Daily Gospel Reflection
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June 7, 2020
God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Today’s gospel presents a model from God of what self-giving love looks like at the ultimate level. God calls upon all Christians to follow this model of love. As I read this passage, I’m reminded of how my maternal grandmother followed God’s model of love throughout her life. Growing up I always looked forward to getting home from school to be welcomed by my grandmother and the smell of her delicious Mexican cooking. Both my parents worked full time so my grandmother would go to our home in the morning and spend half the day in the kitchen working hard to prepare a good meal for my brother and me to eat when we returned from school. Even after spending half the day in the kitchen, she could rarely stay off her feet the rest of the day. She was always looking for ways that she could help my parents out around the house. Her focus was on how she could best take care of those she loved.
The last time I traveled back home from abroad before my grandmother passed away, she was fragile and had to rest most of the time, yet she insisted on getting up and cooking me one of my favorite meals. She felt happiest when she could cook a meal for those she loved. I now remember my grandmother every day with great admiration for the self-giving love she showed our family and her example inspires me to also be as giving as she was to others.
Prayer
Lord God, we humbly pray that we may always walk with Jesus, the light of the world. Remove any darkness from our hearts that we may always walk as children of the light. Amen.
Saint of the Day
That God is Triune has been the clear teaching of the Church since the fourth century, when we began reciting the creed at Mass every week. We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of God. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
This reality is a mystery to us, which is not to say that we can know nothing of it. It is a mystery in the sense that it is always beyond us—we cannot come to the end of knowing it.
The doctrine of the Trinity is a way for us to articulate God’s inner life. To say that “Trinity” is a name for God is to say that God’s very essence and being is communion and relationship. Made in God’s image, we, too, are created for relationship. This belief sets the foundation for all we experience and believe as humans.
“God relates to us in three distinct ways of being present to our history: as Father, as Son, and as Holy Spirit; as Creator, as Redeemer, and as Sanctifier,” explains Father Richard McBrien in his encyclopedic work, Catholicism. “The triune God who created us, who sustains us, who will judge us, and who will give us eternal life is not infinitely removed from us, but is absolutely close to us, communicated in the flesh and present in our hearts, our consciousness, and our history as the source of enlightenment and community” (330).
An ancient schematic describes the relationships between the persons of the Trinity well, and it is depicted in stone on the outer wall of the chapel of Howard Hall on campus. Written in Latin, it states that the Father is not the Spirit, which is not the Son. ("Pater non-est Spiritus Santus non-est Filius.") At the same time each of those persons is God (“est Deus”). They are three persons, distinct from each other, each fully God, yet preserving the one-ness of God.
On this feast of the Holy Trinity, let us grow in our union with God as creator, redeemer, and sanctifier!