We could never have known – God had to reveal it.
The Creator is not some lonely deity living in eternal isolation but Father, Son and Spirit - a communion of boundless joy, a fountain of light and life and love that is the source of all that is. This coming Sunday is Trinity Sunday when the liturgy especially rejoices in the God who has been revealed to us.
And the delight is we do not just look in wonder at this mystery of God from the outside. No, God holds nothing back from us. God’s humble, vast goodness invites us in. Through the giving of the Beloved Son to the world, God’s willing abasement elevates humanity. A saint said: 'His richness wears the face of my poverty that I may be enriched by his divinity.'
St John writes: 'To all who believe in him, he gave power to become children of God.' This power is God’s own Spirit. We are brought into this love relationship that exists within God from all eternity. We are embraced and caught up into God, children in the one beloved Child. We are loved by the Father with the selfsame love with which he has loved and loves Christ before time began, with the same torrent of self-giving goodness and delight. The Spirit is nothing less than the love between the Father and the Son, their communion.
The Holy Spirit carries us into the heart of God. By the Spirit we so share God’s life that our very 'I' can become part of the 'I' of God. We are not displaced by some vague, oppressive spirit but recreated from within by the Holy Spirit. What Paul claims is true for all of us who share in the Spirit of the Lord: 'It is not I who live but Christ lives in me.'
I know it takes a lifetime to even begin to understand and live this reality.
But how wonderful to know in faith the gift given.
How precious to catch glimpses of the divine splendour.
How sweet to taste God's joy within.
