15 June 2014 - three and undivided

15 June 2014 - three and undivided

In Eden God and Adam are very close.   God walks in the garden in the cool of the day (cf. Gen. 3:8).  This intimacy must be wonderful at first.  But then comes the incident with the fruit of the forbidden tree.  After that, the intimacy becomes unbearable.  Adam and Eve hide from the voice of the LORD.  History from then on is the story of God trying to restore that intimacy.  Through many hardships he teaches Moses to long for it for the people entrusted to him.

Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord,
do come along in our company.
This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins,
and receive us as your own."

And God does accompany them.  He is constantly at work delivering them.  But the intimacy that was lost is not yet restored.  Moses asks the LORD, "Now show me your glory" and the LORD does so.  But he does so partially.  He tells Moses, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live" (cf. Ex. 33:19-20). 

And things continue along this way of partial fulfillment until the the fullness of time comes and God executes the plan he has since the beginning.

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.

Eternal life, after all, is to "know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (cf. Joh. 17:3).  And before Jesus comes no one really knows the Father in fullness.  This is why Jesus tells us "no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him" (cf. Mat. 11:27). 

This revelation comes through the Spirit.  The Spirit dwelling in us is for Moses the missing piece.  Without the Holy Spirit he cannot enter fully into God's self-revelation.  We are now privileged to be filled with this Spirit.  We are now exulted to be able to see God's glory in fullness, including his Most Holy Face.

All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18).

All three persons of the undivided Adorable Trinity have come to our rescue.  And they rescue us by revealing themselves to us.  This very revelation is only possible because it is a sharing in their own divine life.  If we did not share in it all else would be mere talk.  Telling us about the Trinity would leave us starring blankly, or worse, kill us with misunderstandings.  But this is not what they offer.  Instead, they give us the free gift of sharing their very life.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

We hear this so frequently at Holy Mass that we take it for granted.  Yet in it is contained the lofty destiny to which we are called.  His promise is nothing less than making us "partakers of the divine nature" (cf. 4 Pet. 1:4).

This morning God calls us to enter more and more into his self-revelation.  We are invited to do this through sincere praise.  When our hearts are given to praising him, the LORD reveals himself in our praise.  It is said that he lives in the praises of his people and this is what that means (cf. Psa. 22:3).

Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;
And blessed is your holy and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.

And, more profoundly still, we enter into the life in the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist.  Come, LORD Jesus, come!