FACES OF GOD
(A biblical reflection on TRINITY SUNDAY – June 3, 2012)
First Reading: Deut 4:32-34,39-40; Psalms: Ps 33:4-6,9,18-19,20,22, Second Reading: Rom 8:14-17; Gospel Reading: Mt 28:16-20
In 1961 Dr. Carl R. Rogers published a book called On Becoming a Person. Since that time it has come to be recognized as a classic in psychotherapy. Its popularity is due in large part to its positive approach.
While Dr. Rogers does not deny the disorders, maladjustments and neuroses that trouble people, he prefers instead to emphasize the immense potential we have as persons to develop, to adapt and to grow.
According to Dr. Rogers, to “become a person” we have to focus more on our possibilities than on our problems, more on our freedom than on our restrictions, more on our capacity to create than on our past mistakes.
Perhaps we can take our cue from Dr. Rogers in our approach to the mystery of the Holy Trinity. In the Creed we confess that there is one God, but three Persons. Too often we have negative feelings about our faith in this mystery because we can’t adequately comprehend it, let alone explain it.
But if we adopt Dr. Rogers’ positive approach on becoming a human person and apply it to our perception of the three divine Persons, then perhaps our attitudes and feelings about this mystery will change for the better.
Scripture certainly does all it can to help us take such a positive approach.
The first reading does not dwell on what we do not know about God. It states quite simply that God is Lord of all, that He created us and that there is no other God (Deut 4:32-34,39-40).
In the second readingSt. Paul refuses to get fixated on our fears and on those things that enslaves us. Instead, he gets all excited about how we are led by the Spirit into God’s family, into true freedom and ultimate glory (Rom 8:14-17).
Finally, in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus does not make a lengthy speech to the apostles about how they should explain the Trinity. He just tells them to proclaim this teaching and to baptize people in the name of that Trinity (Mt 28:16-20).
The sacred authors thus take a very positive approach to the Trinity. A modern spiritual writer who does the same is Romano Guardini. In his book The Life of Faith, he views the mystery of the Trinity as revealing to us different faces of God.
First, there is the face of God as Father – the beginning and the end of Commandments, but also the God we address as “Our Father.” He is not only the God to whom Jesus referred in the parables, but also the God about whom Jesus could say, “The Father and I are one.”
Second, there is the face of God as Son. Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, the divine Word of God who took on our human nature. On the one hand, Jesus shows us the God who heals us and forgives us. On the other hand, He shows us the God who challenges us to higher things and sends us out to do His work.
Third, there is the face of God as Spirit. He is the Comforter who is always with us, the Paraclete who teaches us. The Spirit is the very breath of God giving us new life, the love of God poured out into our hearts and the power of God enabling us to become His witnesses.
As we profess our faith today in the trinity of Persons in the one God, may we also pray to them to help us become the kind of person we are meant to be – a true child of God our Father, a living image of Jesus His Son and a consecrated temple of the Holy Spirit.
Prayer: Almighty, eternal, just and merciful God, give us miserable ones the grace to do for You alone what we know You want us to do and always to desire what pleases You. Inwardly cleansed, interiorly enlightened and inflamed by the fire of the Holy Spirit, may we be able to follow in the footprints of Your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and, by Your grace alone, may we make our way to You, Most High, Who live and rule in perfect Trinity and simple Unity, and are glorified God almighty, forever and ever. Amen. (St. Francis ofAssisi, “A Letter to the Entire Order”, 50-52).