…the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. – Romans 5:5
God has a deep, mysterious secret. This makes my head spin, but He has shared it with us! Are you ready for it? HE IS LOVE. God doesn’t simply act in love. It’s not something He feels or does. It’s WHO He is. As St. John taught, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “God’s very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret” (CCC 221).
Read that again: God sent His Son, Jesus, in order to reveal this secret of love to us. The Most Holy Trinity is the form of this love. The Catechism continues, “God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange” (CCC 221).
What a privilege and a joy! We get to participate in the love of the Holy Trinity. If we ever feel we lack something to be thankful for, we should consider this great gift. We each get to know the love of God the Father, through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
One of the best ways we can experience God’s love is through the Liturgy of the Church. Through the Mass, the sacraments, and the Liturgy of the Hours, we can join with the Body of Christ in loving and being loved by God. Pope Benedict XVI called the Eucharist, the “Sacrament of Love.”
“But it is in Christ, dead and risen, and in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, given without measure (cf. Jn 3:34), that we have become sharers of God’s inmost life. (16) Jesus Christ, who ‘through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God’ (Heb 9:14), makes us, in the gift of the Eucharist, sharers in God’s own life. This is an absolutely free gift, the superabundant fulfilment of God’s promises.” Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 8
What does this mean for us? How should this affect our lives? It means we have access to God’s perfect love each and every time we actively participate in Mass and reverently receive the sacraments. To help remind us of this, we can imagine, as described in our second reading this Sunday, the love of God flowing from Him through Christ in the Eucharist, made possible for us by the mysterious action of the Holy Spirit.
Oh blessed Trinity, Your love seems unreachable, but You become so small and humble to feed us with your love in the Blessed Sacrament. Help me remember that each time I receive you in the Holy Eucharist that I am receiving You, the source and summit of my faith, hope, and love.
Bonus! Read this section of the Catechism if you want a deep dive into how the Holy Trinity is at work in the liturgy.