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Contemplating today's Gospel

Today's Gospel + homily (in 300 words)

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (A)
View 1st Reading and Psalm
1st Reading (Exod 34:4b-6.8-9): Early in the morning Moses went up Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, taking along the two stone tablets. Having come down in a cloud, the Lord stood with Moses there and proclaimed his name, “LORD”. Thus the Lord passed before him and cried out, «The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity».

Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship. Then he said, «If I find favor with you, o Lord, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own».
Responsorial Psalm: Dan 3
R/. Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you, o Lord, the God of our fathers, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever; and blessed is your holy and glorious name, praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.

Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory, praiseworthy and glorious above all forever.

Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.

Blessed are you who look into the depths from your throne upon the cherubim, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
2nd Reading (2Cor 13:11-13): Brothers and sisters, rejoice. Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the holy ones greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
Versicle before the Gospel (Rev 1:8): Alleluia. Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; to God who is, who was, and who is to come. Alleluia.
Gospel text (Jn 3:16-18): 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.

«God so loved the world that He gave his only Son»

Mons. Joan Enric VIVES i Sicília Bishop of Urgell (Lleida, Spain)

Today, it does us good to hear John's Gospel reminding us again that «God so loved the world...» (Jn 3:16) because in the festivity of the Blessed Trinity, God is worshipped, loved and served, because God is Love. In God we find an association with Love, and whatever He actively does He does it for Love. God loves. He loves us. This great truth is a truth that transforms us, that makes us better. Because it penetrates our discernment and becomes absolutely evident. And it deeply affects our actions honing them into total loving actions which, the purer, the greater and the more perfect.

St. John of the Cross has written: «Where there is no love, put love, and there you will draw out love». And this is true, because this is what God does all the time. He «did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world; instead, through him the world is to be saved» (Jn 3:17) thanks to Jesus' Christ's life and to his love, all the way to his death on the Cross. Today, we contemplate him as the only one that reveals us the authentic love.

We speak so much about love, that perhaps it has lost its freshness. Love is what God feels for us. Love and you will be happy! Because to love is to offer our life for those we love. Love is gratuitous and simple. Love is to deny oneself, awaiting everything from God. Love is to diligently serve those who need us. Love is to lose to recover up to a hundred fold your losses. Love is to live without accounting for what one is doing. Love is what makes us resemble God. Love —and only love— is eternity already amidst us!

Let us live the Eucharist, which is the sacrament of Love, as it gives us God's love made flesh. It makes us share the fire burning in Jesus' heart, forgives us and recasts us anew to let us love with the same kind of Love as Jesus bears us.

Thoughts on Today's Gospel

  • “You, oh eternal Trinity, are a deep Sea, into which the deeper I enter the more I find, and the more I find the more I seek.” (Saint Catherine of Siena)

  • “While in creation the Father gave us proof of his immense love by giving us life, in the passion and death of his Son He gave us the proof of proofs: He loves us and forgives us always.” (Francis)

  • “The Word became flesh so that thus we might know God's love: ‘In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him’ (1Jn 4:9). ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life’ (Jn 3:16).” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nº 458)

December 22nd
Fourth Sunday of Advent (C)

Gospel and commentary video

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