The Epiphany of the Trinity

BAPTISM OF THE LORD C

YEAR OF THE YOUTH

JANUARY 13, 2019

JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU!

So many people went to the Jordan River to listen to John the Baptist and to have themselves baptized and among them was Jesus. This is the implication of what the Gospel said today: “After all the people were baptized and Jesus also had been baptized…” They did not know that among them was the One of whom John referred to as the “One who is mightier than I is coming…” Jesus looked like everybody else. He was not shining with a halo as holy pictures depict him. He was like us in all things except sin, so would St. Paul say. He stood there, all wet as the rest of the people were. He stood there among the multitude of sinners. The sinless One stood among sinners and he did not look differently from them.

John the Baptist himself admitted that he did not know Jesus: “I did not know him, but the One who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’” And so it happened: while Jesus was praying, the Holy Spirit descended upon him in a bodily form. The Holy Spirit singled Jesus out from the rest of the drenched humanity. And the heavens opened and a voice from heaven was heard: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

The objective was simple: the event took place to reveal Jesus to all. This is why the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River is one of the 3 mysteries of the Epiphany. By descending upon Jesus, the Holy Spirit singled Jesus out. And the voice of God revealed to all who this man is: He is God’s Son, his Beloved on whom God’s pleasure rests. But by revealing Jesus, God also revealed something about himself. God revealed that He is a Trinity of Persons. The baptism at the Jordan was not only Jesus’ first public manifestation. It was also the first public revelation of the Blessed Trinity: the Son emerged from the waters, the Holy Spirit descended upon him and the Father publicly acknowledged him as his only begotten Son.

I want to preach about this because just before Christmas, the President said that the Trinity is silly. “How can one God be divided to 3 persons? That is silly! (kagalgalan; hangal)” But allow me to make clear this point: the Catholic Church did not invent the Trinity. The Trinity was revealed by God himself. The Trinity is God’s revelation of himself. The Church did not invent the Trinity. The Church simply listened to God as he revealed himself. If God did not reveal his inner life, if God did not reveal the Trinity, the Catholic Church would not have known it. And when did God reveal himself as a Trinity of persons? It was at the Baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan. For the 1^st time in the history of the world, the Blessed Trinity made himself known. It may be difficult for our human minds to grasp it but still we believe in it because God said it so. I believe in the Blessed Trinity because God said it and he does not lie. When people say that the Trinity is silly, they accuse God of lying because they question the credibility of his revelation. “Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, by not believing the testimony God has given about his Son.” (1 John 5:10) Did the Holy Spirit lie when he descended upon Jesus and single him out? The Holy Spirit does not lie because he is the Spirit of Truth. Did God the Father lie when he publicly claimed Jesus as His Son? The Father does not lie. “He has testified on behalf of his Son.” And if we want to be saved, we must accept in faith this Divine Testimony. “God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever possesses the Son has life; whoever does not possess the Son of God does not have life.”

By publicly revealing Jesus as his only begotten Son, God publicly admitted that he is Father. The Holy Spirit constantly gives us the interior witness about Jesus as God’s Son sent by the Father. Let us hold on firmly on this faith of our baptism. Remember that we were baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. This is the faith that saves us. Let us reject any insinuation that this truth is silly. God is not silly. God is not a liar.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

The God of Love and Peace

God is Love: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Jesus, I trust in you!

It is disturbing to know that many acts of terrorism today are done in the name of God. Apparently, terrorists think that if they burn churches and kill unbelievers, they are doing the will of God. But this deception comes from a false notion of who God is. On this Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, the word of God proclaims to us that the one true God is the God of love. On Mt. Sinai, God revealed himself to Moses: “The Lord, the Lord, a merciful God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” This revelation runs contrary to our common perception of a God who is always angry and relentless in his cruelty. St. Paul tells the Corinthians that God is the “God of love and peace” who commands us to “encourage one another, agree with one another, and live in peace.” God does not hate the earth. He does not want it condemned nor destroyed. Instead, “God so loved the world that he gave his Only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”

Take note that he does not threaten: “Believe or be killed.” Rather, the peril of death is already present on account of our sin. “This is indeed a stiff-necked people.” Our stubbornness in sin is the real culprit…it is the reason we die. Violence does not come from God. Hatred does not come from God. Terrorism does not come from God. War does not come from God. It comes from sin. Our Lady said at Fatima: “War is a punishment for sins.” Contrary to what pagans believe, there is no god of war. The only true God is the God of love and peace.

