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Suggested Emphasis from the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians
"Encourage one another. Live in harmony and peace, and the God of love and
peace will be with you."
Salesian Perspective
St. Francis de Sales had this
to say about one of the most profound mysteries of our faith: the triune nature
of God. "From all eternity there is in God an essential communication by which
the Father, in producing the Son, communicates his entire infinite and indivisible
divinity to the Son. The Father and the Son together, in producing the Holy
Spirit, communicate in like manner their own proper divinity to him. So also
this sovereign sweetness was communicated so perfectly outside itself to a creature
that the created nature and the godhead each retained its own properties while
still being united together in such wise that they were only one self-same person...In
short, God's supreme wisdom has decided to intermingle this original love with
his creatures' will in such wise that love would not constrain the will but
leave it possessed of its freedom." (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 2, Chapter
4)
What can we hope to consider or
explain about the profound mystery of the Trinity in a way that makes a practical
difference in our lives and in the lives of those we touch? For the sake of
simplicity, let us look at each person of the Trinity in very broad strokes,
looking at that for which the Father, the Son and the Spirit are known in the
history of our salvation:
·
In the Trinity, we see a Father who creates out of love;
· In the Trinity, we see a Son who redeems and
reconciles out of love;
· In the Trinity, we see a Spirit who inspires
and sustains out of love.
We are most like the Trinity when
we establish and sustain in ourselves the things that most clearly reflect our
God-given, Trinitarian nature: when we create, feed and nourish relationships
in which we are redeemed, reconciled and inspired to live in the freedom of
the sons and daughters of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the words
of St. Paul, we are faithful to our divine dignity and destiny when we "encourage
one another...living in harmony and peace..."
We are most like the Trinity when
we forgive, when we are willing to let go of hurts, disappointment, injury and
betrayal. We are most like God when we inspire, encourage, challenge and support
one another to do the same.
How might we best act in the name
of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Spirit today?
Rev. Michael S. Murray, OSFS,
is Executive Director of the
De Sales Spirituality Center in Washington, DC
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