This Sunday, June 4, is the solemn celebration of the mystery of the Holy Trinity. It's always a challenge to try to reduce this seemingly abstract article of faith to something that you and I can apply to our everyday lives. It occurs to me that our belief in the mystery of the Holy Trinity can give a richer meaning to a gospel verse that I meditated on recently. The verse is from John's account of the Last Supper, in which he lets us listen in on an intimate discussion between Jesus and his Father, giving us a glimpse into the intimate inner life shared by Jesus and his Father. The verse is this:
“And I gave them the glory (Greek δόξα, doxa) you gave me, / so that they may be one as we are one” (John 17:22).
According to Jesus, then, you and I have a share in the “greatness, glory” that Jesus shares with the Father. The dictionary suggests that the meaning of doxa here is “the state of being great and wonderful.“ How can that be? I don’t know,
It would seem that Jesus is leaving us with a challenge: to live up to that gift of doxa. It’s an impossible goal to live up to: to become "great and wonderful." But this is where the Holy Spirit comes to our help. It's not a project that we undertake to make ourselves wonderful and great. After all, the words "wonderful and great our words used of God. Notice how the quotation above begins: “and I gave them the doxa you gave me.” Jesus tells us that he is handing the same characteristics on to you and me. So, doxa is actually a gift that you and I have already been given. We simply need to accept the gift, which means letting it work in our hearts, our minds, and our actions.
The early fathers of the church liked to say that in the incarnation God became human so that we might become divine. And in this word doxa we start to see how that can happen: by cooperating with Jesus‘ gift to us, and imitating him by our way acting, thinking and being in the world. We can't of course, pull this off by ourselves, which is where the Third Person of the Trinity comes in: The Holy Spirit comes down upon us with the gifts we need in order to become "great and wonderful." The traditional list of the seven "gifts of the Holy Spirit" includes wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety, and fearofthe Lord. But in a word, we share in God's doxa by loving.
This brings us to the second half of the verse quoted above, in which Jesus continuous, “so that they may
be one, as we are one.” If such a prayer for unity seems pretty far-fetched these days, we should remember that through the power of the Spirit Jesus' prayer will indeed be fulfilled one day. And you and I, because of the gift of doxa that Jesus has given us, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, must begin working toward that unity, starting in our own lives with our way of loving and relating with our family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and so on. Working toward the unity of all humanity is part of our vocation, one way of living out the gift of doxa that our Savior gave us, to be like God, “wonderful and great.”
May God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, continue to do his divinizing work in you and me!
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