First Reading - Exodus 34:4-6,8-9
Second Reading - 2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Gospel - John 3:16-18
Today’s readings convey the fundamental mystery that the Triune God reaches out to people with love, seeking the deepest communion with them.
The passage of the first reading is one of the really very central passages of the Bible. In Judaism the special name of God (sometimes written ‘Yahweh’) is never spoken. For two reasons. It is too sacred and awesome to be pronounced, for the name somehow makes the personality present. It is also too intimate: we do not bandy around in public the special family name by which we are affectionately known by our nearest and dearest. So where the name occurs in the Bible, a conventional ‘the LORD’ or 'YHWH' (read as 'Adonai') is used. The name itself was revealed to Moses at the Burning Bush, but not its meaning. Here for the first time the meaning is given, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God of tenderness and compassion.’ Only when God has to forgive Israel for its first, heinous but rapid, rebellion, is the meaning of the name revealed. And this meaning is echoed again and again down the scriptures.
Today’s second reading contains the ancient apostolic blessing in the name of the Holy Trinity: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” Paul reminds the people of the Father’s love, the grace that comes through Jesus Christ and the fellowship or the unifying power of the Holy Spirit. The word “grace” in a theological context refers to Divine favor. In Christ, God has shown favor toward us humans, a special care for us, and a desire that through Jesus’ life, death and Resurrection we might find and enjoy a right relationship with God. We often use the phrase “the love of God” to describe our response to God and our duty to love God. That is both correct and appropriate. But what comes first is God’s love for us. The Scriptures emphasize that God has loved us first and that our love for God is only a fitting response. And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit shapes and animates the life of the Christian community. In other words, we live our Christian lives in the fellowship, or koinonia, formed by the Holy Spirit because it is He who guides, empowers and teaches us in Christ’s place and brings us together in Faith, Love, and Hope. In the story of salvation, we usually attribute Creation to the Father, Redemption to the Son, and Sanctification to the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, though they are distinct as Persons, neither the Father nor the Son nor the Holy Spirit ever exists in separation or acts in isolation from the other Two Persons of the Godhead. The inner relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is such that each of them is fully God, yet These Divine Persons are not three Gods but One. This is not comprehendible by the human mind. It is a Mystery.
Today’s Gospel comes from the story of Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus. Jesus speaks about the Father who has sent him (the Son), and after the Last Supper, He speaks about the Holy Spirit Whom he will send. He says that the Father has given him (the Son) all that He has and that Jesus, in turn, has given to the Holy Spirit all that he has received from the Father. In this we see the unity of purpose among the Three Persons of the Trinity.
Dear friends, We are created in love to be a community of loving persons, just as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are One in Love. From the day of our Baptism, we have belonged to the One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How privileged we are to grow up in such a beautiful Family! Hence, let us turn to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in prayer every day. We belong to the Family of the Triune God. The love, unity, and joy in the relationship among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit should be the supreme model of our relationships within our Christian families. Our families become truly Christian when we live in a relationship of love with God and with others.
We are made in God’s image and likeness. Just as God is God only in a Trinitarian relationship, so we can be fully human only as one member of a relationship of three partners. The self needs to be in a horizontal relationship with all other people and in a vertical relationship with God. In that way our life becomes Trinitarian like that of God. Modern society follows the so-called “I-and-I” principle of unbridled individualism and the resulting consumerism. But the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity challenges us to adopt an “I-and-God-and-neighbor” principle: “I am a Christian insofar as I live in a relationship of love with God and other people.” Like God the Father, we are called upon to be productive and creative persons by contributing to the building up of the fabric of life and love in our family, our Church, our community, and our nation. Like God the Son, we are called to a life of sacrificial love and service so that we may help Him to reconcile others to Him, to be peacemakers among our families, in our workplaces, our communities and our schools, to put back together that which has been broken, and to restore what has been shattered. Like God the Holy Spirit, we are called, with His help, to uncover and teach Truth and to dispel ignorance not in anger but in love.
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