Readings (Year A):
Exodus 34:4b–6, 8–9
Daniel 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56
2 Corinthians 13:11–13
John 3:16–18
Reflection: We are made in the image of the Trinity—and this means love
I’ve done some wild things in my life. Who hasn’t? But I’ve never had to climb a mountain hauling two stone tablets by myself, like Moses did in our first reading. As to how big these tablets could have been, it’s anyone’s guess. But in my religious imagination, they’re fairly heavy and aren’t all that easy to carry.
During his ascent, Moses might have felt at times like Sisyphus—the ancient Greek character who forever pushes a large boulder up a mountain. Except unlike Sisyphus, Moses makes it to the top of his mountain and encounters God in a radically personal way. We see the same thing in the gospel today, where God—Jesus—is talking with Nicodemus in a radically personal way.
So, who is God? The God in whose image and likeness we are made (Imago Dei)? The answer might seem obvious for a lot of us, but it’s also obvious that a lot of us take the answer to this question for granted. We say God is Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit, or Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. We say God is one God in three persons, or three persons in one God. We say God is “being” itself. Beyond the formulaic answers, what does any of that really mean—especially in our day-to-day lives?
Rather than trying to rationalize these theological maxims, perhaps we might get to know God through a different, more personal approach. God identifies Godself to Moses as the breath of all life, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity. Jesus identifies God as faithful, non-judgmental, liberating and life-giving. In a word: God is love (1 John 4:8).
While it is beyond our human capacities to fully explain who God is—just ask St. Augustine what the boy on the beach told him about the Trinity—it is within our human capacities to personally know and practice love. We experience opportunities to give and receive God’s love in our ordinary, daily experiences.
The more room we make for implementing God’s loving identity in our lives, the more our own identities become shaped around God’s love. The more our own identities become love, the better we are able to love. This is our union with God.
So, what does God have to do with us today? I’m from Trinidad, a Caribbean island named after the Trinity. But we are a twin-island nation, with the island of Tobago, so being from Trinidad means being from Trinidad & Tobago. Our national identity asks how two islands can be one state—very similar to how our Christian identity asks how three persons can be one God, or how members of multiple Christian denominations can be one body of Christ. The United States asks a similar question—how can 50 states be one America? The answer should be love.
Yet, our world is far from God’s loving oneness. As Pope Leo XIV reminds us in Dilexi Te (On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ), “We say one thing with our words, but our decisions and reality tell another story.” God’s personal presence on earth commands that we love, beginning with the poor and the marginalized, so our words, decisions, and reality align. We cannot reconcile being selfish and individualistic with being Christian.
Our Christian identity is more fruitful than any ideology. Our identity of being made in the Trinity is to love one another, regardless of where a person is from, their religion, their race or ethnicity, their gender or sexuality, their disability status, or their ability to pay us back. As divided as we currently are, Christians—especially the Catholic Church—probably have the best chance of influencing our world to recognize and participate in God’s loving, Trinitarian identity, but it starts with our own internal reconciliation, as individuals and communities.
How you are able to practice God’s love in your daily life is something only you can determine. I’m praying for you to do it well. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
