By Father Andrew Kelly
MOST HOLY TRINITY – JUNE 15, 2014
The reality of God’s presence is the core of the believing community’s ministry and mission. The difficulty is that God is a mystery that is ultimately beyond human description and comprehension. The task is learning how to concretely do ministry and mission that reflects the mysterious God who lives both beyond but also at the community’s core.
Sunday’s Gospel (John 3:16-18) offers a clue: “For God so loved the world that God gave an only Son…”
God’s love is manifested when the community loves the world as God loved the world through Jesus Christ’s words and deeds of welcoming and including all human beings in its ministry and mission. Especially those human beings who live on society’s margins, usually in poverty.
Another sign is the community’s determination to live God’s saving mercy and justice in all its internal and external relationships.
The cross symbolizes how God and the community love the world. Is self-sacrifice and self-emptying the life style the community is always aiming and striving for? As in God’s love, is the other always the community’s primary concern?
God is a mystery beyond, but radically revealed as present as the community loves the world as God loves the world.
(Father Andrew Kelly is a retired priest of the Diocese of Davenport.)
