David McGough

The Word
this week
Trinity Sunday
Exodus 34:4-6, 8-9; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18
TODAY WE CELEBRATE the one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Any attempt to approach the mystery of the Three in One as a problem to be solved is doomed to frustration. This is not the way in which the Scriptures unfold the life of God in the Trinity. The readings for Trinity Sunday describe the Trinity in terms of living relationships. These we can understand. They are written into our very being, and are the reflection of God in whose image we are created.
The Book of Exodus describes Moses's encounter with God on Mount Sinai. Moses was entrusted with the law which would safeguard God's people. The encounter did not end there. Moses was drawn to a God whose involvement with us reaches far beyond the prescriptions of the law. In Moses the hidden depths of God touched what is most deeply personal in every human being. What the scriptures describe as "loving kindness" is the only thing that raises our existence from meaningless isolation.
Moses cried out with joy to discover this loving kindness at the centre of God's being: "Lord, Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness." The intimacy of this encounter foreshadowed the giving and receiving that would be revealed as the very life of the Trinity.
Nicodemus was prompted by something more than curiosity when he approached Jesus. He longed to share what was so alive in Jesus. Like Moses before him, he was drawn into the very life of God. Throughout John's Gospel, Jesus is the Son of God who lives always in the Father's love. What brings us to life in the presence of Christ is the outpouring of that love shared with the Father before the foundation of the world.
"The Father loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost, but may have eternal life."
In Jesus, God came into the world. He embraced a world that had grown remote, turned in on its own sinfulness. That fearful isolation ended as Christ healed the loneliness of sin in the love that he had known with the Father. The reality of that love would be entrusted to us in the gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. John 20:22).
As St Paul wrote to a deeply divided community, he called them back to the peace and unity that is our only true happiness. His words make no attempt to "explain" the life of God in the Trinity. As we listen to his words, we realise that we are only truly alive when we are embraced by this mystery. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all."