God's incredible gift of love for the world

What does Scripture tell us about God and how he relates to us? When God met with Moses on Mount Sinai and made a covenant with the people of Israel, he revealed the nature of his character and his personal love for them:

"The LORD passed before him, and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy and faithfulness'" (Exodus 34:6).

God is all-loving, faithful, merciful, and forgiving by nature. God's love is supreme because it directs, orders, and shapes everything he does.

Love and judgment 

Scripture tells us that God is all just and all loving. How does his love and justice go together? God opposes sin and evil with his just wrath (his righteous anger) and right judgment - and he approaches sinful people and evil doers with mercy ("slow to anger" and "ready to forgive") and discipline ("fatherly correction" and "training in righteousness"). John the Evangelist tells us that the Father sent his Son into the world - not to condemn but to redeem - not to destroy but to heal and restore. Paul the Apostle tells us that "the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23). God does not desire the death of anyone (Ezekiel 18:23,32, Ezekiel 33:11, Wisdom of Solomon 1:13). Instead he gives us the freedom to choose between life and death - good and evil.

When we choose to sin and to go our own way apart from God, we bring condemnation upon ourselves. Sin draws us away from God and leads to a spiritual death - a death that is worse than physical loss of life because it results in a hopeless life of misery and separation from God's peace and joy. Jesus was sent on a rescue mission to free us from slavery to sin and death and to bring us the abundant life which will never end. His death brought us true freedom and abundant new life in his Spirit - as well as pardon, reconciliation and adoption as sons and daughters of God.

Jesus took upon himself all of our sins and nailed them to the cross (Colossians 2:14). His death was an atoning sacrifice for our sins and a perfect offering to the Father on our behalf. We can find no greater proof of God's love for fallen sinful humanity than the cross of Jesus Christ. "To ransom a slave God gave away his Son" (from an early Christian hymn for the Easter vigil liturgy). Jesus' mission was motivated by love and obedience. That is why he willingly laid down his life for us. Jesus told his disciples that there is no greater love than for a person to willingly lay down his or her life for a friend (John 15:13). Jesus loved us first - even while we were captives to sin and Satan - in order to set us free and make us friends and beloved children of God.

Believing in the Son of God 

Do you believe that Jesus personally died for you - for you alone - simply because he loved you? Scripture tells us that God knew each one of us even before we were knit in our mother's womb (Psalm 139:13, Jeremiah 1:5). We were created for a purpose - to be united with God and to share in his love and glory now and forever. Augustine of Hippo wrote: "God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love." God's love is complete and perfect because it is wholly directed towards our greatest good - to make us whole and to unite us in a perfect bond of love and peace. That is why God was willing to go to any length necessary to save us from slavery to sin and death.

How does God's love bring healing, pardon, and wholeness to our lives? God's love has power to set each one of us free from every form of bondage to sin - whether it be bondage to fear and guilt, pride and greed, envy and hatred. We can only know the love of God and experience his healing power to the degree that we put our faith in him and surrender our lives to his will. Faith is the key that opens the door to Christ and to his healing power in our lives. But for faith to be effective we must act and do our part. That is why faith requires repentance and obedience - turning away from unbelief and disobedience - and turning to the Lord with a believing heart and listening ear. That is why Jesus said, "whoever believes in me is not condemned" (John 3:18).

To believe that Jesus is the only Son of God who died for our sins is the key that opens the door to his presence and work in our lives. Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20). The Lord Jesus knocks at the door of your heart - will you listen today and open at once?

Triune nature of God 

The Lord Jesus has revealed to his disciples the great mystery of our faith - the triune nature of God and the inseparable union of the eternal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus' mission is to reveal the glory of God to us - a Trinity of persons - God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - and to unite us with God in a community of love. The ultimate end, the purpose for which God created us, is the entry of God's creatures into the perfect unity of the blessed Trinity.

The Jews understood God as Creator and Father of all that he made (Deuteronomy 32:6) and they understood the nation of Israel as God's firstborn son (Exodus 4:22). Jesus reveals the Father in an unheard of sense. He is eternally Father by his relationship to his only Son, who, reciprocally, is Son only in relation to his Father (see Matthew 11:27). The Spirit, likewise, is inseparably one with the Father and the Son.

The mission of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit are the same. That is why Jesus tells his disciples that the Spirit will reveal the glory of the Father and the Son and will speak what is true. Before his Passover, Jesus revealed the Holy Spirit as the "Paraclete" and Helper who will be with Jesus' disciples to teach and guide them "into all the truth" (John 14:17,26; 16:13). In baptism we are called to share in the life of the Holy Trinity here on earth in faith and after death in eternal light.

Clement of Alexandria, a third century church father, wrote:"What an astonishing mystery! There is one Father of the universe, one Logos (Word) of the universe, and also one Holy Spirit, everywhere one and the same; there is also one virgin become mother, and I should like to call her 'Church'."