God does not want us to perish. He wants us to have eternal life because he loves us. This is why he sent his Son. He did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. God sent his Son to offer us a way out of the condemnation that the world has brought upon itself. All we have to do is to believe in his Son so that we may not be condemned. He who does not believe in Jesus remains in his sins. He remains condemned.

There will be war as long as people do not know the Blessed Trinity. Violence and hatred will remain so long as the world does not know the God of love and peace. The God of love is the Blessed Trinity. “God is Love: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” (CCC, 257.) In the inner life of God is a great mystery of communion in love: the Father loves the Son in that Fount of Love who is the Holy Spirit. And this Love is so great and powerful that the Blessed Trinity reveals himself wherever there is love. St. Augustine said: “Where there is love, there is a Trinity: a Lover, a Beloved, and a Fountain of Love.” St. Francis of Assisi used to lament: “Love is not known. Love is not loved.” The world continues to live under the threat of violence because Love is not known and loved. The world will not be at peace until it knows and loves the Blessed Trinity. Therefore, let us make Love known. “Mend your ways, encourage one another, live in peace and the God of love and peace will be with you…The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!  

The Athanasian Creed

Ang Pagpapahayag ng Pananampalataya ni San Atanacio

Ang sinumang nagnanais ng kaligtasan ay kailangang panghawakan nang higit sa lahat ang Pananampalatayang Katolika.

Sapagkat malibang tanggapin niya nang buong buo ang pananampalatayang ito, tiyak na mapapahamak siya magpakailanman.

Ito ang itinuturo ng Pananampalatayang katolika: sumasamba tayo sa iisang Diyos sa tatlo at sa tatlo na iisa.

Hindi natin pinaghahalo ang mga Persona, o kaya naman pinaghihiwalay ang pagkaDiyos.

Sapagkat iisa ang Persona ng Ama, bukod naman ang sa Anak, bukod din ang Espiritu Santo.

Subalit nagtataglay ng iisang pagka-Diyos ang Ama, at ang Anak, at ang Espiritu Santo, magkakapantay sa kaluwalhatian, at pare parehong walang hanggan sa kamahalan.

Kung ano ang Ama, gayun din ang Anak, at gayun din ang Espiritu Santo.

Walang lumikha sa Ama, walang lumikha sa Anak, at walang lumikha sa Espiritu Santo.

Hindi masusukat ang Ama, hindi masusukat ang Anak, at hindi masusukat ang Espiritu Santo.

Walang hanggan ang Ama, walang hanggan ang Anak, at walang hanggan ang Espiritu Santo.

Subalit hindi tatlo ang umiiral na walang hanggan kundi iisang umiiral na walang hanggan lamang.

Gayundin naman, hindi tatlo ang umiiral na hindi ginawa ninuman, o kaya naman tatlo ang umiiral na di masusukat ninuman, kundi iisa lamang ang umiiral na hindi ginawa at hindi masusukat ninuman.

Ang Ama ay makapangyarihan sa lahat, ang Anak ay makapangyarihan sa lahat, at ang Espiritu Santo ay makapangyarihan sa lahat.

Subalit hindi tatlo ang umiiral na makapangyarihan sa lahat kundi iisa lamang ang umiiral na makapangyarihan sa lahat.

Kaya nga ang Ama ay Diyos, ang Anak ay Diyos, at ang Espiritu Santo ay Diyos.

Subalit hindi tatlong Diyos kundi iisang Diyos lamang.

Ang Ama ay Panginoon, ang Anak ay Panginoon, at ang Espiritu Santo ay Panginoon.

Ngunit hindi tatlong Panginoon kundi iisang Panginoon lamang.

Sapagkat obligado tayo ng katotohanang Katoliko na kilalanin na Diyos at Panginoon ang bawat Persona, subalit pinagbabawalan naman tayo ng relihiyong Katoliko na sabihin na may tatlong Diyos o Panginoon.

Kaya nga iisa ang Ama, hindi tatlong Ama; iisa ang Anak, hindi tatlong Anak; iisa ang Espiritu Santo, hindi tatlong Espiritu Santo.

Sa tatlong Personang ito, walang nauuna at walang nahuhuli, walang nakahihigit at walang nagkukulang. Ang tatlong Persona ay pare parehong walang hanggan at magkakapantay.

Upang sa lahat ng bagay, dapat sambahin ang iisa sa tatlo, at ang tatlo sa iisa.

Ang sinumang nais maligtas ay kailangang sumampalataya sa tatlong Persona sa iisang Diyos.

Gayundin naman, upang maligtas ang isang tao, kailangang sumampalataya rin siya sa pagkakatawang tao ng ating Panginoong Hesukristo.

