The Mystery of Love

Sunday is the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, a mystery beyond compare.  When we hear the word mystery, the modern inclination is to think of it as something to be solved by logic and rational thought.  However, there are certain mysteries simply too complex for the human mind, such as God and love.  When St. John says “God is Love,” he was not using a metaphor but rather, defining the very essence of God.  The mystery of God’s existence goes beyond our belief that He is the uncaused Cause that brought all existence into being, something we will never fully comprehend.  When Moses asked God His name, the answer He got was simply, “I AM.”   God is the very essence of “Being,” not merely a creature of greater knowledge and power than us, but Being Itself. 

In revealing Himself as The Trinity, God clarifies that His very being is a community of Love, Love so powerful that the three are One Unity of Being.  In human terms, God is Love itself, Love so powerful and productive that it created all matter and energy.  My own meager understanding of this, in words that don’t do adequately explain the miracle of existence, is that the Love of God is the energy that caused the Big Bang, converting energy (God’s Love) into all matter that exists throughout the universe.  As we have come to realize the immensity of the universe, and the complexity that underlies its, and our existence, we realize that only an Intelligence far greater than anything we can contemplate had to have been the underlying cause of it all.

The mystery of Love is far more than the confusing feelings we experience about affection, desire, compassion, and a host of other emotions.  Because we have been created in the image of God, vague though it may be, we are capable not only of rational thought and the ability to comprehend the miracle of existence and the complexity of life.  We are also capable of love, though imperfectly.  When we love as God loves, without selfish motives, but selflessly, we are privileged to participate in the inner life of the Holy Trinity.  Although it is impossible to describe the Love that is God in His fullness, we know that He is all-merciful, forgiving even the most grievous offenses; Self-sacrificing, even to the point of enduring suffering and death for us, despite our unworthiness; and Life-giving, not only creating us out of love, but conquering death on our behalf so that we too can share eternal life with Him.   

The closer we come to loving as God loves, the more fully human and fully alive we become.  One of the consequences of such love is that it brings meaning, fulfillment and joy into our lives, regardless of our age, health, wealth or circumstances.  When God created us male and female, and imbued us with the ability to love one another, He offered us the opportunity to share in His creative, life-giving love.  Every parent who holds their new born child gets a glimpse of that unconditional, self-sacrificing love that is the essence of God’s existence.  The unity of husband and wife, willing to sacrifice themselves for one another and for their children, forms a family as God intended, and is accompanied by a purity of love that hints at eternal life.  Spouses are often privileged to experience moments of such great love that it portends the ecstasy of eternal love in the Presence of God.

Unfortunately we are imperfect creatures, and often fall short of loving as God loves, choosing instead our selfish motives and desires, in the false hope of immanent happiness or the momentary joy of physical emotion and sensation.  In doing so, we pervert the love of God and settle for fleeting moments of pleasure, even though our actions may only draw us further away from Real Love, as God intended for us.  The further we travel from the Love of God, the more likely we begin to believe that we do not need Him in our lives.  Though we may wander away from Him, He never leaves us.  The concept of grace, is that God is with us.  In the “state of grace,” we are closer to God and more likely to be striving to lead a virtuous life.  The further we distance ourselves from God, the more likely a virtuous life will elude us and we will pursue the false promise of happiness in all the wrong places.  Money, status, and pleasure, attained at the cost of our virtue, make us less human, less fully alive; in fact we may be starving our soul of true happiness.  When we put ourselves at the center of every decision and every word that comes out of our mouth, we become less loveable and less able to love. 

Notions about the absolute autonomy of the individual, and the complete freedom to do as we please, are symptoms that we have distanced ourselves from God.  God meant for us to live in Community, as He does in the Trinity.  We need one another, not for what we get from the other, but so that we may have opportunities to give of our selves.  One of the great mysteries involves pain and suffering.  We may ask why God allows it, but it affords us the opportunity to reach out to others and serve them out of love and compassion.  Some of the most loving people in the world are those who care for the sick out of love.  When my mother cared for my father during his long battle with Alzheimer’s disease, she demonstrated the power of love, and throughout the ordeal she grew even closer to God.

Our culture is becoming increasingly God-less.  The contraceptive (anti-life) mentality is the pathway to rationalizing abortion.  The assisted suicide movement is moving us a step closer to euthanasia.   And the marriage equality cause promises happiness at the expense of the rights of children and the importance of family (father AND mother) as the basic unit of society.   All of this diminishes our humanity, rather than upholding and celebrating it as children of God and heirs to His kingdom.  As bleak as this may seem, no matter how far we stray from God, He is always present to us, always ready to forgive and to restore us to life.  This is because His Son, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, became man and established a New Covenant on behalf of all humanity, promising that He would send His Holy Spirit who would never leave us.  Because of Jesus, and only because of Him, we have hope of salvation and hope for the world.

The mystery of God is the mystery of Love.  We enter the mystery ourselves when we strive to love as He loves, forgive as He forgives, and sacrifice ourselves for the love of others, as He did.  In doing so, we not only find meaning and fulfillment in our lives, but we provide witness to the mystery of The Holy Trinity.