God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
However many times we hear this text repeated, it retains its power to astonish us, to humble, thrill, amaze, move, inspire; to bring us to our knees in worship and thanksgiving, or to lift us up in joyful wonder. John 3:16 is a good text for the Feast of the Holy Trinity, because today especially we step back, as it were, simply to praise God: for what he is, and for what he has done; to contemplate his greatness and glory, and to ponder our eternal destiny with him.
God, says St. John, so loved the world. Immediately we are confronted by a paradox, an apparent contradiction. As we know from divine revelation, as well as from natural reason, God is infinite Being; incomprehensive and ineffable; absolutely unique, and perfectly simple; all sufficient to himself; eternally in perfect beatitude; needing nothing whatever outside himself; all-holy, all-good, all powerful, all-knowing; not some sort of abstract or impersonal force, but ever dynamically living, and knowing and loving Himself.
As for “the world”: in the language of St. John, it’s defined precisely as that which is set against God; the world of sin; the world already under judgement and condemnation; the world doomed to perish. The world did not know him, says John in his Prologue (1:10). Or as Jesus says to his Jewish persecutors: You are of this world. I am not of this world (8:23). Or John says in his first Letter: The whole world is in the power of the Evil One.... If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him (5:19; 2:15). How then can God love this world? John’s doctrine here exactly coincides with that of St. Paul. As Paul writes to the Romans: God has shown his love for us, in that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners (Rm 5:8). Or again, to the Ephesians: By nature we were children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our sins, made us alive together with Christ (Eph 2:3-4).
So much did God love this world that he gave his only begotten Son. And here already we glimpse the manifestation of the Holy Trinity. For in Christ we know that God the Father has a unique Son. This Son is eternally begotten from the Father; but he is not less than the Father, for he himself also is fully God. As the theologians say, he is God without confusion of Person, or division of substance. Saint John also calls him God’s Word, or perfect self expression, who was with God, and who was God; through whom all things were made. In giving his only Son, then, God has given us the greatest possible gift; a gift of infinite worth; infinitely precious; beyond which in principle nothing more could be given. Or to adapt famous words of St. John of the Cross: in giving us his Son, God has given us everything at once. Beyond that he has nothing more to give.
God gave his only Son. There is a double sense to this word “gave”. It refers in the first place to the Incarnation. By nature we would be incapable of receiving so great a gift. But when God’s Son shared in our humanity, we became able, through that, to share in his divinity. But then God went even further. He “gave” his only Son; and also “gave up” his only Son: even to death on the Cross. In this way Christ took on and overcame our sin. And in this way he manifested God’s love for us to the end (13:1).
Before the mystery of God’s love for us, we can only fall silent, and simply try to open our hearts, in order to receive it ever more. Why does God love us? God loves because he loves; he loves because, as St. John says, God is love (1 Jn 4:8). And here we advert to the more hidden Person of the Holy Trinity; because God’s love is appropriated in a particular way to the Holy Spirit. As St. Paul says again to the Romans, God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (5:5).
Of course each of the Divine Persons is love, and each is blessed through the eternal exchange of love between the Three. But we say that the Holy Spirit is the substantial love of the Father for the Son, and of the Son for the Father, and as such he proceeds eternally from both. God has no need to turn this love outwards. But he has chosen to do so: first of all through Creation; but then, how much more, through the mission of the Son and of the Holy Spirit into this world, in order that we might have eternal life! This “eternal life” also could be appropriated in a special way to the Holy Spirit. As Jesus says to the Samaritan woman, he is that gift of living water in us welling up to eternal life (4:14). We discern the presence of the Spirit also in our very ability to believe, and to be transformed in love. Yes: everything, everything, everything here is gift, and grace, and blessing. Not a small gift, not a limited gift, not a gift we could ever expect, or ever be found worthy of receiving: but a gift that is limitless, infinite, complete and eternal.
Please then - please! - let us not under-estimate what God has done for us in Jesus Christ our Lord. In him, says St. John, we have life (cf. e.g. 20:31; 1 Jn 4:9 etc). From being God’s enemies, we are now identified with God’s beloved Son. From being cut off from God, we are now indwelt by each of the Divine Persons, so that our heaven is already able to begin here in this world. And this is truth. So we stand ready now to dedicate our whole life to God, and to his worship, because we believe, we know that all of this is true.
And now we are here in order to participate in the Holy Eucharist, in which all of it is somehow expressed, and contained. Here, through sacramental signs, we are given, we receive God. Here Christ is given up for us. Here we eat his flesh, given for the life of the world (6:51), and we drink his blood, poured out for our salvation, and our eternal joy.