Ang tamang pananampalataya ay ang pananalig at pagpahayag natin na ang ating Panginoong Hesukristo, ang Anak ng Diyos, ay Diyos at tao.

Bilang Diyos, sumilang siya mula sa Ama bago magkapanahon. Bilang tao, sumilang siya sa panahon mula sa kanyang ina.

Siya ay Diyos na totoo at taong totoo na may kaluluwang makatwiran at katawan ng tao.

Kapantay niya ang Ama sa pagka-Diyos, ngunit mababa sa Ama sa kanyang pagka-tao.

Bagamat siya ay Diyos at tao, hindi siya dalawa kundi iisang Kristo.

At siya ay iisa, hindi dahil naging tao ang kanyang pagka-Diyos, kundi dahil ang kanyang pagka-tao ay inari ng kanyang pagka-Diyos.

Siya ay iisa hindi sa pamamagitan ng paghahalo ng kanyang pagka-Diyos at pagka-tao, kundi dahil iisa ang kanyang Persona.

Kung paanong ang kaluluwa at katawan ay iisang tao, gayundin naman, ang Diyos at tao ay iisang Kristo.

Namatay siya para sa ating kaligtasan, pumanaog sa impiyerno, at muling nabuhay sa ikatlong araw.

Umakyat siya sa langit, at naluluklok sa kanan ng Diyos Amang makapangyarihan. Mula roo’y paririto siya at huhukom sa mga nabubuhay at ang mga nangamatay na tao.

Sa kanyang pagbabalik, ang lahat ng tao ay babangon sa kanilang mga katawan, at magsusulit sila ng kanilang mga gawa.

Ang mga gumawa ng mabuti ay pupunta sa buhay na walang hanggan; at ang mga gumawa ng masama ay sa apoy na walang hanggan.

Ito ang pananampalatayang Katoliko. Dapat itong matibay at palagiang panaligan ng lahat; kung hindi, ay hindi sila maliligtas. Amen.

Drawn to the Most Blessed Trinity

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

During the joyful celebration of Easter, we saw how God worked out our salvation: the Father sent his only begotten Son to save the world through the sending of the Holy Spirit. Today’s gospel reading is a fitting description of the entire Paschal Mystery: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. When we look back at the wondrous things God has done for us through Christ and in the Holy Spirit, we ask: Why did God do all these for us? And the only answer is: It is because he loved us.

He loves us because that is who he is – “God is love: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” (CCC, 257) The 3 divine Persons, each of them is God whole and entire, are distinct from one another on account of the relationships which relate them to one another: “In the relational names of the persons, the Father is related to the Son, the Son to the Father, and the Holy Spirit to both.” (CCC, 255) Their relationship with each other is marked by communion in love: The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, and the Holy Spirit is that love they have for each other. “Because of that unity, the Father is wholly in the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is wholly in the Father and wholly in the Son.” (CCC, 255)

Because he is love, “God freely wills to communicate the glory of his blessed life. Such is the ‘plan of his loving kindness,’ conceived by the Father before the foundation of the world, in his beloved Son: ‘He destined us in love to be his sons’ and ‘to be conformed to the image of his Son,’ through ‘the spirit of sonship.’ This plan is a ‘grace (which) was given to us in Christ Jesus before all the ages began,’ stemming immediately from Trinitarian love. It unfolds in the work of creation, the whole history of salvation after the fall, and the missions of the Son and the Spirit, which are continued in the mission of the Church.” (CCC, 257)

In communicating to us the glory of his blessed life, the Blessed Trinity draws us towards himself. He wants us to have access to his Divine Life. “The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God’s creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity. But even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: ‘If a man loves me,’ says the Lord, ‘he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home in him.’(Jn 14:23)” (CCC, 260) What a loving God we have! He comes to us and makes his home in us because he loves us. Patiently, he leads us to himself so that we might find our home in him. “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.” Indeed, he is the Lord, “a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” He does not desire our condemnation but our salvation. Truly God is love: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen. 

Jesus, I trust in you! O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee! 

The Unfathomable Mystery of Love and Communion

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

The Father glorified his obedient Son through the Resurrection. The Son returned to his Father and sits at his right hand. From the throne of the Father, the Son sent the Holy Spirit to complete the work of salvation. Now, the revelation of the true God being completed, we honor this great God, three Persons and yet united in Divinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “This Sunday of the Most Holy Trinity, in a certain sense sums up God's revelation which was brought about through the Paschal Mysteries: Christ's death and Resurrection, his Ascension to the right hand of the Father and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.” (Benedict XVI, Angelus, 30 May 2010.)