We can know God personally 

How can we grow in our understanding and experience of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? It is the Holy Spirit who reveals the Father and the Son to us and who gives us the gift of faith to know and understand the truth of God’s word. Through baptism we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Lord renews the gift of the Spirit in each one of us as we open our hearts with expectant faith and yield to his work in our lives. Jesus promised his disciples that he would send them the Spirit of truth who would be their Teacher and Guide. Ask the Lord Jesus to renew in you the gift of the Holy Spirit who strengthens us in the seven-fold gifts of wisdom and understanding, right judgment and courage, knowledge and reverence, and holy fear in God's presence (Isaiah 11:2-3).

May the Lord Jesus put his hands on our eyes also, for then we too shall begin to look not at what is seen but at what is not seen. May he open the eyes that are concerned not with the present but with what is yet to come, may he unseal the heart's vision, that we may gaze on God in the Spirit, through the same Lord, Jesus Christ, whose glory and power will endure throughout the unending succession of ages.

source: From the desk of Don Schwager, 

hosted by Kairos Europe and the Middle East

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (Trinity Sunday) ~ 11 June 2017

In the Catholic faith, we believe and worship One God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity. are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Glory be to the Father, 

and to the Son, 

and to the Holy Spirit.

The Father is made of no one, neither created nor begotten.

The Son is from the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten.

The Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son, not made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity is celebrated on the first Sunday after Pentecost. We celebrate the presence of the Triune God within us, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The mystery of the Holy Trinity, a doctrine enunciated by the ecumenical councils of Nicaea and Constantinople, is one of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity and the greatest mystery of our Faith, namely, that there are Three Divine Persons, sharing the same Divine nature in one God. “There is one God, who has three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each Person is God, yet there is still only one God” (CCC #234, #253-256). This is the mystery we profess each week when we affirm our belief in the Son of God, who is "consubstantial [one in Being] with the Father, God from God, light from light true God from true God" and in the Holy Spirit, who "with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified." The inner relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is such that each of them is fully God, yet They are not three Gods but One. This is not comprehendible by the human mind.

O my God, 

Trinity Whom I adore

Grant my soul peace.

Make it Your Heaven,

Your beloved dwelling, 

and the place of Your rest.

May I never abandon You there,

but may I be there,

whole and entire.

Completely vigilant in my faith,

entirely adoring, 

and wholly given over 

to Your creative action.

~ Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity ~ 

Liturgy

Reading 1

Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9

Early in the morning Moses went up Mount Sinai
as the LORD had commanded him,
taking along the two stone tablets.

Having come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with Moses there
and proclaimed his name, "LORD."
Thus the LORD passed before him and cried out,
"The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God,
slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity."
Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship.
Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord,
do come along in our company.
This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins,
and receive us as your own."

Responsorial Psalm

Daniel 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56

R. Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;
And blessed is your holy and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory,
praiseworthy and glorious above all forever.
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you who look into the depths
from your throne upon the cherubim,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
R. Glory and praise for ever!


Reading 2

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Brothers and sisters, rejoice.
Mend your ways, encourage one another,
agree with one another, live in peace,
and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the holy ones greet you.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

Alleluia

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit;
to God who is, who was, and who is to come.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

John 3:16-18

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.

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

In the name of the Father, 

and of the Son 

and of the Holy Spirit. 

Amen.

Father,

you sent your Word to bring us truth

and your Spirit to make us holy.

Through them we come to know the mystery of your life.

Help us to worship you, one God in three Persons,

by proclaiming and living our faith in you.

Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

One God, for ever and ever. 

Amen.

Glory be to the Father, 

and to the Son, 

and to the Holy Spirit. 

As it was in the beginning, is now, 

and ever shall be, 

world without end. 

Amen.

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (Sunday) is celebrated following Sunday after Pentecost Sunday in honor of the  Lord's existence in the Holy Trinity which represent the most fundamental belief and amzing mystery of Christians. God is three Persons in one Nature, who are all equally God, and undivided. The three Persons of God are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

God was the Father for the Hebrews, God was Jesus for the Apostles, and God is the Holy Spirit for us. These are the different experiences or revelations of the same God at different timelines of His faithful.

Jesus said that the Father had given him (the Son) all that he has and that he 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.

True love requires three partners, the Trinity shows us that three is community, three is love at its best. In human condition we see that when a man A is in love with a woman B they seal the loving by producing a baby C. Father, mother and child demonstrates and proves of love when it perfected becomes a trinity. God does not exist in solitary individualism but in a community of love and sharing.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines the Trinity as, “The mystery of one God in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The revealed truth of the Holy Trinity is at the very root of the Church’s living faith as expressed in the Creed. The mystery of the Trinity in itself is inaccessible to the human mind and is the object of faith only because it was revealed by Jesus Christ, the divine Son of the eternal Father.”

Christians receive the Holy Spirit at baptism, and are sanctified through uniting our suffering to Christ’s suffering and through keeping our Lord’s commandments.

