Easter reveals to us how far God will reach to save us and bring us to eternal life in him. This divine desire has astonished the faithful for centuries and has taken those who ponder it up to the great heights of contemplation and into the depths of love. The psalmist wonders, “What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him? Yet thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor.” The Church proclaims, “O wonder of your humble care for us! O love, O charity beyond all telling, to ransom a slave you gave away your Son!” In a hymn for the feast of St. Catherine of Siena, the friars sing, “Blest Trinity from heaven’s height, how low you reach to give me light!”
Today’s Gospel is an invitation to faith in the mystery of the divine exchange: God became man that men might become gods (CCC 460). This is revealed in the incarnation of the Son: “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life.” Further, Christ’s words are a revelation both of the inner life of the Triune God and the gift of eternal life into our finite lives. “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,” our Lord says, “and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.” The Son has been sent by the Father in order to preach the truth to men, stirring up their hearts to belief by the power of the Holy Spirit. The act of salvation is the act of the one God who is three Persons: the entire Godhead reaches down to humankind in order to incorporate us into his own divine life.
Yes, the Triune God guides us into his own eternal life. We are invited into the very life of God, the interpenetration of love and light, a perfect communion of persons that elevates us to the life of God. Let us pray with Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity: “My Three, my All, my Beatitude, Infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I lose myself, I surrender myself to you as your prey. Bury yourself in me that I may bury myself in you until I depart to contemplate in your light the abyss of your greatness.” Amen.
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Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)