Many of you know what is like to share a long and happy marriage with someone. All of us know examples that we have seen. I am thinking of those couples who can share beautiful silence together without feeling an obligation to break the silence. This is not an icy silence of two people that do not want to speak to one another. This is a loving silence of two people who know of the other’s love for them without it having to be verbalized.
That is a beautiful thing. It is an earthly version of the communion of the Holy Trinity. We sometimes describe the Trinity as the Father loving the Son, the Son returning the love to the Father, and the Spirit as the love shared between them.
If we imagine such a scene, whether the earthly one of the happily married couple or the image of the communion of the Trinity, what comes to mind? Love, of course. But we almost certainly also think of peace. We might also think of great happiness.
This is an image that should come time mind when we read today’s Gospel. Jesus tells us of the love that the Father has for him. And he tells us how that love is a love that he shares with us. Then he tells us to remain in his love. Other translations use the verb “abide.” From our own images, there is also a sense of resting in that love.
Then we are called to love one another. To be willing to sacrifice ourselves for one another. Something that seems exceedingly difficult. But, in the context of our earlier image, it is something that can also seem easier and even natural. The word spoken to us by Jesus makes us more fruitful and allows us to help others to enter this communion.
What images do we see when we think of the communion of the Trinity? How do those images include us as part of that communion?