アヴェ・マリア・インマクラータ！
愛する兄弟姉妹の皆様、
レネー神父様の霊的講話、「いとも聖なる三位一体の祝日の説教」の【英語原文】をご紹介いたします。
天主様の祝福が豊かにありますように！
トマス小野田圭志神父（聖ピオ十世会司祭）
Sermon on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity
Sunday 11 June 2017 Seoul Osaka
Why do you come to church? Because you search for God, you want to find God, as the psalmist says: “One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. That I may see the delight of the Lord” (Ps. 26:4). “My heart hath said to thee: My face hath sought thee: thy face, O Lord, will I still seek” (Ps. 26:8). In one word: I want to see God!
But who can tell us adequately about God? Who can express fully what God is? All our human words are much too small, too limited to express Him. The wise man said: “Blessing the Lord, exalt him as much as you can: for he is above all praise. When you exalt him put forth all your strength, and be not weary: for you can never go far enough.” (Eccli. 43:33-34) Even if you ask the greatest theologians and Doctors of the Church as St Augustine or St Thomas Aquinas, they will say: we cannot express the fullness of God, He is much greater than all what we can say. If you go to heaven and start asking the Saints in Heaven, they too will give you the same answer: God is above us, we cannot express fully His Greatness. Even if you ask the Angels, even the Cherubim and Seraphim, they too would not find any angelic word capable to express fully the Divine Perfection. Even if above all the angels you ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, she too will put her finger on her mouth and say: neither can I find any adequate word to express the beauty, the excellence and perfections of God.
Then she will say: but listen to my Son, for He is the Word of the Father. Indeed, only One can adequately express what God is, and that is God Himself. For all eternity, God the Father says One Word, in which He expressed His whole Nature and perfections so totally that this Word of God is perfect God, since nothing less than the Father can express fully what the Father is. When you know something well, you can speak about it: a farmer can speak about farming, a carpenter can speak about woodwork, a cook can speak about cuisine, a seamstress can speak about embroidery, and so on. God is the Supreme Intelligence; He knows all things and above all created things, He knows Himself perfectly, and therefore can speak about Himself: He does speak about Himself in one perfect, eternal and almighty word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (Jn. 1:1-4).
“No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (Jn. 1:18). And what did He say about His Father? St John tells us: “this is the declaration which we have heard from him, and declare unto you: That God is light, and in him there is no darkness” (1 Jn. 1:5). God is Light, not material light, such as the light of the sun, but spiritual Light, that is, God is the Supreme Intelligence and the Supreme Truth – yet without the duality between knowing subject and known object: in the simplicity of the divine essence, God is Supreme Intelligence and Truth. And the Son of God proceeds from the Father by way of intelligence, as the Word of Divine Wisdom.
Now St Thomas says something beautiful: the Word of God is not a cold, intellectual word; on the contrary, the Word of God is the “Word breathing Love”. He expresses what the Father is; but “God is Charity” (1 Jn. 4:16); therefore, the Son Himself is a Word of Love, a Word breathing Love! It is the perfect expression of the Charity of the Father. And the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, and from that common furnace of charity proceeds the Holy Ghost as a Flame of divine Charity! The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son by way of Charity. See how in God knowledge is inseparable from love: “He that loveth not, knoweth not God: for God is charity” (1 Jn. 4:8).
In his first epistle, St John gives two definitions of God, that gives us a deep insight in the life of the Holy Trinity. “God is Light” (1 Jn. 1:5) and “God is Charity” (1 Jn. 4:16). God is Light, that is, Supreme intelligence, and the Son of God proceeds from the Father by way of intelligence; God is Charity, that is, Supreme Love, and the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son by way of love, of Charity. This is the Divine Life, from all eternity.
Charity has two aspects: charity gives and charity unites. Charity gives, indeed “God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (Jn. 3:16). Charity gives: God “spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how hath he not also, with him, given us all things” (Rom. 8:32). Charity gives to the point of sacrifice: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (Jn. 15:13). And charity unites: “Holy Father, keep them in thy name whom thou has given me; that they may be one, as we also are… That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us… I in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one: and the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast also loved me” (Jn. 17:11,21,23).