Each and every time we make the sign of the cross;

We touch our head and we say, “In the name of the Father.” Because he is the first person of the Trinity and our Creator. 

Then we touch our hearts and we say, “and of the Son.” This reminds us that God the Son proceeds from the Father and came down from heaven to the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

Then we touch our shoulders, moving from left to right as we say, “and of the Holy Spirit.” We do this because God the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son and in his love, the Spirit fills us, body and soul, with the life of God.

The divine Trinity takes up his abode in us on the day of our Baptism: "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit". Every time we sign ourselves with the sign of the Cross we remember God's name in which we were baptized. With regard to the sign of the Cross a theologian, Romano Guardini, remarked: "We do it before praying so that... we may put ourselves spiritually in order; focus thoughts, heart and will on God; after praying, so that what God has given us may remain within us.... It embraces the whole being, body and soul... and everything is consecrated in the name of the Triune God"

~ BENEDICT XVI ~

Saint Peter's Square, Sunday, 30 May 2010

"Our heart is built according to the Trinity, our love is built according to the Trinitarian love. All nature has a trinitarian character, one could say a genetic character of the Trinity, a fingerprint of the Trinity - from the nuclear structure to heaven and earth, from man and woman to all the laws of the universe. We can ask the Lord to make us see his presence in creation, in nature, in our human society, in the light of this mystery of the most Holy Trinity. And we can pray for those who haven't got the grace, the revelation which Jesus brought us of the secret of the inner trinitarian life." 

by Mgr Leo Maasburg

Sunday, May 26, 2013
The Most Holy Trinity (Solemnity)

Reading 1

Proverbs 8: 22 - 31
22	The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.
23	Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
24	When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.
25	Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth;
26	before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world.
27	When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28	when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,
29	when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
30	then I was beside him, like a master workman; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,
31	rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the sons of men.

Psalm

Psalms 8: 4 - 9
4	what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him?
5	Yet thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor.
6	Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet,
7	all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8	the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea.
9	O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!

Reading 2

Romans 5: 1 - 5
1	Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2	Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
3	More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
4	and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5	and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.

Gospel

John 16: 12 - 15
12	"I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
13	When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
14	He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
15	All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Holy Trinity

The Holy Trinity is also known as Triune God, "Tri" meaning Three and "Une" meaning One. The three Persons in the Holy Trinity are One God but are distinct: for the Father has no origin, He came from no one. And the Son is begotten, He comes from the Father alone. The Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son. Therefore, these different relations of origin clearly indicates to us that there are three distinct Persons, who are in one and the same in divine nature. The Father especially as the power of creation, of the Son as the wisdom of the Father, of the Holy Spirit as goodness and sanctification.

When we profess the Creed, we say I Believe ...

In God, the Father Almighty

In Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord

In the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life

In the Holy Catholic Church

and by these words we proclaim our belief in the Triune God, the Holy Trinity which lives in us through our baptism.

Deuteronomy 6:4

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Jesus Himself affirmed the the word of god from the old testament above in the New Testament as follows,

Mark 12:29

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

John 1:1,14

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 10:25,30

Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me,

I and the Father are one.

Christian faith affirms that there is one and only one true God eternally existing while fully and simultaneously expressed in three persons the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. 

Each member of the Godhead is equally God and each is eternally God and each is fully God, not three gods but three persons of the one God head.

Each person is equal in essence as each possesses fully the identically same and eternal divine nature yet each is also an eternal and distinct personal expression of that one undivided divine nature.

Because the Father, Son and Holy Spirit each possesses fully the identically same divine nature, therefore what distinguishes the Persons of the Godhead from each other is not and can not be the divine nature of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. 

This the one undivided and divine nature is possessed equally, eternally, simultaneously and fully by each of the three Persons of the Godhead. 

Therefore what distinguishes each person of the Godhead from the other persons is His particular role, in relation to the other persons and the relationships that each has with each of the other persons. 

In light of both the equality of essence and differentiation in role and responsibility it be-hooves us then to look carefully at each member of the Trinity in relation to the other and this effects the relationship of each member of the Trinity to us.

Paul is an apostle of Christ “by the will of God” as he is sent to carry out the mission of Christ but he does this not because Christ has said so but because the Father has said so. Paul distinguishes the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as follows,

Ephesians 1:1-14

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:

2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Praise for Spiritual Blessings in Christ

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realmswith every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

2 Corinthians 13:14

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Jesus has to be one of us through God the Father's plan by choosing the virgin Mary and by the power of the Holy Spirit, in order to take our place by His death on the cross. Just by becoming only as one of us that will not accomplish the atonement. Therefore Jesus is 100% man in order to take our place, and 100% God in order to make an acceptable divine sacrifice. This prove that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the same one person who is God.

"We firmly believe and confess without reservation that there is only one true God, eternal infinite (immensus) and unchangeable, incomprehensible, almighty and ineffable, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; three persons indeed, but one essence, substance or nature entirely simple."

~ Lateran Council IV ~