Today we celebrate the greatest, most central mystery of the Christian faith, God who reveals Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains how the Trinity is the source of all the other mysteries of our faith, and is itself the mystery that enlightens all the others (CCC, #234). At the heart of our faith in the Holy Trinity we find two essential dimensions: theology and economy.
Theologically, we understand God as an eternal exchange of love. Within the Holy Trinity, and from all eternity, is the most intimate and powerful outpouring of love, an amazing reality that we could ponder for our entire lives and never fully grasp. This eternal exchange is something which we could never discover or come to know of our own accord. It could only be known through God’s free decision to reveal Himself.
This revelation is intimately connected to what theologians call the “economy of God.” That word, “economy,” is one that we use all the time. It has become central in the discussion and activity of our world system in light of the global pandemic. We can come back to that in a moment. The word “economy,” in fact, goes back much, much further than our modern economic system. It comes from the Greek word, oikonomia and essentially means “management of a household.” A family of five persons has an economy, a way in which they govern and manage their household. A polis in ancient Greece or any modern city has an economy. Even so with God. His creation and the way that He governs and directs the world is oikonomia. In that external work and management, the inner life of God is made manifest.
The readings for this weekend, and this wonderful feast that we celebrate today, illustrate this in a beautiful way. In the first reading, God gratuitously reveals Himself to Moses:
The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.
—Exodus 34:6
That eternal exchange of love is being shared with Moses, so that he may know Who it is that he is relating with. In the Gospel of St. John this morning, that revelation is made even more explicit:
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
—John 3:16-17
Those are really beautiful words, but in many hidden ways and also in very obvious ones God has acted in human history, and continues to act each and every day, in such a way as to make present that love. Those actions are also His revelation, and they give meaning and a deeper interpretation of the words.
The Second Vatican Council expresses it in terms of economy:
“This ECONOMY of revelation is realized by deeds and words, which are intrinsically bound up with each other. As a result, the works performed by God in the history of salvation show forth and bear out the doctrine and realities dignified by the words; the words, for their part, proclaim the works, and bring to light the mystery they contain” (Dei Verbum, 2).
When God tells Moses that He is merciful and gracious, how He is slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity, He also reveals that holy love by forgiving, listening, guiding and shepherding His people through countless trials and conflicts. At the Red Sea, He is faithful; after the people fall into the sin of idolatry, He is merciful and gracious; as Israel strives with God century after century, He is slow to anger and rich in kindness. When we hear how God sent His only Son into the world save it, we recognize that Christ was crucified for love, and willingly poured Himself out on Calvary for the forgiveness of sins and the salvation that we so desperately need. That eternal exchange of love which we could never know or discover is now unmistakably manifest in the words and actions of almighty God.
The remarkable truth of the Christian faith is that God now wants us to enter into that exchange. One of the most stunning lines in the Catechism states, “By sending his only Son and the Spirit of love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange” (CCC, #221).
Of course, the reality is that we are not God. We do not naturally pour ourselves out in love, nor are we always ready to receive it. We require grace. We need the supernatural help of God to live within the amazing love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In Baptism, we are given that supernatural grace to love in an entirely new way. When we are cleansed of Original Sin and the Holy Spirit begins to live in us and is made manifest in the Church—which is the gift of God we just celebrated last week at Pentecost—we are able enter into that eternal exchange of love and we are transformed.
Before we say or do anything, we are changed and renewed in the inner life of God. But in order for that reality to reach its final end, we must be fruitful. We must cooperate with God’s grace and make that love effective in the world we live in. In other words, who and what we are, theologically, must also be expressed in oikonomia. This is what the world longs for, now more than ever.
The world as we know it is suffering. We are struggling on every continent right now in the wake of this global pandemic. The effects of the coronavirus, as we well know, are more than just physical; COVID-19 has affected us economically, as well. Because of the lockdowns and isolation measures, the world’s economy is struggling.
The World Economic Forum has recently introduced the need for what they refer to as “The Great Reset” of the economy, to begin anew with a focus that will benefit the ecology, address global inequalities, and build the sustainability and resilience that will endure well beyond the COVID-19 crisis. We can and should pray for the success of this plan. It is a very positive proposal for change, but no world economic plan can fully reset the world we live in. Only love can truly reset the world, and our faith teaches us that Christ came into the world to do exactly that. The Holy Trinity has the power to reanimate the culture we live in and reset the oikonomia. But God is depending upon us to cooperate with His plan to do that.
The secret to resetting the economy is found in the heart of our faith, and in the central mystery of God Himself: “By sending his only Son and the Spirit of love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange” (CCC, #221).
May we allow God to penetrate every dimension of our lives, being transformed in that eternal exchange of love that is already present in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We pray this week to fully participate in the economy of God, expressing that love in all that we say and in all that we do.
