The words we use to explain the Trinity have become so convoluted that we dread to explain it and trip over our tongue twisters.
Jesus chooses to use words about the Trinity that are household names and titles of affection: “Father and Son” are names that embrace and support each other.
Spirit is a name that says breath: every life starts with a gasp, and life renewed starts to breathe again when it is known to be welcomed, taken in, and embraced.
So, Jesus explains the Trinity as a relationship; the source of it all is the eternal and loving bond. And if we are made in his image and likeness, then the story of God is simultaneously the story of humans, and dogma has nothing to do with a cold doctrine but brings me the wisdom of real life. The heart of God and man is a relationship: that is why loneliness weighs on me and makes me afraid because it is against my nature. That is why I feel so good when I love or find friendship because then I am again in the image of the Trinity.
In the Trinity is placed the mirror of our deepest heart and the ultimate meaning of the universe. The bond of communion is the beginning and the end, the origin and summit of the human and the divine.
God so loved the world that he gave his Son… In these words, John encapsulates the ultimate why of various moments: the incarnation, the cross, and salvation; he assures us that God in eternity does not judge us unceasingly but considers every man and woman more important than himself. God so loved… And we, created in his likeness, “need much love to live well.”
