Gospel according to Saint John 3,16-18
At that time, Jesus said to Nicodemus: «God so loved the world that He gave his only Son that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but may have eternal life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world; instead, through him the world is to be saved. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned. He who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the Name of the only Son of God».
In His Image and Likeness
Luis CASASUS President of the Idente Missionaries
Rome, June 04, 2023 | The Most Holy Trinity
Ex 34: 4b-6.8-9; 2Cor 13: 11-13; Jn 3:16-18
When Saint Patrick shared the Gospel with the Irish in the fifth century, he searched for an illustration to explain the Trinity. Legend has it that he picked a three-leaf clover. Pointing to each of its leaves, he explained that the single clover is made up of three distinct leaves. In the same way, he explained, God is made up of three distinct persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
In theology and in the lives of the saints there are very suggestive explanations about the Trinity, and they usually make us understand that there is something more urgent and necessary than arriving at a rational clarity about this mystery. Indeed, being attentive to the reality that God is a family, which has been somehow intuited in many religions and revealed by Christ, is an incomparable light for our walk in this world.
In one of his first homilies as pope, St. John Paul II posed the most important thing for people to know in their earthly life: Who God is, and the mystery of the Holy Trinity. JPII elaborated: God in His deepest mystery is not a solitude, not a loner, He is a family, because He has in Himself fatherhood, sonship, and the essence of familial love, which is the Holy Spirit.
Today is an appropriate time to meditate on some consequences of this mystery in our lives, undoubtedly useful and essential for everyone, perhaps more than trying to find out what God is like “on the inside”.
This resembles the story of a simple Russian country priest who confronted an eminent scientist. The latter made apparently devastating arguments against the existence of God and declared: I don’t believe in God. The unlettered priest quickly retorted: Oh, never mind…. God believes in you. This is a practical way of understanding what is of interest for us to know about the Trinity.
If the ancient wisdom of Genesis reminds us that God said: Let us make man in our image and likeness, certainly it is suggesting that we are something more than a “representation” of Him, as a sculpture or a painting can be of a character. Surely, it is something more profound than saying simple-minded statements such as: “if the Trinity are three persons, we too are composed of three elements: body, soul and spirit.”
If we say that we were created in the image and likeness of God, then it is not a matter of us manifesting traits of good human beings, but rather that some divine characteristics become visible in our lives. This is more essential and goes beyond morality, without belittling it, of course.
—ooOoo—
In this regard, perhaps the first observation is that God is love. Unfortunately, this has become for many of us a slogan, a catch phrase, a cliché. However, if we are made in his image and likeness, the most immediate conclusion is that there is a way of loving ourselves that is truly natural, that responds to our nature. For some reason Christ confirmed the commandment: Love God above all things and your neighbor as yourself (Lk 10: 25-37).
Depending on where you tune in, self-love takes on different forms. Social media tends to say you are perfect the way you are and should put yourself above everyone else. Contemporary individualistic Psychology tends to say self-love is about figuring yourself out. All of these voices tell us many, often different things about self-love, and in our confusion we have to figure out what is actually being said.
Self-love, as seen in trendy culture, encourages us to elevate ourselves above everyone else. Self-love is equated with selfishness. Selfishness has become the means of becoming more confident in being yourself. We are told that the path to achieving self-love is to do what makes us feel good. Figure out what makes you happy and do whatever it takes to get that.
From the point of view of the Gospel, basically, I stop loving myself when I act against my nature, which is in the image and likeness of God’s. This is probably the most accurate and profound description of the way we sin.
Yes, we can speak of inclinations, temptations, passions, attachments… but let us remember what our formula of profession of vows says: holiness would not be possible while loving riches, impurity and rebellion at the same time. These are true loves, alternative, deviant, perverted, unnatural. But all these behaviors can be called “love” because they set in motion our whole being, our whole capacity, in a tragically wrong direction. The truth is that we cannot stop loving, even if it is clumsily, harming others, spoiling our peace, our mission and the life project that the Holy Spirit continually reminds us of.
