THE MOST HOLY TRINITY

THE MOST HOLY TRINITY (John 3:16-18) The disciples were absorbed in a discussion of the Master’s pronouncement,

"Those who know do not say; Those who say do not know. " When the Master entered, they asked him exactly what these words meant. Said the Master, "Which of you knows the fragrance of a rose?" All of them knew. Then he said, "Put it into words. ” All of them were silent.

Perhaps looking into the eyes of a lover or your newly born child, some of us may have experienced true gift love that changes forever who we are and how we see everything in the world.

Some of us may even have seen the heroic power of gift Love that transcends all selfishness and even time itself. We may even have known the pain of giving oneself in unanswered gift Love.

Great poems have been written; wonderful monuments have been erected, ballads have been sung to tell of these stories. Yet without looking into the eyes of love, our reply also must be silence.

God, the Blessed Trinity, is a communion of Love… the Love of the Source which we call Father for an-other… the Love of the other who is the eternal and cosmic Word who took on flesh and whom we call the Son returning that love to the source… the Love itself as essence of the unity and joy between Father and Son and whom we call the Holy Spirit.

God's Trinitarian Love is a Love which seeks to give itself… God loves in order to give God’s self. That is the nature of agape Love… it must give itself for the other.

This eternal wellspring of Love is so great that it spills over, as it were, and seeks to give itself… must give itself, because that is the nature of gift Love… giving itself away.

This is why the cosmos is created, why angels were created… this is why we were created.

Our Christian faith tells us that it is in the image and likeness of this Love that we were created… it is built into us, as it was built into the body of Jesus.

SELF-GIVING is the fundamental nature of our being, of who we are and of what we were made for. The mystery of communion in the self-giving Love of the Trinity is written into our very bodies so that we can never forget that 'giving ourselves in love' is the core meaning of our lives.

This is why Jesus gave his body for us. The crucifixion is a manifestation, the definitive manifestation, in human terms, of the nature of the inner Trinitarian life of God, because on the Cross Jesus first of all gives himself, in the body, to and for the Father, and only then, to and for us.

In revealing himself, therefore, as the Son ready to die for the Father, he lays bare the nature of the Love to which we are all called. And, given that we are human, it is only in the body that we are capable of this Love.

Although there has been evil in subverting the dignity of the human person throughout history, it was the 20th century that saw a concentrated effort in perverting the world's concept of the meaning of the human body.

The slaughter of the two world wars, abortion, trafficking in human organs… so much to obscure our understanding of God's call inscribed in the very blueprint of our bodies… the intrinsic dignity of the human person.

Just as the full humanity of Jesus was brought into unity with the Word, we also are called to bring our very self, our community, and the entire world into unity with the Trinitarian Mystery out of which everything arises.

On the one hand there are those who reject this intrinsic dignity of the human person together with religion as an obsolete cultural artefact and even harmful to our development and thereby would also reject our spiritual nature tied to our transcendent vocation. This relegates love to mere chemical reactions.

On the other extreme there are those who see the human body as a venue of defilement or as a repulsive source of suffering. They reject, sublimate or trivialize our unchosen human natures to a perceived higher consciousness, free of suffering, leading ultimately to a disembodied spirituality.

Both extremes and those subtle shades that ignore the centre, hide the truth and beauty of the Incarnation that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine… eros and agape entwined.

It is in this union that Christ has given us the path to our salvation… a unity that is possible in the imminent reality of the here and now. This is a unity by which we are transformed into a lived relationship with Love that already lies within us.

What can we say of the mystery of the Trinity… what may we say of the mystery of love……there must be a Lover and a Beloved and this gift between them that we call Love… like the scent of a rose!

Francis of Assisi has influenced the way we think about God and respond to God, the way they see themselves and respond to others, the way they see the world which God has created and entrusted to the human family.

In Francis' day many people had images of God the Father as judge and punisher of sin. Without denying those images, Francis lived out other biblical images, inviting people to think of God the Father as a generous and loving creator, to see God the Son as living proof of God's love and closeness to the human family, to appreciate God the Spirit as the One who makes us holy, preparing us for our eternal union with the source of Love.

As then, also now, many people more readily think of Jesus as divine rather than human. Francis responded by promoting two devotions… the Christmas crib and Christ's death on the cross, powerfully symbolized in the Stations of the Cross, which Francis' followers popularized after his death.

Prior to Francis, Western European religious art often reflected the Byzantine artistic style, portraying the crucified Jesus in triumph with very discreet wounds and hardly a drop of blood on him. Christ looks straight into the viewer's eyes as if to ask, "And how are you going to respond?"

After Francis, Western art began to portray Jesus as slumped on the cross, looking down, more bloody, a much more vivid reminder of his sufferings. Francis has influenced the way we see ourselves and respond to others. He emphasized the virtue of humility, being honest about who we are before God and in relation to one another.

In a world which often spoke of holiness as though priests, monks and nuns had the "inside track, " Francis set up the Secular Franciscan Order, inviting men and women, single or married, to follow the gospel of Jesus Christ right where they were in their daily lives! You did not have to be ordained or enter a monastery in order to live out the Good News. Generous, self-sacrificing love started what God's grace would complete. The first Secular Franciscans refused to take up arms in warfare and made wills to avoid family fights over an inheritance.

Francis burned with a desire to share the Good News with others. He and his followers preached the gospel in city streets rather than wait for people to come to a monastery or church to hear it preached. Words alone will not spread the Good News unless those words are backed up by holy lives.

In a world tempted to see creation as sinful and leading people away from God, Francis by word and example affirmed that creation was fundamentally good, no matter how people might twist it to destructive purposes.

Francis' confidence in the Church's sacraments reflected his conviction that God has chosen to come to us within human history and through seemingly ordinary things like water, oil, bread and wine. Francis welcomed even Sister Death, seeing her as the gateway to that union with the source of eternal life.

THE BOOK OF NATURE Some people, in order to discover God, read books. But there is a great book: the very appearance of created things. Look above you! Look below you! Note it. Read it. God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink. Instead He set before your eyes the things that He had made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that? Why, heaven and earth shout to you: "God made me!" Saint Augustine (354 - 430)