Holy Trinity: JN 3:16

Disciples of Jesus Christ, those of us who claim him as our Lord and Savior, accept the revelation of God that he gives. Jesus reveals God through his teachings, through his miracles, through all his deeds, most especially his Paschal Mystery, the suffering, death and Resurrection. Do we truly grasp whom he has revealed?

Jesus reveals to us God, a personal being; A Father, not cold nor distant; not vengeful. God, Father, who sees the goodness in all of creation, in us; God who wills, wishes, desires that goodness be lived, because to live out our goodness is to live eternally; as the Father lives out his own Goodness and lives eternally.

It was not as if the people of Israel did not know this. They did. Jesus reveals it to its fullness, the incredible extent of this goodness. God the Father, gives of Godself, and gives of self first; for us.

We have this wonderfully familiar, but also revolutionary Gospel passage from John. Jesus teaches Nicodemus, a Jewish teacher about himself and God. He makes that incredible statement: 3:16 God so loved the word…

This means God’s love knows no conditions. That is the revolutionary aspect. God’s love is never earned or gained, nor lost.

Keep in mind that when we read this in the whole context, after this encounter with Nicodemus, Jesus travels through Samaria and meets the women at the well. He lives out God’s love for the world.

Jesus, who knows his Father, lives this in word and deed. He also goes to the people of Israel, and to the Gentiles, and to the Samaritans, and even to the Romans: he heals, feeds, welcomes, forgives.

These express this very nature of God, the God loves the world.

This is more than nice words, it becomes a challenge for us, as Catholics, as Christians, as Disciples of Jesus.

It means we look at the world and we live in the world in the same manner. It means we are challenged and empowered to see a world with love, a world that has been redeemed in Jesus; therefore our own words and deeds as disciples must be of love for this world, for the people of this world.

It means we accept the challenge of when confronted by turmoil, confusion, chaos, even hate and death, we seek to act in love. We seek to bring forth the goodness that exists.

That is the power of the saints! Francis, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Little Flower…they all faced hardship, betrayal, they struggled…and they found God’s love there. They engaged in true Life. This is true Faith.

Pope Benedict wrote in one of his books: “‘Eternal Life’ is life itself, real life, which can also be lived in the present age and is no longer challenged by physical death.”
It means to live life eternally is to live each moment of life for its beauty, its love: to be open to God. Eternal life is not just about getting into heaven after our death. Jesus very seldom mentioned that. He did continually call us to a better way of living in the moment.

When we ourselves struggle, when life comes at us sideways, Faith calls us to go through it, and to know that God is present to guide; to heal, to be a source of healing.

We as Catholics gather each week as a community in Thanksgiving.
We gather in Freedom to give thanks that God so loves us, that God sends the Son to us.
We gather in Freedom to give thanks for those moments in which we have lived eternally: when in love we gave of ourselves and forgave others, when we were generous with our wealth, with our time, with our compassion and humility; when in love we gave of ourselves to see another as good.
We gather to receive the Son given to us in the Bread and Wine and in the Word proclaimed, to remember we are loved; to remember all are loved.

Then we go, we are sent to love this world as God so loves it.

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