A Love that Saves (Trinity Sunday A)

(Photo by Rex Features. Caption added.)

What does Trinity mean to today’s man and woman who struggle in life each day trying to make sense of the mess, so it seems, or the brokenness, of our contemporary human existence?

In Manila, I’ve always been intrigued, if not fascinated, by taxi drivers making the sign of the cross whenever they pass by a church. Once I asked a driver about the meaning of his gesture when he touched the crucifix of the rosary dangling in front of him and quickly made the sign of the cross while driving. He replied rather sheepishly, “Sir, we just passed by a church.” He smiled and continued, “I’m a catholic... I have reverence for the house of God. I made the sign of the cross because that’s how we start our prayer.” “You mean you’re praying now?” I inquired. He scratched his head much like what Efren “Bata” Reyes does in difficult circumstance, and answered, “I really wish I’m in the house of God right now praying but, no, I’m driving... Sir, life is difficult... I touched the crucifix and made the sign of the cross because deep within me is a conviction that God won’t abandon me... I believe that God sees me... and has mercy on me... that God loves me and my family... and his love will see us through difficult times...” 

I could have continued the interrogation but I didn’t; honestly, I was awed and moved by the driver’s faith. Much was unarticulated... most part of it was existentially lived out as he stirred the wheel through the thick of the traffic while all at the same time hoping for the best for himself and his loved ones in most of their trying times.

I say that the taxi driver’s faith is attuned to the truth of today’s Gospel reading (Jn 3:16-18) and both can facilitate our reflection on the mystery of the Trinity. The driver believes in the Triune God as he unapologetically makes the sign of the cross—in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. As he makes this gesture, he believes deep down that God is love and full of mercy... that God blesses him and his family.

Today’s gospel reading shows that too: “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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (vv. 16-17). The gospel announces to us the heart of the Good News: the Father’s great love for us which is effectively manifested through the Son’s redemptive work. God’s love does not condemn. God’s love saves.

The redemptive work of Jesus Christ, the Son, the person in the Trinity who shared our humanity, can be the key to a deeper insight into the mystery of our faith in the Triune God. In theology, the contemporary approach to understanding the Trinity has already departed from a detached and out-of-this-world ontological exposition of the classical approach and has moved towards articulating what is closest to our human experience. The contemporary theology takes, for instance, the paschal mystery of Christ as entry point to a greater appreciation of our faith in the Three-Personed God. I believe this approach can help articulate the taxi driver’s faith in the God of the cross.

For most of us, the passion- death-resurrection of Jesus (or the paschal mystery) is easily appealing. At a recollection for the Eucharistic Lay Ministers (kaabag) of a certain parish, I played Mel Gibson’s film, “Passion of the Christ,” and that did the trick. They were all teary-eyed moved by the sacrificial love of Jesus, the Son. Hence, I didn’t have to belabour the point by an extended boring input! The paschal mystery interests us. Even captivates us. Draws us to an intimate relationship with our loving God.

The sacrificial love of Jesus is manifested in the most sublime way through his passion and death. “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (Jn. 15: 13). His resurrection-ascension announces with joy the victory of the life-giving power of God’s love over the alienating and destructive propensity of sin. Love has overcome sin and death.

Therefore, the greatness of the Father’s love, a love that saves, is made known to us in human terms through the sacrifice and victory of Jesus Christ, the Son. The Father, out of his great love for us, gave his only Son that we may be saved and have life (Jn. 3: 16-17).

The Holy Spirit who dwells in us is the person in the Trinity that enables us to understand, appreciate, and actually experience in a real way the love so sublimely revealed in the paschal mystery we saw above. It is the Holy Spirit that makes us cry out a thanksgiving prayer for being so loved. It is the Holy Spirit that accompanies us in life, giving us the confidence, like the taxi driver, that no matter what, everything’s gonna be fine... that the mess I am in will eventually be alright because I am loved with a love that saves.

The driver touched the crucifix and made the sign of the cross in the name of the Trinity. Such a gesture, in his lack of capacity to articulate the beauty of the paschal mystery of Christ, is a simple act of faith in the unfathomable mystery of God’s love for him and his family. When we gaze at the cross of Christ, we pray to the Holy Spirit to enable us to see in it the greatest love of all. A love that does not condemn. A love that saves. It is the Father’s unconditional love expressed to us in human terms by the sacrificial and redemptive love of the Son, Jesus Christ. It is this love that enables us to trust in life despite its seeming brokenness.

When we look at the cross, meditatively, may our hearts well up with the love that saves—the love of the Father and the Son which we existentially experience, in whatever state of life we are in, through the indwelling of the Spirit.

Lord, thank you for the knowledge and inner conviction that I am loved with a love that saves in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.