GOSPEL: Jn3:16-18
*
GOD so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
* * *
God is a God of relationship, and God’s love overflows.
We celebrate the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, of which mystery we can only begin to fathom when we understand the reality of God in the context of relationship. St. Bonaventure invites us to understand the teaching concerning the Holy Trinity by beginning to reflect on the reality of One God, in Three Divine Persons, not merely as an idea but as a person.
The Father is the First Person of the Trinity whose love overflows. The Father is first in terms of his never-ending generosity. The first fruit of this overflowing love is also a Person, the Son or the Second Person of the Trinity. The Son is the perfect image of the Father because all that the Father has, he has given to his Son. The love existing between the Father and the Son is also a Person, the Third Person who is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the bond of mutual love between the Father and the Son.
It is the nature of love to be self-diffusive. The love existing between the three Divine Persons continues to overflow. The whole creation is an overflow of God’s self-diffusive love. The Son is the Persona Media not only between the Father and the Holy Spirit but also between the Trinity and the whole created world. Jesus Christ is the Word of the Father through whom all things were made. He is the firstborn of all creation upon which everything else is patterned.
* * *
SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord 2020,” ST. PAULS Philippines, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 895-9701; Fax 895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.
