Mercy Word of the Week
As we progress through the Jubilee Year of Mercy proclaimed by Pope Francis, University Ministry offers our community a "Mercy Word of the Week" to help us focus on the themes of mercy that are already so closely aligned to our mission and heritage as an institution sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy.
The first Monday of each month will bring a brief reflection on each of the University's Core Values as expressions of our Mercy charism. We hope these focused thoughts will lead to your own considered contemplation on mercy and its role in your life.
Trinity: While it is one of Christianity's thorniest dogmas, the Trinity is also one of Christianity's most beautiful teachings. To attempt a full explanation of how it is that Jesus Christ is God's "Only Begotten Son…born before all ages" and how the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Father and the Son" would take many pages. But to understand and rejoice in the meaning of that truth is both easy and a cause for joy because the dogma of the Trinity proclaims that God is a community.
Yes, God is ONE, but in that oneness are three diving persons – Father, Son and Spirit living in eternal community. Son and Spirit were not "created," nor did they begin at any moment in time; like the Father, they are eternal. So, for all of time God has been a community. What kind of community? A community of love.
The Letter of John says, "God is love." But God's love is so much greater than our love that it is an actual person, the person of the Son. God has loved for all eternity, and that love has been the distinct and separate person of the Son. In addition, the Son and Father's love for each other is such that is gives life to another distinct person, the Holy Spirit. And again, that exchange of love between Father and Son is eternal, so the Spirit is as eternal as the Son and Father.
That eternal Trinitarian community is the model for all of life. And that's where the joy comes in. God created human beings to live in community and it is in our God-given communities that God makes himself known to us. The best way to come to know God is through the relationships of our lives. In community we experience God's love for us, we get a glimpse of God's very essence as "community," and we mirror that divine, communitarian love to the world! Let's make a special effort to appreciate the relationship with which God has blessed us.