The Most Holy Trinity
My dear parishioners,
God Is Good!!! All the Time!!! And All the Time!!! God Is Good!!!
With the golden calf incident settled, Moses returns, at God’s invitation, to Mount Sinai. He brings with him a second set of stone tablets. The first were made by God; this set was made by Moses. God ordered him to make them because Moses had shattered the first set in anger. While fashioning them, Moses would have had time to reflect on what he had done.
The Trinity is not a thing. It is a divine relationship. While the Trinity is not doctrinally fully developed in the New Testament, all the ingredients that will be necessary for that development are present, especially in the Gospel of John and the letters of Paul. Today’s Gospel clearly points in that direction.
God gave Jesus to the world. Ordinarily, we hear that God sent Jesus into the world, but here the word gaveis used. This emphasizes the nature of the gesture as a gift. It is a gift that stems from how much God loves the world. Already we are dealing with relationship: God’s relationship with Jesus, and Jesus’ relationship with the world. Later in this Gospel of John, Jesus will promise his disciples the gift of the Spirit/Paraclete which will complete the relational aspects of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit (Jn 14:16; 15:26; 16:8; 20:19-21).
Belief leads to eternal life. The gift of the Son to the world is motivated by God’s great love for the world. For the Gospel of John, the world designates those people who oppose Jesus and do not believe who he is or what he has come to do. However, those who do believe in him will be granted eternal life. Those who continue in their disbelief will perish. There is a strong emphasis here that God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world. The purpose was to save the world. However, the mere presence of Jesus in the world, and the response given him by those in the world, brings about eternal life or condemnation. The people are responsible for their choices.
That the world might be saved. Saving the world is God’s desire and to do that through the Incarnation is the divine plan. The relationship described here between God, Jesus, and the world has the potential for eternal life. Those people who reject this relationship are condemned by their very rejection. Those who accept this relationship through belief will enter into a new life. This is referred to earlier in the Gospel as being “born again.” Nothing in this entire Gospel passage is described as static or abstract. Everything is relational and dynamic. Everything is rooted in God’s love for the world.
Excerpts from “Sunday Homily Helps”, is used by permission of Franciscan Media. www.FranciscanMedia.org. All rights reserved
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Aloysius