Read: Dt 4:32-34, 39-40; Rom 8:14-17; Mt 28:16-20
I frequently encounter penitents in the sacrament of confession who appear discouraged and weighed down by their habitual sins. They seem distraught and tired of having to confess the same sins over and over again. I always take time to remind them that, no matter the gravity of our sins, or their number, it is God who always acts to bring us back to Him. We can rise from our sins and return to God only because God is so passionate about our communion with Him. In the words of Jesus, “No one can come to me unless the one who sent me draws him” (Jn 6:44).
God is a perfect and eternal communion of love and life between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But do we ponder how passionate this Triune God is about communion with each and every one of us? Are we aware of how the divine persons constantly labor to bring us sinners into their loving communion? We must be aware of this if we are going to respond appropriately to God.
Moses reminds the Israelites of God’s passion for communion with them. God speaks the life-giving words that make them His own: “Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?” God also performs mighty acts to make them His own people: “Did any god ever venture to go and take a nation for Himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, with strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?” (Dt 4:33-34).
The divine passion for communion with us climaxes with the Incarnation of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. In Christ Jesus, God is always speaking and acting to bring us into perfect communion with Him and with others. Jesus Christ suffered, died, and rose from the dead to take away our sins and bring us into this communion with God. He ascended into heaven, not to distance Himself from us, but to remain intimately united to us and to “prepare a place for us ” (Jn 14:3). Together with the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit upon us to make us God’s beloved children: “You received a Spirit of adoption through whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’” (Rom 8:15).
Now, as God’s beloved children, we too should be passionate about communion with God and with others. God has given us everything that we need to be passionate for deeper communion with Him and with others. This is why He can command us, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:18-19).
We show passion for deep, life-giving communion with God and others in the following ways.
Firstly, we are deeply grounded in our new status as God’s beloved children: “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom 8:14). We are not led by public opinions, current fads, human respect, or worldly values. We are not overcome by fear or other emotions that tend to cripple us. We are not defined by our past sins, struggles, and failures. And we are definitely not defined by our sexual orientation.
We are defined as God’s children by the one to whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” As His children, we refuse to be mastered or dominated by sin. Since we have not received a “spirit of slavery to fall back into fear” (Rom 8:14), we do not give in to shame for anything but confidently approach the “throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help” (Heb 4:16). O how the demons are put to flight when we live according to our status as God’s beloved children!
Secondly, we show our passion for true communion through our loving obedience. We begin to sense the abiding presence of the Trinity within us when we obey God’s commands out of love for Him: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (Jn 14:23). Having the Triune God within us, we also burn with the divine passion for communion and become instruments of this communion with God for others. The Triune God can neither abide nor make use of us when we are obstinately rebellious towards His words and commandments.
Thirdly, our passion for true communion will bring us to share in the very suffering of Christ. Because we share in the status of Jesus as a son, we also share in all that belongs to Him, including His destiny. We are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if only we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him” (Rom 8:16-17). We too share in the suffering of Jesus as we share in His loving obedience of the Father that brought Him to suffer and die on the cross. The suffering that we face for and with Christ cannot take anything away from our status as God’s children.
Lastly, we show our passion for true communion by being faithful witnesses of the Triune God before others: “Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.” We teach God’s truth and show that truth by our own actions. By cooperating with others in this mission to make God better known and loved, we are reflecting the cooperation of the divine persons in our salvation. When we forgive others, we reflect the loving union of the divine persons. We reflect the union within the Trinity when we mature in our prayer with God. When we serve others with love for Christ, we reflect God’s love that reaches out to both the good and bad. We preach only saving truth and not opinions to reflect the love and truth in the Godhead.
We must maintain this passion for true communion with God today in our world where we witness a certain mockery of unity in the global clamor for inclusivity. Our world preaches an inclusivity that has no respect for the life of the most defenseless—the unborn. We hear of inclusivity that has no respect for objective truth. This demand for inclusivity has no place for Judeo-Christian values and morals. We hear calls for inclusivity that deny the essential and unchanging differences between males and females. The world speaks of inclusivity that excludes the God of communion and His commandments. The mantra of inclusivity persists in the background of moral depravity. These calls for inclusivity are also backed by a tyrannical canceling of all opposing voices. How diametrically dissimilar is such inclusivity to the loving communion we find in the Holy Trinity.
But we are not of this world. We belong to God. Created in His image and redeemed by the Blood of the Son, Jesus Christ, filled with His Spirit, we cannot settle for nor be engaged in such warped ideas of inclusivity. We can only mirror God’s unity and share in His own passion for communion with us.
In each Eucharist, the God of communion comes to us to share with us His own passion for communion with each and every one of us sinners. His own Body and Blood are shed for us sacramentally for the sake of this communion. Let us also be passionate about deeper communion with Him and with others. This is how we show that we are true children of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Glory to Jesus!!! Honor to Mary!!!
da Bassano, L. (1595). Painting of the Altarpiece: The Trinity. [painting]. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.
