OPENING OURSELVES TO GOD’S MYSTERY
Throughout the centuries, theologians have made a great effort to approach God’s mystery by formulating in different conceptual constructions the relationships that bind and distinguish the divine persons in the Trinity. Legitimate effort, undoubtedly, born of love and a desire for God.
Jesus, however, doesn’t follow this path. From his personal experience of God, he invites his followers to relate confidently with Father God, to faithfully follow the footsteps of the incarnate Son of God, and to allow ourselves to be guided and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. Thus he teaches us to open ourselves to God’s holy mystery.
Above all, Jesus invites his followers to live as sons and daughters of a God who is close, good and tender, one whom all can invoke as a dear Father. What characterizes this Father isn’t power and force, but goodness and infinite compassion. No one is alone. We all have a Father God who understands us, loves us and forgives us like no one else.
Jesus reveals to us that this Father has a project born of the heart: to build with all God’s sons and daughters a more human and fraternal world, a world of justice and of solidarity. Jesus calls it «God’s Reign» and invites all to enter into the Father’s project, seeking a more just and dignified life for all, starting with God’s children who are poorest, most defenseless, most in need.
At the same time, Jesus invites his followers to trust also in him: «Don’t let your hearts be troubled; have faith also in me». He is God’s Son, the living image of his Father. His words and his deeds reveal to us how the Father of all loves us. That’s why he invites all to follow him. He teaches us to live confidently and docilely in serving the Father’s project.
With his group of followers, Jesus wants to form a new family where all seek to «fulfill the Father’s will». This is the inheritance that he wants to leave on the earth: a movement of brothers and sisters in service to the littlest, to the most destitute. That family will be a symbol and seed of the new world that the Father wants.
That’s why we need to welcome the Spirit who breathes in the Father and in Jesus the Son: «You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit who will come upon you and thus you will be my witnesses». This Spirit is God’s love, the breath that the Father and Jesus the Son share, the power, the impulse and the vital energy that will make of Jesus’ followers his witnesses and co-workers in the service of the grand project of the Holy Trinity.
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
