18/05/2008 - TRINITY SUNDAY - Year
A
1st. Reading Es. 34,4-6.8-9: Psalm: Dan 3 2nd. Reading 2Cor 13,11-13 Gospel
Jn 3,16-18
"For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven". We confess
that we believe in the divinity of the Son of God; now, by this article of the
Creed, we confess him in a simple way, in his humanity, by saying what has been
passed to us in the Gospels. First and foremost we need to confirm that he is
present on earth, not because he is created like all the other men, but because
he came down from his place of ever, heaven. We consider heaven as the throne
of God, the 'place' of divinity. Thus by saying 'he came down from heaven' we
are saying that the Son of God is not any more unreachable, that he is not anymore
hidden in the mystery. If he 'came down from heaven', it means he is here on
earth, where we are, where we move, he is with us. But why did God opened the
skies (as the prophet Isaiah had to say) and came down from heaven to us? He
didn't do it for himself: he didn't need it. But he did it "for us men",
for us who are sinners and far away from God as from when Adam refused to obey
and hid himself from the face of God. "For us men and for our salvation"!
The Son of God incarnated in our favour, so that we can be saved: the name given
to him, in fact, says it all, "God saves"! Hence we look at him with
all our being, knowing that his humanity is necessary for the salvation of our
lives. No other man ever came to the world with this mission and with this capacity.
The men who were proposed to humanity as teachers or as prophets didn't give
themselves the name of saviors: they didn't had an understand of sin and of
the negative force of sin. They could have had wisdom, a wisdom to teach, but
not to witness with the offering of their own lives towards victory over death.
Jesus came for our salvation!
The words that Moses said to God give us courage and joy: "If I have indeed
won your favour, Lord, let my Lord come with us, I bed. True, they are a headstrong
people, but forgive us our faults and our sins, and adopt us as your heritage".
The Lord, in his holiness and greatness, is amongst us sinners, proud hearted,
and headstrong! Its really a courageous claim that of Moses that if God had
to answer it, we would be the most fortunate and happy people in ther world.
But he would need to purify us from our sins, free us from our pride that keeps
making us sinning continuously, he needs to correct the directions we have taken.
The claim of Moses was courageous and God didn't regret what Moses asked for,
on the contrary, he was pleased with it and accepted to fulfill it. Given that
our sins pass from one generation to another, God's work is daily, constant,
continuously. He sent Jesus to forgive our sins, and Jesus sends the Holy Spirit
to make us humble and open for God's grace.
This is the revelation that Jesus himself reveals to Nicodemus, the Pharisee
who wanted to meet with him eye to eye during the night: "God has loved
so much the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in
him may not be lost bt may have eternal life". This is how God has answered
Moses' prayer! God sent his son, his Word, his gift of love, to be with us.
We can see him and accept him because he is with us: that's why he became one
like us. He humbled himself, lowered himself, became little: in this way he
made it possible that we become like him!
This is the good news that is given us today, and that assures us of the Father
and the Son's love. Jesus himself said that he didn't come to condemn, but to
save. Because we are sinners, we are already condemned and so in need of being
saved, and to know that it is God's will, shown to us by the Son, that we are
saved. That's why God came down to us to make known to us his "life".
He reveals that the life in God is the loving and eternal relationship with
him. The Father is love, and by the giving of himself he generates perfect love,
that of giving his life, dying for us so that we can have the love of the Father.
The loving relationship of the Father and the Son shed light and power of their
love, the Spirit, whom we call Holy! Life in God is Trinitarian, that is the
sharing of a fulfilled and eternal love between the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit!
The Word of God wants to help us contemplate this mystery that we celebrate
every day when we like cross ourselves, pray the Glory be, or when we think
of Jesus, the Son of God, who gives the Spirit! But the way we can celebrate
the true Trinitarian love in God is when we love on another, forgive one another,
and in giving to each other the blessing of prayer, by helping one another to
love Jesus and teach each other how to be grateful to the Father.
Today the Church urges us to contemplate the mystery of the triune God. To do
so, we need to open our hearts for this mystery. We were baptized in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and so we have the possibility
of building amongst us a holy and beautiful communion that make our lives a
fest, a communion that fils with that joy that all wish to enjoy here on earth,
like in heaven.