Now these two aspects of charity, we see them at the supreme level in the mystery of the most Holy Trinity. Charity gives, hence “the Father loveth the Son: and he hath given all things into his hand” (Jn. 3:35). The Father has given so fully to the Son that the Son can say: “All things whatsoever the Father hath, are mine” (Jn. 16:15). The Father has given all His Divine attributes to the Son, so much so that the Father and the son are perfectly equal! Similarly, the Father and the Son communicate fully their divinity to the Holy Ghost. Thus, in God, Charity gives, and you have the Three Divine Persons. And charity unites, and you have the unity of the Divine Essence: three Persons in One God, because charity gives and unites.
One day in catechism class, I asked the children: what did God do before He created the world? One little child gave me a very nice answer: “He was thinking of us!” Yes, true. But didn’t He have much more important things to think of? Above all created things, He thinks of Himself, and says Himself in that one Perfect Eternal Almighty Word, and together with this Word, He breathes the Spirit of Eternal Charity! Yet in that supreme Divine Life, God has found the way to love us, tiny little creatures on a tiny planet in a tiny corner of the huge universe. St John marvels: “Behold what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, and should be the sons of God” (1 Jn. 3:1).
And St John continues: “By this hath the charity of God appeared towards us, because God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we may live by him. In this is charity: not as though we had loved God, but because he hath first loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins. My dearest, if God hath so loved us; we also ought to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abideth in us, and his charity is perfected in us… And we have seen, and do testify, that the Father hath sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God. And we have known, and have believed the charity, which God hath to us. God is charity: and he that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him” (1 Jn. 4:9-16).
How can we “live by Him”? There is an important truth that you need to know: the inhabitation of the Holy Trinity in the souls of the just. St Paul says: “Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16). But the Holy Ghost is inseparable from the other Two Persons: they too abide in the just. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself says: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father: and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him… If anyone love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make our abode with him” (Jn. 14:21,23): “We”, that is, the Father and the Son, and the Holy Ghost who is inseparable from them!
Here below, we grasp these marvellous realities through the veil of Faith. “We have known, and have believed the charity, which God hath to us” (1 Jn. 4:16) but we do not yet see it. However, the fact that we do not yet see it does not make it less real. In our own selves, the most important dimension is the spiritual dimension, and we can’t see it! We acknowledge it with our mind at the natural level, and we grasp it through Faith at the supernatural level.
That inhabitation of the most Holy Trinity in our soul makes that we cannot behave as people “who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13): we cannot live any longer a worldly life, but we ought to live a heavenly life on earth, as children of God. Saint Peter says beautifully: “By whom he hath given us most great and precious promises: that by these you may be made partakers of the divine nature: flying the corruption of that concupiscence which is in the world” (2 Pet. 1:4). You see how immediately he draws the conclusion: flee from the corruption of the flesh which is so evident in the modern world! St Paul says the same: “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting sanctification in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1).
We should pay attention to the divine Guests of our soul. This requires silence. In silence, the soul can lift itself much more easily to God and recollect itself more easily, forgetting the exterior things and paying attention to the Three Divine Persons in the secret of our soul. Remember what our Lord said: “But thou when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee” (Mt. 6:6). Ste Thérèse of the Child Jesus, when she was still a little girl, used to hide behind her bed and meditate in silence and in secret.
There is a very important consequence from the Dogma of the Holy Trinity: he that refuses the Holy Trinity does not really know God. Our Lord Jesus Christ says very clearly: “He that believeth in the Son, hath life everlasting; but he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (Jn. 3:36). Hence, we must be missionary to convert all those who do not believe in the Most Holy Trinity, be they Jews, Muslims, Hinduists, Buddhists or of any pagan religion. The most Holy Trinity is the greatest treasure we can have, and we don’t lose it when we give it, on the contrary: the more we give it, the more we have it! We have the duty to communicate that Faith to our friends, neighbours and fellow men. “So, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 5:16).
May the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the most beautiful sanctuary of the Holy Trinity, help us to keep the Faith in the Holy Trinity, live that Faith and pass it on to many others, so that one day we may come to that heavenly kingdom where we shall see the most Holy Trinity face to face for ever! Amen.
