How do you reveal the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
From the beginning
of time, God the Father and God the Son have enjoyed a relationship of love out
of which all things came to be. The Book of Proverbs tells us that Wisdom was poured
forth, begotten by God, possessed by God, of the very essence of
God. Creation comes to be when Wisdom
herself – read by Christians as a figure for Jesus – stands beside God as his craftsman, causing the Father to delight day by day. That
delight is born of the love between the Father and the Son; we will later come
to understand the Holy Spirit as that very love that flows unceasingly from
Father to Son and back again. Creation
is nothing less than God’s Wisdom revealed, Christ revealed, coming to find delight in the human race, one
among us, one with us. How wonderful God’s name in all the earth! as Psalm 8 reminds us. Humankind is invited
to a unique and intimate relationship with God in all God’s persons, that we
might resonate with Creation and its order, and reveal God’s love to the world.
It’s not easy for Jesus’
disciples to absorb the complexity of the Trinitarian relationship between Father,
Son and Spirit. In John’s Gospel, Jesus
gives some intimation of the narrative role of each person of God as he reveals
that, while he has much more to tell them, it is in fact the Spirit of truth who will
guide the disciples to all truth, speaking
the Word he hears from the Father
himself. Only when taken together can
the three persons of God offer a full narrative of God’s truth, that is, of God’s
love for us. As Paul will tell the
Romans, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ; what’s more, the
love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. If Wisdom was once poured forth at Creation, manifesting as delight, thanks to Jesus, that same love is now poured into our hearts, that we might continue
to pour it forth, revealing that love to all the world.
This post is based
on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