A dramatic example is that of King David, who was able to defend his father’s flocks from wild beasts, slay the giant Goliath, unify his kingdom, win many battles and forgive Saul. But a misguided and ambitious love led him to adultery with Bathsheba and to procure the death of Uriah, her husband and an officer in his own army.
In us the sentence attributed to St. Jerome is realized: The corruption of the best is the worst of all. This is fulfilled when our capacity to love is corrupted by the foolish choices of a freedom… that is also a trait inherited from God.
—ooOoo—
A tree, a mosquito or an eagle are not free. They are –forgive the redundancy- naturally obedient to their nature, to their hormones, or responding to stimuli in an appropriate way. But we have a freedom, which manifests itself wonderfully in creativity and imagination.
When our thoughts or our conversations are useless, senseless (without an end, without a defined objective), we are creating a closed world, an imaginary atmosphere where we ignore the most real thing: that the Holy Spirit is continually telling us something, He is trying to communicate His will to us so that we fulfill it with that imagination and that creativity that we have been given.
Creativity can be used to manipulate others and this has a reach that we sometimes do not imagine. Although young children are unlikely to intentionally devise ways to harm others, children find new ways to avoid having to share their toys, devise new ways to avoid pick-up time, play pranks that may hurt their friends, are examples of negative creativity that we see in classrooms of four-year-olds.
In our case, as adults, it is much worse. There are abuses of authority, frenetic activities or excuses for not changing that are sadly “creative,” that even have the appearance of being profound and well-founded. Let us remember the anguished words of St. Paul:
As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith. The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk (1Tim 1:3-6).
As an old Protestant pastor once said: Far too many of our brothers would rather explain the complexities of the Book of Revelation, than go to an orphanage and tell little children about Jesus.
On the contrary, the true disciple of Christ places his imagination and fertile creativity, which are always unique and should not be underestimated, at the service of the Gospel. Such is the case with a work of art, even if it is a modest poem, written out of love for God and neighbor.
This is why all five post-Vatican II popes have pointed to the power of beauty to speak to us in a way which goes beyond words and actions. The Church knows that art is more than stone and glass, words or notes on paper, sung sounds, paint on canvas: at its best art is an inspired use of such materials and skills to offer us a glimpse of ultimate beauty and so engage us in a conversation with the One who is beauty, that is Christ Himself.
There are many moments in the life of Christ where his fertile creativity is manifested, which -we insist- we have received. A woman was caught in adultery (Jn 8: 1-7), and when she was condemned by all, Jesus sentences: He who has no sin, let him cast the first stone. Of course, each one of his parables is a work of art placed at the service of the teaching of the Good News that he proclaimed by all possible means.
When a highly conflictive and problematic situation presents itself to Christ, he knows how to find a creative solution, found in prayer, in a state of prayer that does not allow itself to be surprised by the most unexpected events. Authentic creativity is not something individual, but a product of that permanent conversation between God and us.
It is not very different from what happens in a research center, where most of the relevant ideas need an exchange, a contrast of opinions, a passionate dialogue that brings them to bear fruit. In the words of our Father Founder: Affliction is, then, a dynamic that moves the apostle in a continuous discomfort, thinking, devising new ways, new forms of communicating with others, transmitting the message to others, saving others.
One last observation: our Father and Founder, Fernando Rielo, invites us to deepen our dialogue with God, making us see that it is a dialogue with three different voices, with the three divine persons.
Although this is not a formal theological affirmation, I remember a sensitive person saying that God the Father speaks to us through the events around us, Christ through our neighbor (what you do to others, you do to me) and the Holy Spirit through what we feel within us, whether it be pain, joy, doubt, enthusiasm or surprise.
Let us open our hearts today to this reality, to this daily experience of the Trinity.
_______________________________
In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Luis CASASUS
President
