2023-06-04 12:49:00
June 4, 2023 / 5:49 a.m.
This Sunday, June 4, Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, Pope Francis encouraged the faithful to perform “the simplest gesture that we have learned as children: the sign of the cross”, to remember that God’s love “envelops us completely”.
During the Angelus prayer from the window of the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican, the Holy Father reflected on the Gospel of the day, which narrates the meeting between Jesus and Nicodemusa member of the Sanhedrin who meets him secretly.
As Pope Francis explained, “Jesus listens to him and understands that he is a man who is in a search process.”
“Then, first he surprises him, answering him that to enter the Kingdom of God it is necessary to be reborn; and then he reveals to her the core of the mystery by telling her that God has loved humanity so much that he has sent his Son into the world”.
In this way, the Holy Father stressed that this scene shows the union of the Father and the Son, “a family image that, if we think about it, shatters our imagination about God.”
“The word ‘God’ – the Pope specified – suggests to us a singular, majestic and distant reality, while hearing of a Father and a Son brings us home”.
In this line, he affirmed that we can think of God “through the image of a family gathered at the table, where life is shared.”
“The table, which at the same time is an altar, -he pointed out- is a symbol with which certain icons represent the Trinity. Is a image that speaks to us of a communion God”.
The Pontiff then assured that “the Holy Spirit does with us as Jesus did with Nicodemus: he introduces us to the mystery of the new birth, reveals to us the heart of the Father and makes us participants in the very life of God.”
He also explained that the Holy Spirit invites us “to sit at the table with God to share his love. This is what happens at every Mass, at the altar of the Eucharistic tablewhere Jesus offers himself to the Father and offers himself for us”.
To remember that “God is a communion of love”, the Holy Father advised making the “simple” gesture, the one that “we have learned as children: the sign of the cross”.
“Tracing the cross on our body we remember how much God has loved us, to the point of giving his life for us; and we repeat to ourselves that his love envelops us completely, from top to bottom, from left to right, like a hug that never leaves us. At the same time, we commit ourselves to witness to God-love, creating communion in his name ”.
After this explanation, Pope Francis invited the faithful to reflect and ask themselves the following questions: “Do we bear witness to God-love? Or has God-love become a concept for us, something that we have already heard but that no longer moves us and no longer causes life? If God is love, do our communities bear witness to it? Do they know how to love? Are they like families?”
“¿We always have the door open, we know how to welcome everyone, I emphasize everyone, as brothers and sisters? Do we offer everyone the food of God’s forgiveness and the wine of evangelical joy? Do you breathe home air, or do we look more like an office or a reserved place where only the chosen ones enter? ”, She asked.
Finally, he recalled that “God is love, he has given his life for us. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit” and asked “that Mary help us to live the Church as a house in which we love in a family way, to the glory of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit”.
God is a communion of love: this is how Jesus has revealed it to us. And do you know what we can do to remember it? The simplest gesture, which we have learned as children: the sign of the cross. #Holy Trinity
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex_es) June 4, 2023
After the Marian prayer, the Holy Father assured his prayers for the victims of the rail accident in India, where more than 300 people died and a thousand were injured on Saturday, June 3. Likewise, he prayed for countries at war, especially for “the beloved and martyred Ukraine”.
Below is the Gospel commented by Pope Francis this Sunday, the day of the Holy Trinity:
Reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John
Jn 3, 16-18
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Because God did not send his Son to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him will not be condemned; but he who does not believe is already condemned, for not having believed in the only Son of God.
Almudena Martínez-Bordiú is a Spanish journalist, correspondent for ACI Prensa in Rome and the Vatican, with four years of experience in religious information.
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