For many, today is a very difficult feast to celebrate inasmuch as our tendency today is to be very “heady” or “conceptual” about the Trinity. To many Catholics, the Holy Trinity is some idea which we memorize through our catechism. We study, discuss, and even debate on the Trinity to the point that we fail to keep in mind that the when we speak of the Trinity, we speak of 3 Persons in 1 God. I think that this is the key to appreciate the Trinity: He is 3 Persons. What is a person? A person is someone who knows and loves. A person is not a something but a someone. I am a person. Each angel or each demon is a person. But God…He is not a person but 3 Persons. Far from being simply an idea that tickles your intellect, God is a Communion of Persons who live in a relationship among themselves and also with us. The interior life of the 3 Persons is very much a mystery to us. This much we know: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live in mutual self-giving. The mystery of the Blessed Trinity is very much the unfathomable mystery of Love and Communion. The 3 Divine Persons are not mindless and stoic figures. Their personal names, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, tell us that they are in a relationship. The 1^st Person’s name is Father because he has a Son. The 2^nd Person’s name is Son because he is born of the Father. The Holy Spirit is the mutual love that Father and Son share with each other. The Holy Trinity is a perfect communion of 3 Persons in life and love. In mutual sharing, the Persons of the Trinity glorify each other: “(The Holy Spirit) will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine…” The 1^st reading from the Book of Proverbs has an even more moving insight into this relationship between the Father and the Son. The Son (the Wisdom of God) speaks of the creation of the world: “there was I beside him as his craftsman, and I was his delight day by day, playing before him all the while, playing on the surface of his earth; and I found delight in the human race!”

The Trinity invites us to enter and share in this communion of life and love. The 3 Persons know us and wish to be known by us. The 3 Persons love us and wish to be loved by us. We enter and share in the communion of the Blessed Trinity through the Holy Spirit who began to dwell in us through Baptism. Being the Spirit of Truth who guides us to all truth, he makes the Blessed Trinity known to us. Being the love of God who is poured into our hearts, the Holy Spirit makes us experience the Trinity’s love for us and transforms our will to love the Trinity who reveals himself to us. The Holy Spirit brings us to encounter the Blessed Trinity. Our Christian Faith is born out of this encounter. We do not encounter an idea, or a concept. We encounter the living Persons of the one God: the Father who adopts us and makes us his children; the Son who redeems us and affiliates us into his mystical Body which is the Church; and the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us and who is our closest and most reliable friend and Sanctifier. Our Christian life on earth should be a lifetime of knowing and loving and serving the Blessed Trinity. How wonderful is our Catholic faith! By this faith, “we have gained access…to this grace by which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Nothing Like This!

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

Immediately after the celebration of the Easter mysteries, the words of Moses are addressed to us: “Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself…?” Moses was then speaking about the events of Passover which God did for the Israelites in Egypt. It was the most decisive intervention of God in Old Testament history. But if Moses was able to say this to the Israelites, the word of God more fittingly addresses these words to us. I say more fittingly because the Paschal Mystery of Jesus which unfolded before us during the days of Easter is even greater than the events of the Exodus. In the Israelite exodus, all that transpired was the liberation of an entire nation from centuries of Egyptian servitude. In the Christian exodus, however, Christ liberated us from slavery to the devil. In the Israelite exodus, God took a nation for himself from another nation. In his Paschal Mystery, Christ our Lord redeemed us from sin, from death, and from the Evil one.

The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost completed God’s revelation of himself to us. He did not reveal himself simply as the one God living and true. He allowed us to see his inner life. He revealed to us that he is a communion of 3 Divine Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. On the Mount of Olives, Jesus did not ascend into heaven without revealing this Divine mystery in the clearest terms: “…baptiz(ing) them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” The Apostles received from Jesus a revelation greater than what Moses received from God on Mt. Sinai. “Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of?” Nothing like this has ever been revealed to man. Jesus said, “No one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” Definitely, God the Son has not revealed this secret to anyone but to the Apostles and to us. “Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire and live?” Our answer is “Yes!” We heard the revelation of the Holy Spirit as he descended in the form of tongues of fire.

But it was more than just a revelation that we received. We were not simply given a peek into the inner life of the Trinity. Jesus gave us an access into this inner life of God. He allowed us to enter into the communion of the 3 Divine Persons. Through the Sacrament of Baptism, we received the Holy Spirit, the “Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’” In Baptism, we became children of God – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. We did not simply become a nation taken from the midst of another nation. We became God’s family, sharers in the sonship of Jesus. We became recipients of the Spirit of adoption. We worship the Father in Spirit and in truth – boldly we cry out to him: “Abba!” Indeed, God has not done this to any other nation!

