Number 198 - Avril 2000

Events

Father FINET

Alouette N° 198. Pages16-19

The mystery of Love : the Holy Trinity - Father FINET
Alouette N° 198, pages 26-29

The great Mystery of Love is called the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Because God is Love, He is three : the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

WHAT IS THE LOVE OF A FATHER?

The love of a father is a love which is given. When it is a question of a father in a human family, it is a love which is given. But when it is a question of the Father in the Holy Trinity, the Father is ALL Love given.

WHAT IS THE LOVE OF A SON?

The love of a son is a love which is received. When it is a question of a son in a human family, it is a love which is received. When it is a question of the Son in the Holy Trinity, it is ALL Love received. It is because He is all Love received that He is the Only Son. The Father only has one Only son, Jesus, in whom He uses up eternally His nature and His life. In other words, if you are capable of having several children, it is because you are not perfect. As you are only a love which is given, you can have other children. But if you were all Love given, your child would be inevitably the only one. So you understand why the Son is the only one in the Holy Trinity.

AND WHAT IS THE SPIRIT?

The Spirit is love exchanged. When it's a question of the Spirit in the eternal family in God, He is ALL Love exchanged.

The Father is ALL Love given. The Son is ALL Love received. The Spirit is ALL Love exchanged.

But if it's a question of the spirit in the human sense, for example the spirit of a family, what is it made of? of the exchange of love between the mother, the father and the children. It's this exchange of love which makes up the spirit of the family. And if, for example, a father sees his child of 14 with a long face at the table, he'll say to him in the middle of the meal: "Come on, that's enough now isn't it?" "But I'm not doing anything!" ­ "It's precisely because you're not doing anything that you're doing everything! If you carry on like that, I'll send you out".

It's unbearable in a family communion to have someone who sulks, who refuses an exchange of love. It's a disaster! How important it is to keep watch over this exchange of love in the human family. What makes the spirit and the joy of a family is the exchange of love.

In the Holy Trinity, the Spirit is ALL Love exchanged. And in a family it is love exchanged.

But don't let us forget something: that is that the Holy Spirit who is ALL Love exchanged, lives in our hearts since Baptism.

What is He in our hearts? He is the love we exchange with our Father who is in Heaven: the filial spirit, and the love we exchange with our brothers: the fraternal spirit.

We can understand that if we refuse this exchange of Love with our Father, when we don't pray any more, we lose the Family Spirit, and if we refuse this exchange of love with our brothers, we lose the Holy Spirit, we lose the Christian spirit.

From whence the importance of prayer and of serving our brothers, without which we come out of the Christian spirit.

THE FATHER IS THE SOURCE OF LOVE

All Love comes from the Father.

When the Ancients, in Egypt, saw the Nile coming out of a great Papyrus forest, spreading over 300 kilometres with all these little rivers which joined together to form it, they didn't know where it came from and they affirmed: the Nile is the river of the gods. But having gone all the way round it, in passing through Zaïre and Rwanda where one discovers all these little branches which come together to form the Nile on the other side of the forest, they found the source of the Nile.

Well, we have remained for a long time without sources with relation to the Father. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries the Father was lost. Now, we are finding the source again, for the Father is the Source of Love. From whence we see the importance of having a religious instruction which takes up again all the teaching of Jesus on the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

THE SON IS THE GLORY OF LOVE

"This is my Only Son, in whom I am glorified". (Matthew. 3,17). The Son is the Glory of Love.
It is normal that parents should be glorified in their children. They find their glory in their children, but on condition that their children become worthy of this. If the children turn out wrong, or go off the rails something is missing in the glory of their parents, and this is painful.

The Son is the Glory of Love, in the same way as the son you have engendered glorifies you.

When Jesus came amongst us, He said: "Father, glorify Me, with the Glory I had beside You before the world existed. I have taught Your Name to those You have given Me. They know now that You are My Father and their Father, and that I have come down from You". (John, 17,5).

You can feel that our union in Christ is the great plan of God: "To recapitulate all of us in Jesus" (Ephesians 1,10) in order to allow us to glorify our Heavenly Father And if we are unfaithful, if we fall short in this union with Christ and we damage our faith by no longer praying, then we contribute to the destruction of the glory of God. How serious sin is, how serious!

On the other hand, our fidelity glorifies the Father. And in faithfulness to Christ and faithfulness to the Holy Virgin, you are the glory of the Father.

THE SPIRIT IS THE JOY OF LOVE

Don't forget that: the fruit of Love is always joy. The fruit of instinct is pleasure. That is not at all the same thing.

What is love? If you are in the spirit of love you are in an exchange of love. But if there is no exchange: if, for example a husband goes towards his wife with love, but not feeling of recognition comes up from the heart of his wife, things are unsteady, and there is not joy in this home.

If a teacher gives of himself with all his soul to his pupils and there is a return of gratitude from the pupils to the heart of their teacher, then there is an exchange of love: they work with joy. But if, on the other hand, there is no return of gratitude from the pupils to the heart of their teacher, then there is no exchange: work is done under constraint but not with joy. You see how important it is. It's like this that the Holy Spirit is the Joy of Love.

THE UNIVERSAL AIM OF GOD

His aim is His Glory.
How is God glorified? by praise. What is there to praise in God? HIMSELF, that is to say His life, His being, His nature, His 3 Persons, that is to say, Love, for "God is Love".
The glorification of God is the praise of Love.