THE PLACE OF THE MASS IN THE DIVINE PLAN

Continued

A. The internal activity of the Blessed Trinity

The catechism teaches us that there are three distinct Persons in God--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--possessing one identical divine nature.

God is love. The Father loves with infinite love. He gives Himself as only God can give, infinitely, totally. He engenders His Son, also called the Word or Second Person of the Trinity. To this Son, the Father communicates at each instant--for God is always in act--His nature, His perfections, His life.

Father and Son love each other with infinite, total love. They love each other and give themselves to each other. Their mutual love gives birth to a third Person, focal point of the personal charity of the Father and the personal charity of the Son. Thus Father and Son are united in a loving embrace, from which the Holy Spirit proceeds as from a single principle.

The Trinity--the Supreme Life of Love--is "perpetual exchange"--an eternal flame of charity.

And in this perfect union, even the appearance of egoism is excluded: either in the Father and the Son, or in the Holy Spirit Himself. For, as St. Bonaventure says, Love, who is the Holy Spirit, does not proceed from the Father inasmuch as He loves Himself; nor from the Son inasmuch as He loves Himself; but proceeds from their mutual love for each other--He is a bond of love. He is the love whereby the lover tends toward the loved one.

Their reciprocal gift cannot be accused of egoism, such as is sometimes met with in married couples or between friends; for their interchange does not exclude, but is communicated to a third Person.

God's essential beatitude consists of this life which is both one and multiple.

[To be continued]