Let us rejoice that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has invited us into his communion. Let us know and fix into our hearts that the Lord is God, and that there is no other. Let us keep his statutes and his commandments. Let us not hesitate to suffer with Jesus so that we may be glorified in him.  He is with us always until the end of the world. God has not done this to any other nation!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit! O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

On Why there is no Feast of God the Father

Our predecessor Innocent XII, absolutely refused the petition of those who desired a special festival in honour of God the Father. For, although the separate mysteries connected with the Incarnate Word are celebrated on certain fixed days, yet there is no special feast on which the Word is honoured according to His Divine Nature alone. And even the Feast of Pentecost was instituted in the earliest times, not simply to honour the Holy Ghost in Himself, but to commemorate His coming, or His external mission. And all this has been wisely ordained, lest from distinguishing the Persons men should be led to distinguish the Divine Essence. Moreover the Church, in order to preserve in her children the purity of faith, instituted the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, which John XXII. afterwards extended to the Universal Church. He also permitted altars and churches to be dedicated to the Blessed Trinity, and, with the divine approval, sanctioned the Order for the Ransom of Captives, which is specially devoted to the Blessed Trinity and bears Its name. Many facts confirm its truths. The worship paid to the saints and angels, to the Mother of God, and to Christ Himself, finally redounds to the honour of the Blessed Trinity. In prayers addressed to one Person, there is also mention of the others; in the litanies after the individual Persons have been separately invoked, a common invocation of all is added: all psalms and hymns conclude with the doxology to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; blessings, sacred rites, and sacraments are either accompanied or concluded by the invocation of the Blessed Trinity. This was already foreshadowed by the Apostle in those words: "For of Him, and by Him, and in Him, are all things: to Him be glory for ever" (Rom. xi., 36), thereby signifying both the Trinity of Persons and the Unity of Nature: for as this is one and the same in each of the Persons, so to each is equally owing supreme glory, as to one and the same God.

Leo XIII, Divinum Illud Munus, 3.

On the Worship of the Trinity

Last Sunday we said that the coming of the Holy Spirit brought to perfection the work of salvation. Looking back at Pentecost, we realize that the appearance of the Holy Spirit as tongues of fire which rested upon the apostles was the revelation of the “Spirit of Truth whom the world neither sees nor recognizes.” Now that He has appeared, the Holy Spirit crowns the self-revelation of the true God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The existence of God is a truth that is accessible to human reason. The 5 ways of St. Thomas Aquinas prove the point that by observing the world around us, we can prove that there is a God. But the identity of the true God cannot be accessed by human reason except by way of Divine Revelation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “‘The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the ‘mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are revealed by God.’ To be sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But the inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone or even to Israel’s faith before the Incarnation of God’s Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit.” (CCC, 237.)

It is necessary to know the True God because it is so easy for us to be deceived by posers and pretenders and be led to idolatry. The Holy Father warns us of the danger of “yielding to the seduction of idolatry -- a continual temptation for the believer -- by fooling (ourselves) itself into thinking (we) it could ‘serve two masters’ (cf. Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13) and ease the impenetrable ways of faith in the Almighty by also placing (our) its trust in a powerless god fashioned by man.” (Benedict XVI, Wednesday Audience, 15 June 2011.) And many of us prefer to worship idols than the true God. Why? It is because idols can be manipulated. Like the priests of Baal, idol worshippers “turn to themselves in order to approach their god, relying on their own abilities to bring about a response.” (ibid.) Idol worshippers think that if they chanted the right words, or concentrated hard enough, or did drastic things, they could manipulate the forces of the universe to their advantage.

But the true God is not some dead idol whose will we can bend to ours. He is a God who has his own will, one who loves in a very personal way: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” This very famous verse shows us the Trinity: the Father who sends, the Son who is given, and the Holy Spirit who is Love. This true God wills nothing but our salvation: “so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” He wants to save us from the slavery of idolatry. Idols do not have the same good will because they are lifeless and powerless fabrications of the human imagination. Lifeless gods cannot save. Only the Trinity, the true God, can give eternal life.

When we adore the true God, we do not manipulate him. Because he is a living God, he has his own will. We do not and cannot make him bend his will. Rather, “the primary end of prayer is conversion: the fire of God transforms our hearts and makes us capable of seeing God, of living according to God and of living for the other.” (Ibid.) St. Paul said to the Corinthians: “Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.” We are the ones who should mend our ways. We must turn away from our idolatries and allow the fire of God’s love to burn, purify and transform us into authentic worshippers – worshippers in Spirit and in truth.