Out of love, Jesus lays down his life for us sinners. No one, then, loves us more. He is the best proof that to be God is to be love.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. “Night” may mean he seeks light. Is he wrestling with “to be or not to be?” A question of salvation and self-fulfillment, the question behind all questions.

It may be that he does not understand since he is a Pharisee. Pharisees do not know and mistake, besides, the way they think, see and hear for that of God (Jn 8, 15. 19. 23. 43-44).

Maybe it thrills them, as it does the Sadducees, to deal with disputed questions and those that trap. Among them, “Which commandment is the greatest?” “At the resurrection, whose wife will the woman be?” It is like asking, “How many angels fit on the head of a pin?”

The scribes and the Pharisees are sticklers for the law, but they leave out what weighs most. What is proper of God: love, mercy, faithfulness, love.

God cannot but be Trinity

But Jesus shows that God is love. He so loves the world that he gives his only Son, not to condemn but to save it.

The one, then, that the only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, reveals is not a despot. He does not spy to punish harshly even the smallest and the weakest of culprits.

But the power of the God of Jesus is to love, to will the good of the other. Not to believe in the one God in three is to make him into our own likeness, an idol to fear and play with at selfish prayer.

And we have to know this mystery to be saved (SV.EN XI:172-173). But it is to know not so much with the head as with the heart (SV.EN XI:116).

Jesus and the disciples do not give us a doctrine about the Trinity. But, yes, he is keenly aware that he is the beloved Son of the Father who anoints him with the Spirit.

As for the disciples, they believe in Jesus. His face is the face of the Maker of the world and of all that is in it. Besides, they feel the presence, up close, of the one who has gone up to heaven. For God pours out his love into their hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rom 5, 5). So, they believe that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit are with them.

This experience should be ours, too. Not to have it is to be at risk of becoming like those who lord it over others.

Lord Jesus, grant that we, who eat your body and drink your blood, be love. We will thus know God who is love. Love will prod us to serve and give our lives for our brothers and sisters (Mk 10, 1 Jn 3, 16-17).

7 June 2020
Most Holy Trinity (A)
Ex 34, 4b-6. 8-9; 2 Cor 13, 11-13; Jn 3, 16-18