“God so loved”

 
“God’s very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.”[i]
 
Why does God share anything with us? Love does such things. He shares all of His creation with us and made it for our benefit and wills to share His very life with us. Imagine a father who works hard and earns enough money to buy a new car. He does not keep the car just for himself and not allow anyone else to drive in it, but desires to share the car with his family. The exchange of love between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is the divine life, a life that we are called to share in.

How do we share in this exchange of love? At the end of the Eucharistic prayer, the priest prays, “Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, almighty Father, for ever and ever.”[ii] It is through Jesus in the unity of the Holy Spirit that we are able to have the divine life, to share in the exchange of love.
 
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John 3:16 is one of the most recognized scripture verses. Why is this a message that needs to be heard, needs to be looked up and even needs to be painted on our faces? God shows us this great love be giving us the divine life through the Blessed Trinity. How does this verse give hope?
 
Why do we want the divine life? Why do we want to share in this exchange of love? We want to give glory and honor of God. The Mass is an exchange of love. God who deserves all glory and honor, so loves the world, that He gives His Son. The Son, in obedience to the Father’s will, gives the Holy Spirit. It is only in this Spirit that we are able to give God glory and honor.  Pope Benedict XVI says, “…to all those who have received the Spirit’s gift of reconciliation and new life at Baptism, who have welcomed Him into their hearts as their helper and guide at Confirmation, and who daily grow in His gifts of grace through the Holy Eucharist. At each Mass, in fact, the Holy Spirit descends anew, invoked by the solemn prayer of the Church, not only to transform our gifts of bread and wine into the Lord’s body and blood, but also to transform our lives to make us, in His power, “one body, one spirit in Christ”[iii] Because of the Sacraments, because of the Mass we can most perfectly unite to the one body, one spirit in Christ and give glory and honor to the Father. We are reminded in the “Glory Be” prayer of our goal our mission, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and every shall be world without end. Amen.”

What is shared with us? Love, Grace and Fellowship are shared with us “We possess the love of the Father, the grace of the Son and the fellowship of the Spirit himself.”[iv] If we possess the love of the Father, we then share in His self-giving, His creative nature and want to give the gift of our self to others freely. We can only give the gift of our self through grace. Our fallen nature wants to take not give, and so we need the grace of the Son to redeem our fallen nature into a nature that wants to give and not take, this can only happen by grace. Jesus is a witness of this grace. Jesus says “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”.[v] Jesus possesses the love of the Father and shows that love leads to sacrifice. Fellowship means community. It is through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit that we unite with the community of the Holy Trinity.
 
How do we have fellowship, communion with the Holy Spirit? We can look to the example of our Blessed Mother, who is the spouse of the Holy Spirit. She was the first to have fellowship with the Holy Spirit and thus the first to possess the love of the Father, the grace of the Son. The angel said to Mary at the Annunciation, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”[vi] Those in fellowship are bonded by a oneness in faith, worship and obedience. Mary is completely obedient to the Holy Spirit, “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord.”[vii] She then trusts, has faith in the word of God, “May it be done to me according to your word”.[viii] After the Annunciation in which she practices perfect faith and right away obedience she proclaims, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”[ix] This act of pure, heartfelt worship is so perfect that the Church prays the Magnificat each evening at Vespers in the Liturgy of the Hours. To have fellowship with the Holy Spirit we imitate Mary’s right away obedience, perfect faith and pure worship.
 
Where do we look for exchanges of love in this world? Where do they fail? The complete obedience, faith and worship or adoration is the actions of a lover. The prayer of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity is that of a lover speaking to the one that she loves; it is one expression of the great exchange of love that happens between each individual soul and the Holy Trinity. It is only in our love for God and His love for us that we find peace, a love that does not fail. “O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into your mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest. May I never abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your creative action.”[x]

What happens if we are not open and obedient? If we do not have faith and trust and if we focus on self rather than the worship of God? The amount that we lack in these areas is the amount we lack in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Lacking in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, means we will lack in the Grace of the Son and lack in possessing the love of the Father.

How can we increase our obedience, faith and worship? To be obedient we have to be open and trust and use our will for the honor and glory of God, not our will but God’s be done. To be faithful we can study the teachings of Christ and His Church, we can practice the beatitude of having a hunger and thirst for righteousness. To worship we can practice perseverance in prayer, piety in the liturgy and fear of the Lord throughout our day.

How do the gifts of the Holy Spirit help us to have fellowship with the Holy Spirit? The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.[xi] Each gift enables us to grow in fellowship with the Holy Spirit by being more obedient, more faithful and in our prayer and worship. If a husband were to give a gift to his wife, very often the gift helps the two grow closer. The Holy Spirit desires to be united with us and so we are given seven gifts which draw us close.

Wisdom – to know the things of God and to live them (faith)
Understanding – gives us insight into the mysteries of faith so that we might live them (faith)
Counsel – we receive His light to guide us in practical matters and warn us against evil (obedience)
Fortitude – courage to love God and do His will even in the midst of trials (obedience)
Fear of the Lord – awe and reverence for God, which keeps us from offended Him by sin, caring more about what God thinks, rather than want others think (obedience)
Knowledge – enables us to see God in creation, to see creation in its limits, to long for God (worship)
Piety – will are attracted to reverence of God as Father, and others as His children (worship)

[i] Catechism of the Catholic Church; 221
[ii] Order of the Mass; Eucharistic Prayer
[iii] Homily at the 23rd World Youth Day by Pope Benedict XVI 
[iv] Spiritual Reading in this Link to Liturgy Packet
[v] John 15:13
[vi] Luke 1:35
[vii] Luke 1:38
[viii] Luke 1:38
[ix] Luke 1:46
[x] Catechism of the Catholic Church; 260
[xi] The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism, No.2; Lesson 10