There was a missionary who had a Buddhist friend. At one time, he thought of getting his friend to know more about Christianity. And so, he said, if you want to know more about my God, then, here read this book.” He handed his friend the Bible. After a week, the Buddhist friend came to him with a frustrated and disappointed face and said, “I cannot understand your God. He is a noisy God. So, the missionary asked, why do you say that he is a noisy God?” Well, he keeps on speaking in this book that you gave me,” the Buddhist said.
Yes, our God, the Christian God, is a God who speaks. He loves to speak to us, not because he wants to make noise. He wants to talk to us, not to make noise, but to build an intimate relationship with us. God never and will not stop making himself known to his people including to us today. Why does God want to reveal himself? The only answer is because he loves us so much. He loves you and me. This is the only reason why God chose and called many prophets to pass on his message. “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world (Heb.1:1-2).
One thing that we have to know is that God keeps revealing us his love. He also knows that his love cannot be expressed enough by the words. Therefore, he decides to use a new way to reveal totally his love for us. The decision is not so easy for God because he sends all what he has. This is what we just listened to in today’s gospel. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” God really wants to talk with us personally. He wants our relationship with him to become more intimate.
By taking the form of a man like us, in His Son, Jesus Christ, God comes to embrace all our experience, joy, and suffering. This is the mystery of incarnation, the mystery of the love of God. It is the incarnation, Word becomes flesh, in which “God wants to come close to us, so close that we can see him with our own eyes, hear him with our own ears, touch him with our own hands; so close that there is nothing between us and him, nothing that separates, nothing that divides, nothing that creates distance.”
In Jesus then we see God. Throughout his ministry, Jesus shows God’s love to the world. He preached the Good News through words and deeds. He heals the sick, forgives the sinners, gives life, welcomes the beggars. Indeed, he embraces all our human experience. His love for us is everlasting.
Before Jesus returned to his Father, he said to his disciples, “when I die, I will not leave you alone but I will send you my Spirit, the Paraclete, the Counselor. And that is why he said, it is good for you that I go so that I can send the Spirit to lead you. Jesus also commands his disciples,” Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, let us trust ourselves to be embraced by God who loves us with an everlasting love. God sent his only begotten Son because He loves us. And God continues to guide us through the Holy Spirit.
Let me end this reflection with this story:
“Three Russian monks lived on a faraway island. Nobody ever went there, but one day their bishop decided to make a pastoral visit. When he arrived, he discovered that the monks didn’t even know the Lord’s Prayer. So, he spent all his time and energy teaching them the “Our Father” and then left, satisfied with his pastoral work. But when his ship had left the island and was back in the open sea, he suddenly noticed the three hermits walking on the water – in fact, they were running after the ship! When they reached it they cried, “Dear Father, we have forgotten the prayer you taught us.” The bishop, overwhelmed by what he was seeing and hearing, said, “But, dear brothers, how then do you pray?” They answered, “Well, we just say, ‘Dear God, there are three of us and there are three of you, have mercy on us!'” The bishop, awestruck by their sanctity and simplicity, said, “Go back to your island and be at peace.”
As we make the sign of the Cross today let us do it in a prayerful way like these three monks. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen