One in Love

Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity May 30, 2010 (Jn 16:12-15)

"I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you."

In the Old Testament, God revealed Himself to the Israelites through Moses. He said, "I am WHO AM". This is not a grammatical error. Through this, God introduced Himself as the God of their ancestors, the God of the living, the unchanging God, the God who is, who was and who is to come. The revelation of the Divine name happened just before God revealed His plan to save Israel from slavery. God introduced Himself to the people He was to save, to the people He planned to be His own.

God's revelation finds fulfillment in the New Testament. Again, as God's plan for our salvation was unfolding, He revealed Himself ever more fully. This time, God did not speak to us through prophets. He Himself spoke to us in the person of Jesus. Jesus revealed God to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus revealed to us that the one God is Trinity.

Of course, our human mind can never fathom this doctrine in its fullness. We can never understand how three can become one. Nevertheless, we accept it through faith because it was revealed to us by God.

God as Trinity shows us how God works in our lives and for our salvation. Our readings and our Gospel for today show us how God works as Trinity, how wonderfully His plan of salvation unfolds. God worked for our salvation as Trinity. The Father created us out of love. The Son became love incarnate to save us and to bring us back to God's love from which we ran away. The Spirit was sent by the Father and the Son to help us remain in God's love and to inspire us to love God back.

The Trinity is a community of love. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit love each other. Therefore, being created in the image of the Trinity, we too are made to be a community of love. The Trinity teaches us that we are one human race, though different in color and creed. We are one because we were created by the one God. We must therefore live in love and in unity as one human race.

Jesus gave us the doctrine of the Trinity not to confuse us. He revealed this to us to make us appreciate the marvel of our salvation. He shows us that the almighty God uses all His might to win us back. The Trinity shows us that God loves us so much because He Himself is love; and in that love he desires all men to share in His oneness. He wants men to be one human race and to be one with Him in love.

A Shepherd's Love

4th Sunday of Easter May 3, 2009 (Jn 10:11-18)

"I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not the shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father."

By using the image of a good shepherd, Jesus speaks of how He cares for His followers. He speaks of laying down His life for His sheep, something other hired men won't care enough to do. Jesus says He knows His sheep and His sheep know Him. He has a very special relationship with each member of His flock. He knows them each by name.

The symbolism of the Good Shepherd explains to us Jesus' magnificent love. Imagine a shepherd, giving his life to save his sheep; a man, voluntarily dying to save animals! Indeed, God's love is something very great. It's a mystery that only God, in His wisdom, can understand. It will leave us asking, "What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" (Ps 8:4).

Yes, what are we that Jesus would lay down His life for us? Who are we that God would care to know our name? We are sinners, unworthy of God. Nevertheless, He loved us, so much so that He laid down his life for us.

Jesus also speaks about other sheep that are not yet into His fold. This symbolizes the universality of God's love. God loves everyone and treats us all as His children. Nevertheless, we are given the freedom to choose whether or not we will be His faithful sheep. Of course, even if we choose not to follow Him, we would still be His sheep, and our Shepherd will never stop calling us into His fold.

The Good Shepherd is also an image of a perfect leader. We, too, have little flocks of which we are shepherds. We could be leading a small group, an organization, or maybe raising children, perhaps. The Good Shepherd should be our model of genuine love and concern for our flocks. Like Jesus, we are invited to be good shepherds, ready to sacrifice for our sheep, ready to help our neighbor even if we shall lose something for it, ready to love more even if it will hurt. We must follow Jesus' example.

Today's celebration invites us to heed the call of our Shepherd, for even if we walk through the dark valley, we will not fear, as long as we follow Jesus (cf. Ps 23:4). Like a shepherd leading his flock towards verdant pastures and restful waters, Jesus will surely lead us from this dark valley we call earth, to the repose of heaven (cf. v.3).

The Church also invites us today to pray that more young men follow Jesus and serve him, reflecting the goodness of the Shepherd in priestly ministry.

Like Jesus, may we be filled with ardent love for our neighbor and be shepherds of each other, helping one another and listening to the voice of the One Shepherd - Jesus.

The Greatest Evidence of God's Love

4th Sunday of Lent Mar. 22, 2009 (Jn 3:14-21)

Jesus said to Nicodemus: "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God."

God is love and He loves us all. This is something very elementary for us Catholics. We all know this. In fact, John 3:16, a verse which speaks about God's love, is a very popular Bible verse. But sometimes, being too familiar with this fact, with this verse, we forget what it means. We are no longer in awe when we here about God's great love.

The Gospel for today speaks about how God loved the world so much. This He showed by giving to us His only Son to die for our salvation. Jesus is the greatest evidence of God's love for us. This is how great God loves us: He allowed His Son to be subject to suffering and death in order to save us. All this He did even when we were still sinners. Imagine trying to risk your only son's life just to save criminals? But that is how God loved us.

Jesus is the greatest evidence of God's love. In the first part of the Gospel, Jesus foretold His redemptive act of love in a metaphorical way. He spoke about how he must be raised up like the bronze serpent Moses raised up in the desert to save the Israelites who were bitten by snakes. Just as the Israelites were saved from death when they looked at the bronze serpent, so all of us will be saved through faith in Jesus Christ.

All the teachings of Christianity may be summed up in this one word: LOVE. The Gospel we proclaim is the Gospel of Love. God loved us first, and, in response, we must love God back and also love our neighbors.

God's love is so overwhelming that we ought to share it with other people. Therefore, God's love also gives us a mission - to make other people feel that God loves them too, just in case they might not feel it.

This Lent, we are invited to reflect on the magnitude of God's love. We ought to feel this love in remembering Jesus' redemptive act. We are also challenged to live according to the demands of God's love, in obedience to the commandment of love. We ought to love God and our neighbors, especially those in great need. We should not only speak about the Gospel of love. We must show it by loving other people. As a song goes, "And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love!"

I remember when I was in Grade School. I drew a picture of Jesus carrying the cross. Then I erased the cross and replaced it with many hearts, forming the shape of the cross. The picture below shows how the cross looked like. (Although I didn't draw Jesus carrying it anymore.) When I drew that picture years ago, I had this thought in mind: "Jesus is the greatest evidence of God's love!"