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. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because He has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

The words of the gospel show that it was God – all three persons – who started the whole process of redemption, and the mainspring was love: "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son" (v. 16). The evangelist tells us that God’s love for people is not only deep but universal. He loves not only one nation, or the good people, or those who love Him. Even the pagans do that, as Jesus reminds us elsewhere. No – as St. Augustine put it, "God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love." And if we let Him, He will love us into a quality of life beyond our dreams. The Trinity touches our human life at every point. If we’re made in the image of God, as the Bible tells us, we’re made in the image of the Trinity, and the life of the Trinity must in some way be reflected in the pattern of our life. Perhaps one such mirroring is between the activities identified with each person of the Trinity and the categories of activity in which we engage.

Thus to the Father is attributed all that we understand by generation, creation, and maintenance. Everything we do to awaken and cherish new life, to fashion, mold, and develop our physical environment, shares in that work of the heavenly Father; fathering and mothering, designing and building, growing crops, shaping and tending the landscape, fashioning all kinds of things for our use and pleasure, all arts and crafts – in short, every kind of making – fall under this head.

Likewise, all human works of compassion, healing, reconciling, service, forgiveness, and making amends reflect the work of redemption and reconciliation and are identified most closely with the Son: All, that is, that falls under the head of caring.

Lastly, the special role of the Holy Spirit is reflected in every positive idea and inspiration, however slight and humble, in every advance in knowledge and wisdom, in every flash of imagination, in every movement of the heart.

To divide these categories of activity into neat compartments would clearly make no better sense than attempting to saw the Triune God into three pieces. In common experience they’re functions of the same identity, and they intertwine, influence, and complement each other.

In these times, when so many people feel fragmented and divided within themselves and find it difficult to recognize or work to any clear pattern of life, there are here suggestive hints and glimpses of the contact between the Trinity’s life and our own: Hints of the unity in the Triune God that should characterize us who are made in His image, glimpses of His love that overflows and touches the whole of creation but especially human beings, hints of the ways we should illustrate the lovely qualities of our God, glimpses of the Gospel values that should permeate our lives, and a shape and sense of direction to all our human activities.

SOURCE: "366 Days with the Lord," ST PAULS, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 895-9701; Fax 895-7328; E-mail: publishing@stpauls.ph; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.