From: Pope Benedict
XVI
Angelus
Address June 7, 2009
Following Eastertide, which culminates with the feast of Pentecost, the
liturgy foresees these three solemnities of the Lord: today, the Most Holy
Trinity; on Thursday, that of Corpus Domini, which, in many countries, Italy
among them, is celebrated next Sunday; finally, on Friday in two weeks, the
feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Each one of these liturgical
observances manifests a perspective from which the whole mystery of the
Christian faith is embraced: respectively, the reality of God one and
three, the sacrament of the Eucharist and the divine-human center of the Person
of Christ. They are in truth aspects of the one mystery of salvation, which, in
a certain sense, summarize the whole path of the revelation of Jesus, from the
incarnation to the death and resurrection to the ascension and the gift of the
Holy Spirit...
***
The Trinity does not live in a splendid solitude, but is rather
inexhaustible font of life that unceasingly gives itself and communicates
itself.
We can in some way intuit this, whether we observe the macro-universe:
our earth, the planets, the stars, the galaxies; or the micro-universe: cells,
atoms, elementary particles. The “name” of the Most Holy Trinity is in a
certain way impressed upon everything that exists, because everything that
exists, down to the least particle, is a being in relation, and thus
God-relation shines forth, ultimately creative Love shines forth. All comes
from love, tends toward love, and is moved by love, naturally, according to
different grades of consciousness and freedom. “O Lord, our Lord, / how
wondrous is your name over all the earth!” (Psalm 8:2) -- the Psalmist
exclaims. In speaking of the “name” the Bible indicates God himself, his truest
identity; an identity that shines forth in the whole of creation, where every
being, by the very fact of existing and by the “fabric” of which it is made,
refers to a transcendent Principle, to eternal and infinite Life that gives
itself, in a word: to Love. “In him,” St. Paul says, on the Areopagus in
Athens, “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). The strongest
proof that we are made in the image of the Trinity is this: only love makes us
happy, because we live in relation, and we live to love and be loved. Using an
analogy suggested by biology, we could say the human “genome” is profoundly
imprinted with the Trinity, of God-Love.
From: H.E. Bishop Paul Wilhelm von Keppler (1852-1926)
Sermon preached at the German Katholikentag in
Stuttgart, 1925 (Translation: Rorate Cæli)
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit— that is the shortest creed, a creed given
by the Savior Himself. It is the Savior’s highest revelation, and His greatest
gift of light. He alone could say it, for, “no man hath seen God at any time:
the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”
(John 1:18) It is the epitome of salvation, the foundation of the faith, the
anchor of hope, the source of love. It is in the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit that children are baptized, marriages are solemnized,
priests are ordained, churches are consecrated, sinners are absolved, sick
persons are anointed, and the dead are buried.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit— this Trinity in
Unity and Unity in Trinity is the exemplar and first cause of all true unity
and concord, of every flourishing community, of all authentic peace. The
further humanity distances itself from the Triune God, the more hopeless and
incurable its disunity and strife become. Separate from God every bond of
friendship, every bond of love, every bond of marriage, every bond of peoples
becomes fragile and unsound. Our human community depends on its link to the
Trinity, on the encompassing unity of the Trinity.
The whole purpose and final goal of our community, and all our lives, is
nothing other than this: glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the
Holy Spirit. But, worried voices as us, what about the public good? The glory
of God is the common good of the people. The glory of God is the
salvation and happiness of humanity. The glory of God is the safety of the
state, and the security of legitimate authority. If only our world would
realize this! If only it would understand the words of out Lord: “Seek ye
therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall
be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)
