Daily Mass Gospel Reflection - Triune Light

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 05.11.22 | Aux. Bishop R. Barron

[MurphsLaw]

FOURTH WEEK OF EASTER

JOHN 12:44-50

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus identifies himself with the Father and so hints at the reality of the Trinity.

The Trinity is just another way of saying that God is love.
But this has to imply that there is a play, within the unity of God, of lover, beloved,
and shared love.
This is precisely what we mean when we speak of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

This love is so white-hot, so intense, that it spills over into creation.
In the case of human beings, this communication in love was interrupted by sin.
What did the triune God do in order to address this problem?
In another place John famously says,
“God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.”

The Father so burned with the love of the Holy Spirit that he sent his own Son into the world
so that a sinful humanity might be drawn back into community.
The Trinity opened up so as to include a sinful and wandering humanity.
The Trinity is far from an abstract doctrine.
It names the very dynamics of salvation.

[MurphsLaw]

+++Jesus cried out and said,
“Whoever believes in me believes not only in me
but also in the one who sent me,
and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me.
I came into the world as light,
so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness.
And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them,
I do not condemn him,
for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world.
Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words
has something to judge him: the word that I spoke,
it will condemn him on the last day,
because I did not speak on my own,
but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak.
And I know that his commandment is eternal life.
So what I say, I say as the Father told me.”+++