愛する兄弟姉妹の皆様、
レネー神父様の霊的講話、「いとも聖なる三位一体の祝日の説教」の【英語原文】をご紹介いたします。
天主様の祝福が豊かにありますように！
トマス小野田圭志神父（聖ピオ十世会司祭）
Sermon on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity
Sunday 11 June 2017 Seoul Osaka
Why do you come to church? Because you search for God, you want to find God, as the psalmist says: “One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. That I may see the delight of the Lord” (Ps. 26:4). “My heart hath said to thee: My face hath sought thee: thy face, O Lord, will I still seek” (Ps. 26:8). In one word: I want to see God!
But who can tell us adequately about God? Who can express fully what God is? All our human words are much too small, too limited to express Him. The wise man said: “Blessing the Lord, exalt him as much as you can: for he is above all praise. When you exalt him put forth all your strength, and be not weary: for you can never go far enough.” (Eccli. 43:33-34) Even if you ask the greatest theologians and Doctors of the Church as St Augustine or St Thomas Aquinas, they will say: we cannot express the fullness of God, He is much greater than all what we can say. If you go to heaven and start asking the Saints in Heaven, they too will give you the same answer: God is above us, we cannot express fully His Greatness. Even if you ask the Angels, even the Cherubim and Seraphim, they too would not find any angelic word capable to express fully the Divine Perfection. Even if above all the angels you ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, she too will put her finger on her mouth and say: neither can I find any adequate word to express the beauty, the excellence and perfections of God.
Then she will say: but listen to my Son, for He is the Word of the Father. Indeed, only One can adequately express what God is, and that is God Himself. For all eternity, God the Father says One Word, in which He expressed His whole Nature and perfections so totally that this Word of God is perfect God, since nothing less than the Father can express fully what the Father is. When you know something well, you can speak about it: a farmer can speak about farming, a carpenter can speak about woodwork, a cook can speak about cuisine, a seamstress can speak about embroidery, and so on. God is the Supreme Intelligence; He knows all things and above all created things, He knows Himself perfectly, and therefore can speak about Himself: He does speak about Himself in one perfect, eternal and almighty word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (Jn. 1:1-4).
“No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (Jn. 1:18). And what did He say about His Father? St John tells us: “this is the declaration which we have heard from him, and declare unto you: That God is light, and in him there is no darkness” (1 Jn. 1:5). God is Light, not material light, such as the light of the sun, but spiritual Light, that is, God is the Supreme Intelligence and the Supreme Truth – yet without the duality between knowing subject and known object: in the simplicity of the divine essence, God is Supreme Intelligence and Truth. And the Son of God proceeds from the Father by way of intelligence, as the Word of Divine Wisdom.
Now St Thomas says something beautiful: the Word of God is not a cold, intellectual word; on the contrary, the Word of God is the “Word breathing Love”. He expresses what the Father is; but “God is Charity” (1 Jn. 4:16); therefore, the Son Himself is a Word of Love, a Word breathing Love! It is the perfect expression of the Charity of the Father. And the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, and from that common furnace of charity proceeds the Holy Ghost as a Flame of divine Charity! The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son by way of Charity. See how in God knowledge is inseparable from love: “He that loveth not, knoweth not God: for God is charity” (1 Jn. 4:8).
In his first epistle, St John gives two definitions of God, that gives us a deep insight in the life of the Holy Trinity. “God is Light” (1 Jn. 1:5) and “God is Charity” (1 Jn. 4:16). God is Light, that is, Supreme intelligence, and the Son of God proceeds from the Father by way of intelligence; God is Charity, that is, Supreme Love, and the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son by way of love, of Charity. This is the Divine Life, from all eternity.
Charity has two aspects: charity gives and charity unites. Charity gives, indeed “God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (Jn. 3:16). Charity gives: God “spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how hath he not also, with him, given us all things” (Rom. 8:32). Charity gives to the point of sacrifice: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (Jn. 15:13). And charity unites: “Holy Father, keep them in thy name whom thou has given me; that they may be one, as we also are… That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us… I in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one: and the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast also loved me” (Jn. 17:11,21,23).
