Jn. 3: 16-18
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn. 13:34) The U.S. is one of the most COVID affected countries in the world. Recently, the American society they realized that this epidemic is not the crucial problem that they face today. They recognized this fact through the brutal murder of an innocent man, Mr. George Floyd. His struggle between life and death “I can’t breathe” becomes the slogan of all those who experience the evil of racism and injustice. Mr. Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds and breathed him to last and the victim Mr. George, both are Christians. Where is the commandment of love that Jesus asked us to practice in our day to day life? It is not a problem of the American society alone, the entire Church encounters this problem in different parts of the world in varied forms.
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. It is impossible to understand the Holy Trinity through logical reasons. We can be certain that the Holy Trinity is a perfect communion of love. How can we arrive at this conclusion? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (Jn. 3:16) Our life experiences teach us that love can’t contain in itself, it overflows and reaches out to the other. Salvation history is the perfect example of the unconditional love that came in search of the lost humanity.
The redemptive mission of Christ was the greatest sacrifice of the Holy Trinity. “who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.” (Philip. 2:6-7) God the Father had sent His only begotten Son to our midst, who was with Him from the beginning. Jesus had to undergo the hardships of earthly existence and in the end, he had to take upon himself intense pain and suffering, and death on the cross. The Spirit who accompanied Jesus in His redemptive mission accompanies all of us and helps us to experience and grow in grace that Jesus has won for us. This is the essence of the Holy Trinity’s love in itself and the love that radiates and reaches out.
The vocation to live as a Christian is an invitation to imitate this very essence of the Holy Trinity in our life. The Holy Trinity gave us life by the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. Abba Father breathed His Spirit to the nostrils of Adam. However, we lost this life-giving spirit due to our selfishness and again Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit upon his apostles and gave back this life-giving Spirit.
The Cry of Mr. George Floyd, “I cannot breathe,” tells us that we are losing the spirit of Christianity that is based on the commandment of love that Jesus had given us. Let this celebration of the Most Holy Trinity may not remain as a liturgical feast, let us earnestly pray that we may live in communion with the Trinity and become the instruments of God who are providing the life-giving breath – ‘LOVE’ to each other.