Deut. 4:32-34, 39-40; Ps. 34:4-6, 9, 18-20, 22; Rom. 8:14-17; Mat. 28:16-20
Abba, Father is in the Son and the great “I Am” together with the Son proclaim, “I am with you always, until the end of the age” through the Holy Spirit. The unknowable mystery of the Holy Trinity, God in three persons is knowable by the incarnation of Jesus the visible sign of God and the invisible but knowable Spirit that moves within our souls as children of God and “heirs with Christ if only we suffer with him”. “Did anything so great ever happen before?” It is the greatness of Abba Father coming to us in the incarnation of Jesus Christ with the fire of the Holy Spirit.
“Ask now” how are we to suffer with him? Moses says to his people to “Ask now” and question themselves if “anything so great ever happen before” that they have seen or heard from God who has been their Abba Father giving them victory over the powers of other nations. For what they witnessed “by signs and wonders, by war, with strong hand and outstretched arm and by great terrors” they are to “keep his statutes and commandments”. This is how we are to suffering with him. When we keep his statutes and commandments, we suffer with him living a virtuous life in the face of the enemy who is ready to devour us with the powers of evil. Ask now for the grace to suffer with Christ “that we may also be glorified with him.”
Something greater than Moses has entered into the world and remains with us in Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. He remains with us through the Eucharist to suffer with us if only we suffer with him for our sins and the sins of the world. He remains with us through the Holy Spirit with the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be our compass of peace and direction when the signs of fear come to threaten our joy and salvation.
There is a time to suffer in silence and prayer as we wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit as the disciples waited in the upper room in prayer after the ascension of Jesus. Once the Holy Spirit descended upon them came the time to suffer by the act of proclaiming one God in three persons. The means to suffer in silence is through prayer while the means to suffer in act is through the commandments. Love one another is not a choice but a commandment in good times and in bad. We are to pick up the cross of love and carry it as Jesus did even as he was being rejected and crucified, he prayed to Abba Father to forgive them. Forgiving our enemies is an act of love of God and obedience to the commandments.
We live in a nation that seeks to claim its headship in three coequal branches of government. In the headship of government is an independence of disunity with a multiplicity of shades of truth, goodness for some but not others, beauty found in power not love and serving the purpose of special interest groups and not all. It is an imperfect relationship with limits of authority. In the Trinity we have a unity of three persons reflecting the one truth, one goodness, one beauty, and one love for the one purpose of our salvation that has no bounds. As in the time of old nation rises against nation, people against people, and the power to rule by division is the work of evil breaking all the commandments. This is not a promotion for antigovernment but a call to the reality of a broken world in need of the unity under the one triune God.
Separation of church and state in our times is seen as the power of the state to silence the voice of the church in the public square yet it was in the public square where the apostles went forth to proclaim the truth of the Trinity. It was a threat to both the ruling church and state yet they suffered for the cross by their voice in the public square. Perfect love comes to those who accept the cross to suffer with our triune God not in secret but as witnesses to faith.
We can grieve each person of the Trinity. We grieve Abba Father when we welcome sin and fear not to grieve him or seek his mercy. We grieve Jesus as friend when we seek him not by not coming to receive him body, blood, soul and divinity in the Eucharist. We grieve the Holy Spirit when we seek him not in the sacraments of the Church through which we invite the gifts of the Holy Spirit to come into our lives.
Perfect love is the unity of the Trinity as one God in three Persons each reflecting the love of the other. The Holy Spirit in us reflects the love of Jesus as our savior. Jesus reflects the love of Abba Father as the Word became flesh to be the visible God with us. God the Father reflects the glory of his perfect love in Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. Each give light to the other as we are called to give light to his love by our love. There is the old expression “three is a company, four is a crowd”. We are to live in communion as a “crowd” of believers in perfect love. There cannot be simply “God and I” without the other who we are called to love.
How we reflect the love of God and humanity in our personhood brings us closer to the perfect love we are called to live. We behold the glory of God and enter into heaven according to the measure of our love. What glory is there for as parent to wake up in the middle of the night to change a crying baby’s diaper unless the act comes out of love for the child. In the same way what glory is there for spending one-third of the day at work investing in the success of the owner if the purpose is simply to receive a check. Or what glory is there for the athlete to train for hours knowing the main prize will only go to the one who comes in first if not for the act of training itself being a reward to glory in. Glory comes in the act of love the moment in which we recognize God is present and our act gives glory to him. This is our unity and walk to heaven.
Again, we behold the glory of God and enter into heaven according to the measure of our love. In Abba Father’s house there are many mansions but not all reflect the same measure of love coming from us for God. How we reflect our love of God in this world matters how we will view the glory of God in the next. The treasure we build for God will transcend this world with the measure of glory to come. All things matter for God and what we do for the least we are doing for Abba Father.
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