ff). God-love was manifested in this way.
Whoever believes in him is freed from sin, and so does not go to meet the second death, but obtains eternal life, the life of communion with him. Eternal life, in fact, is precisely being partakers of divine love in heaven. Man was created by God to be loved by him and so that man also in turn will love him. We must allow ourselves to be penetrated by this profound doctrine which is manifested, above all with the cross of Jesus. It is on the cross that God gives his Son in the most possible generous way. It is on the cross that Jesus loves us and delivers himself for us. It is on the cross that he obtains participation in the eternal life, which is communicated to us by the Holy Spirit given to us. Thus the three divine persons are present in the mystery of the cross: the Father, who gave his only begotten Son with such generosity; the Son, who perfectly fulfilled the Father's plan; the Holy Spirit, fruit of the cross of Jesus, who comes to transform our existence and make us partakers of divine life, that is, of divine love. The Evangelist continues: Whoever believes in him is not condemned; but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he did not believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Sinners who believe in Jesus obtain the forgiveness of their sins and the strength not to commit serious sins anymore. But, those who do not believe refuse the salvation offered and thus condemn themselves. It is not God who lacks love, but is the sinner who insists on not accepting this love, and thus condemns himself. He neither believes in the only begotten Son of God nor in the love shown on the cross nor in the gift of the Holy Spirit.
In the second reading Paul addressed these exhortations: Be glad, strive for perfection, take courage from each other, have the same feelings, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. In the expression, the God of love and peace, again we have a revelation of God as love, and merciful love, who proposes reconciliation and, through it, peace. Paul said: It was God who reconciled the world in Christ to himself (2 Cor5,19). And the first words of the risen Jesus were not words of condemnation for the sinners who made him die cruelly, but, Peace be with you! (John 20,19.21.26). Christ's love is revealed with the gift of peace. And Christians live in peace, in brotherly love, which manifests itself, as Paul said, with the holy kiss: Greet one another with the holy kiss. The Christian community must be a community full of love. In every Eucharist (outside the COVID-19 pandemic time) we are invited to exchange a sign of peace: a handshake, which expresses affection and union. Paul concluded his letter to the Corinthians with a threefold wish of thanks, in which he names the three persons of the Trinity: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
This final greeting of the letter is one of the usual formulas for the initial greeting of the Mass. The liturgy specifies: The love of God the Father, to indicate even more clearly that it is a Trinitarian formula. The three terms that are associated with the three divine people are terms that express love. The love of God the Father, for the Father this term is very clear. God the Father is the source of love, and he passes his love through the Son to communicate the Holy Spirit to us. In the term, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, Grace here means generous love. Offering something like grace means offering it for free. The expression, the communion of the Holy Spirit, indicates communion in love. The Holy Spirit unites us in divine love. And we are full of joy, because we receive from him this current of love, which enables us to overcome all difficulties and progress constantly in union with Jesus and in the love that comes from the Father. The solemnity of the Holy Trinity is the feast of God-love, which should fill our hearts with joy and, what is more, open them to a life that is truly docile to the love that comes from him. The Christian vocation is precisely welcoming divine love which is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Love comes from the Father, it is communicated to us by Jesus in his sacrifice which the Holy Mass renders present and has as its goal communion in the Holy Spirit. Let us then gratefully welcome this revelation, and try to realise it more and more each day: in the life of prayer, family life and work life. May Glory be to the God of Love! Glory be to the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, now and ever shall be, world without end. Happy Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity! +John I. Okoye
(GRAPHICS BY Chukwubike)
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