"God so loved the world that he gave his only Son"

Scripture: John 3:16-18

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 18 He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Meditation: Who is the greatest lover of all? O. Henry, a prolific short story writer gives us a hint in his classic story of giving and receiving, called The Gift of the Magi. The story is about a young couple in New York city, who owned little but loved much. One Christmas eve the husband sold his prize possession, a gold pocket watch inherited from his father, so he could buy his wife a precious comb of gold for her beautiful long hair. The wife that very same day had her hair cut and sold so she could buy a precious gold chain for her husband's prized watch. What wonder and surprise crossed their faces when they exchanged their gifts! True love always costs dearly! God, the perfect lover, has given us, his beloved, the most perfect gift of all. "To ransom a slave God gave his Son" (an ancient prayer from the Easter vigil liturgy). God sent his Son to free us from the worst of tyrannies – slavery to sin and the curse of death. Jesus' sacrificial death was an act of total self-giving. Jesus gave himself completely out of love for his Father. And he willing layed down his life out of self-less love for our sake and for our salvation. His death on the cross was both a total offering to God and the perfect sacrifice of atonement for our sin and the sin of the world.

John tells us that God's love has no bounds or limits (John 3:16). His love is not limited to one people or a few chosen friends. His love is limitless because it embraces the whole world and every individual created in "his image and likeness". God is a persistent loving Father who cannot rest until all of his wandering children have returned home to him. Saint Augustine says, God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love. God gives us the freedom to choose whom and what we will love and not love. Jesus shows us the paradox of love and forgiveness and judgment and condemnation. We can love the darkness of sin and unbelief or we can love the light of God's truth, goodness, and mercy. If our love is guided by what is truly good, wise and beautiful, then we will choose for God and love him above all else. What we love shows what we prefer. Do you love God above all else? And do you seek to put him first in all your thoughts, cares, choices, and actions?

Jesus also reveals to us the true nature of God. The Jews understood God as Creator and Father of all that he made (Deuteronomy 32:6) and they understood the nation of Israel as God's firstborn son (Exodus 4:22). Jesus reveals the Father in an unheard of sense. He is eternally Father by his relationship to his only Son, who, reciprocally, is Son only in relation to his Father (see Matthew 11:27). The Spirit, likewise, is inseparably one with the Father and the Son. Jesus reveals to his disciples the great mystery of the Christian faith – the triune nature of God and the inseparable union of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus shows us the true nature of God – a Trinity of divine persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who love each other without measure. Jesus' mission is to unite us with God in a community of love and eternal fellowship. The ultimate end, the purpose for which God created us, is the entry of God's creatures into the perfect unity of the blessed Trinity. The mission of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit are the same. That is why Jesus tells his disciples that the Spirit will reveal the glory of the Father and the Son and will speak what is true. Before his Passover, Jesus revealed the Holy Spirit as the “Paraclete” and Helper who will be with Jesus’ disciples to teach and guide them “into all the truth” (John 14:17,26; 16:13). In baptism we are called to share in the life of the Holy Trinity here on earth in faith and after death in eternal light.

Clement of Alexandria, a third century church father, wrote: “What an astonishing mystery! There is one Father of the universe, one Logos (Word) of the universe, and also one Holy Spirit, everywhere one and the same; there is also one virgin become mother, and I should like to call her 'Church'."

How can we personally know God the Father and his only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? It is the Holy Spirit who reveals the Father and the Son to us and who gives us the gift of faith to know, understand, and live out the truth of God’s word with joy and confidence. Through the Holy Spirit, we proclaim our ancient faith – proclaimed by the Apostles – in the saving death and resurrection of Jesus Christ until he comes again. The Lord gives us his Holy Spirit as our divine Teacher, Guide, and Helper so we can grow in the knowledge and wisdom of God and his great love for us. Ask the Holy Spirit to deepen your understanding and experience of God the Father's love for you and his desire that you be completely united with him and his Son in a community of love and peace.

"May the Lord Jesus put his hands on our eyes also, for then we too shall begin to look not at what is seen but at what is not seen. May he open the eyes that are concerned not with the present but with what is yet to come, may he unseal the heart's vision, that we may gaze on God in the Spirit, through the same Lord, Jesus Christ, whose glory and power will endure throughout the unending succession of ages." (prayer of Origin, c. 185-254)

Psalm 8:4-9

4 What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him?
5 Yet thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor.
6 Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea.
9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!