Now these two aspects of charity, we see them at the supreme level in the mystery of the most Holy Trinity. Charity gives, hence “the Father loveth the Son: and he hath given all things into his hand” (Jn. 3:35). The Father has given so fully to the Son that the Son can say: “All things whatsoever the Father hath, are mine” (Jn. 16:15). The Father has given all His Divine attributes to the Son, so much so that the Father and the son are perfectly equal! Similarly, the Father and the Son communicate fully their divinity to the Holy Ghost. Thus, in God, Charity gives, and you have the Three Divine Persons. And charity unites, and you have the unity of the Divine Essence: three Persons in One God, because charity gives and unites.
One day in catechism class, I asked the children: what did God do before He created the world? One little child gave me a very nice answer: “He was thinking of us!” Yes, true. But didn’t He have much more important things to think of? Above all created things, He thinks of Himself, and says Himself in that one Perfect Eternal Almighty Word, and together with this Word, He breathes the Spirit of Eternal Charity! Yet in that supreme Divine Life, God has found the way to love us, tiny little creatures on a tiny planet in a tiny corner of the huge universe. St John marvels: “Behold what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, and should be the sons of God” (1 Jn. 3:1).
And St John continues: “By this hath the charity of God appeared towards us, because God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we may live by him. In this is charity: not as though we had loved God, but because he hath first loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins. My dearest, if God hath so loved us; we also ought to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abideth in us, and his charity is perfected in us… And we have seen, and do testify, that the Father hath sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God. And we have known, and have believed the charity, which God hath to us. God is charity: and he that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him” (1 Jn. 4:9-16).
How can we “live by Him”? There is an important truth that you need to know: the inhabitation of the Holy Trinity in the souls of the just. St Paul says: “Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16). But the Holy Ghost is inseparable from the other Two Persons: they too abide in the just. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself says: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father: and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him… If anyone love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make our abode with him” (Jn. 14:21,23): “We”, that is, the Father and the Son, and the Holy Ghost who is inseparable from them!
Here below, we grasp these marvellous realities through the veil of Faith. “We have known, and have believed the charity, which God hath to us” (1 Jn. 4:16) but we do not yet see it. However, the fact that we do not yet see it does not make it less real. In our own selves, the most important dimension is the spiritual dimension, and we can’t see it! We acknowledge it with our mind at the natural level, and we grasp it through Faith at the supernatural level.
That inhabitation of the most Holy Trinity in our soul makes that we cannot behave as people “who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13): we cannot live any longer a worldly life, but we ought to live a heavenly life on earth, as children of God. Saint Peter says beautifully: “By whom he hath given us most great and precious promises: that by these you may be made partakers of the divine nature: flying the corruption of that concupiscence which is in the world” (2 Pet. 1:4). You see how immediately he draws the conclusion: flee from the corruption of the flesh which is so evident in the modern world! St Paul says the same: “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting sanctification in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1).
We should pay attention to the divine Guests of our soul. This requires silence. In silence, the soul can lift itself much more easily to God and recollect itself more easily, forgetting the exterior things and paying attention to the Three Divine Persons in the secret of our soul. Remember what our Lord said: “But thou when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee” (Mt. 6:6). Ste Thérèse of the Child Jesus, when she was still a little girl, used to hide behind her bed and meditate in silence and in secret.
There is a very important consequence from the Dogma of the Holy Trinity: he that refuses the Holy Trinity does not really know God. Our Lord Jesus Christ says very clearly: “He that believeth in the Son, hath life everlasting; but he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (Jn. 3:36). Hence, we must be missionary to convert all those who do not believe in the Most Holy Trinity, be they Jews, Muslims, Hinduists, Buddhists or of any pagan religion. The most Holy Trinity is the greatest treasure we can have, and we don’t lose it when we give it, on the contrary: the more we give it, the more we have it! We have the duty to communicate that Faith to our friends, neighbours and fellow men. “So, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 5:16).
May the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the most beautiful sanctuary of the Holy Trinity, help us to keep the Faith in the Holy Trinity, live that Faith and pass it on to many others, so that one day we may come to that heavenly kingdom where we shall see the most Holy Trinity face to face for ever! Amen.