I
InThePew
Guest
If you look in the Bible for proof of the existence of God, you’re going to be disappointed; The Bible isn’t about proving God exists but is about how God who exists reveals himself to us.
This happens slowly throughout salvation history; at different times in various ways God spoke to his people, lifting the corner on the veil covering the mystery of the Trinity. Finally, in the fullness of time, he revealed himself through the Son, so we might come to know not just the Son but the Father who sent him, and Spirit which proceeds from them both; know the transcendence and the immanence of God - God who dwells in the heights of heaven but who is also close to us.
In this way, we’re invited into a relationship, to share in the intimate inner life of the Trinity, to become like him who became like us. In other words, God who is love, wants us to share in his life of love; be coming up builders of the Kingdom of heaven on earth, spreaders of the civilization of love.
In this way, we see what we who have been created in the image of God can and are meant to be. So, what we hear in the readings, isn’t a description of how God is but of us - our true selves, which we discover through the Triune God dwelling within us.
Of course, that doesn’t make understanding the Trinity any easier and it’s tempting to see it as being too difficult, all a bit awkward to get our heads around, and so ignore it. However, to do so is to settle for a simplistic, superficial faith; only interested in what we already know. The Trinity is a mystery, not in the sense of something for us to solve, but something which we wait to be revealed. It’s not something which we can ever come to know never mind understand by ourselves, but we who know what it means to love and be loved can in the same way know God who is love - the Father who loves, his beloved son, and the spirit of love between them.
In this way, while the mystery of the Trinity is beyond our understanding, God is not distant, or detached. Instead, as we hear in the powerful passage from John’s gospel, “God so love the world that he gave his only son so that all who believed in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”
Most of all, we can know the Trinity through the humanity of Jesus - his care and concern for the powerless and poor, oppressed and outcast. This is how we should be - Jesus shows us through his humanity the divinity we are called to be a part of.
Finally, making the sign of the cross, reminds of the closeness of God who although beyond our understanding, shares our hopes and joys, sufferings, and struggles. It also reminds us to give our lives completely to him, undertaking all we do in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
All of us, God’s beloved children, have been adopted by the one Father, share in the brotherhood of the Son, and given the gift of the Holy Spirit. So, as St Paul fittingly puts it, we might try to grow perfect, help one another, be united and live in peace so that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit maybe with us now, always, and forever.
This happens slowly throughout salvation history; at different times in various ways God spoke to his people, lifting the corner on the veil covering the mystery of the Trinity. Finally, in the fullness of time, he revealed himself through the Son, so we might come to know not just the Son but the Father who sent him, and Spirit which proceeds from them both; know the transcendence and the immanence of God - God who dwells in the heights of heaven but who is also close to us.
In this way, we’re invited into a relationship, to share in the intimate inner life of the Trinity, to become like him who became like us. In other words, God who is love, wants us to share in his life of love; be coming up builders of the Kingdom of heaven on earth, spreaders of the civilization of love.
In this way, we see what we who have been created in the image of God can and are meant to be. So, what we hear in the readings, isn’t a description of how God is but of us - our true selves, which we discover through the Triune God dwelling within us.
Of course, that doesn’t make understanding the Trinity any easier and it’s tempting to see it as being too difficult, all a bit awkward to get our heads around, and so ignore it. However, to do so is to settle for a simplistic, superficial faith; only interested in what we already know. The Trinity is a mystery, not in the sense of something for us to solve, but something which we wait to be revealed. It’s not something which we can ever come to know never mind understand by ourselves, but we who know what it means to love and be loved can in the same way know God who is love - the Father who loves, his beloved son, and the spirit of love between them.
In this way, while the mystery of the Trinity is beyond our understanding, God is not distant, or detached. Instead, as we hear in the powerful passage from John’s gospel, “God so love the world that he gave his only son so that all who believed in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”
Most of all, we can know the Trinity through the humanity of Jesus - his care and concern for the powerless and poor, oppressed and outcast. This is how we should be - Jesus shows us through his humanity the divinity we are called to be a part of.
Finally, making the sign of the cross, reminds of the closeness of God who although beyond our understanding, shares our hopes and joys, sufferings, and struggles. It also reminds us to give our lives completely to him, undertaking all we do in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
All of us, God’s beloved children, have been adopted by the one Father, share in the brotherhood of the Son, and given the gift of the Holy Spirit. So, as St Paul fittingly puts it, we might try to grow perfect, help one another, be united and live in peace so that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit maybe with us now, always, and forever.
