07/06/2009 - Solemnity of the Holy
Trinity - B
1st. Reading Deut 4,32-34.39-40 Ps. 32 2nd. Reading Rom 8,14-17 Gospel Mt 28,16-20
"Your Kingdom come". It was never in the plan of God the possibility
of a man that would consider himself king over others. He created men with the
ability to love, able to be brothers. Sin changed God's plans: the story of
Abel and Cain shows this, and what happened at the Tower of Babel is the fruit.
God wanted to spare his people from injustice, the pain and sorrow that come
from generated from jeleousy and from the dominion of man on man as a result.
When the Israelites asked Samuel to have a king as the other peoples, the prophet
warned them: their desire originated from human ambition, not from the heart
of God. Man, any man, even though he is chosen to be king, is not immune from
his ego, from wanting more, from ambition, from a thirst for glory and power;
having a king would be a source of many and prolonged sufferings for all. The
Israelites came to know it soon. Now we have experienced and still experience
the consequences of what we did when we gave man the power to rule over other
men. World History is the narration of the sufferings caused from the to power
one on the other, it is a history of wars between human reigns.
When Jesus taught us to pray, he put in the prayer the deep desire, often unknown,
of all of us. We need to return to the original intention of the Father, that
of see all as brothers, and only as brothers, one of another. This is only possible
if the men in power renounce to exercise the power on others and the weak persons
to give their proper responsibility to another man, to obey, freely, only to
God. Jesus puts in the hearts the desire that only God reigns. "Your Kingdom
come". We are truly tired of being subjects to those who abuse others,
who does not do anything except to satisfy their thirst for the money of the
rich, who does not do anything except of becoming rich themselves ignoring the
commandments of God. "Your Kingdom come". By saying this we affirm
that only God is worthy of being obeyed, only God can command, because only
his command is a command of love.
We as catholic, many times we cross ourselves by using our right hand, in a
very visible and significant way. We don't do it for others, but for ourselves,
to remember and celebrate the love God has for us. That other might see, is
not a problem for us, because they always see our love for them too. It is good
that we know and that all come to know the source of our capacity to love! The
sign of our hand is accompanied by the memory of the name of our God, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. In this way we repeat what was said on us when we got
baptized: in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!
We continue to live and work in that name, that is the life of love of our God.
Our God is one, as the Bible tells us, and so why do we subdivided them in three
persons? Can a God be three persons? It is quite a legitimate question, to which
all Christians are obliged to answer. Not all get to answer this question if
it is made by others who are not of the same faith, because it is not easy to
find the right words, but at least we are to know how to answer when the question
arises in our mind or heart. God is one, but he is not closed on himself. He
is love, and this love is the gift of himself: therefore God is love given and
received. I rejoice when I think that God is love, like a family, even so, only
as such I understand him as love. In the one love there is a place for the love
that takes the initiative and the love that welcomes what is proposed. The love
that cooperates, sustains the love of the other. In the one God there is a place
for the Father, for the Son, and for the Holy Spirit. They are not three distant
or independent entities from one another, but three capacities of love in one
heart. We don't have the right words or pictures to express our understanding
of the one God in the Trinity: we can only be happy with what we can understand,
for deep down we understand that if God is not Three persons who love one another,
we are to fear him. Then we are not to be happy for having understood something,
but of the place we have in him, of the life we live in him, and of the love
we receive from him that sustains our communion with one another.
The Scripture Readings help us to understand this: "The Lord is God and
he is in heaven and on earth": God is the Father who is in heaven; it is
the Son who came down in our human condition for us, and it is "the Spirit
who makes us adoptive children: because of this we can use the words of Jesus
to say to the Father: "Abba, Father"! As we come to know the life
that is in God, we come to understand many aspects of our life and it opens
for us the possibility to love and to be in communion with others. It is important
that we know: we are not to be only happy with the sign of the cross and the
words of our baptism, but we are to meditate them, get deep in them, asking
the Holy Spirit to open our minds to see the work of God and share in the love
of Jesus. This gift is already given to us, but we can welcome it as much as
possible. Lets us continue to open our hearts to receive an abundance of light
and the power of love of the Father and Jesus.