I Love, Therefore I Am

Sunday, 4th of June 2023 by Kurt Schaller

Dear Friends

Today, we celebrate the complicated mysterious statement from God. We celebrate The Most Holy Trinity of God. We celebrate God in One. That sounds quite nice, however mathematically, it is quite a big challenge for us.

Math Lesson

I assume that in Mathematics you learned that the sum of one plus one plus one is three. Today we are celebrating the Three in One God, the Trinitarian God. It is somehow a complicated mystery: one equals three and three equals one. But we are speaking of the three Divine, the Divinity, three persons in one Godhead. First, we have to apprehend the notion of this person in order to comprehend it’s meaning, to understand the mystery of God. We have God the Father, we have God the Son, and we have God the Holy Spirit. Three Divine persons but one Divine Being. It is not really very easy. Let us begin by putting this notion of person into a modern context, meaning that one person has one center of consciousness.

Persona

The word “person” originally comes from the Latin word, persona, the mask or appearance one presents to the world, which means to shine, to see through, to resonate, to proclaim loudly. In the Roman theater world, actors worked with masks. Acting through these masks, they developed different roles and because one spoke through these masks, the concept of a “person” or persona emerged. But let’s go back to the celebration of The Holy Trinity. Let us go with the assumption that God shares himself. He wants to share himself with us. He wants to tell us something...he wants to show us something. How does God reveal himself in the history of salvation?

God in the Old Testament

In the Old Testament we have the distant God, the God of Creation. This God of Creation is the powerful, invisible God, the Almighty, the inexpressible God, somehow. The Somehow God. Then this God reveals himself to Moses in the burning thorn bush that doesn’t burn. It’s a little bit strange. Something burns but it doesn’t burn. And then this Moses says to himself: What is this? And then he asks aloud: Who are you? Then God answers with this wonderful self-revelation. He doesn’t say, "um, I am," let’s take my name for example," I AM KURT." He doesn’t say, "I AM JOHN." Or "JOSEPH." He says, "I am who I am, I am here for you." He doesn’t say, "I am a thing or a state or condition." This is a very important starting point of God’s self-revelation. He, the great ONE, accompanies us through space and time. This is all good and fine, but it doesn’t help us to understand who God is. He sends prophets to show us who he wants to be for us. What his goals are with mankind. What is God’s goal with the human race? What is his plan?

God's Plan

It seems that God seeks to guide man into the joy of life. He seeks to expand himself in the heart of mankind. He seeks the happiness of mankind so much so that he feels he somehow needs to come to us himself. He has sent prophets but somehow it is not enough. So He Himself comes. He comes as the savior and redeemer into the world, which is something that we profess. When we celebrate Christmas, we celebrate God the Incarnate in Jesus Christ. The story goes on, and we know how the story goes. Just like the prophets were incriminated, Jesus was incriminated. They nailed Jesus to a cross. But the story is not yet over. We celebrate not only Good Friday, but we celebrate the Resurrection on Easter. That is the reason our Easter Candle burns. It is the reason we light it on Sunday. We celebrate that Jesus has risen from the dead and he wants to lead us through life. If you have not taken a close look at our Easter candle, please do it afterwards.

Our Easter Candle

Here we see the planet Earth. Jesus reigns as the Risen Christ together with the Earth and He is raised up toward the heaven. And above it we see a dove, a peace dove. Do I go too far when I say that the goal of Jesus Christ in our world is, among other things, to bring peace, reconciliation, healing and unity? God Father, God Son and now comes the Holy Spirit. What is the role of the Holy Spirit? We don’t see it but we can feel it. The Holy Spirit is just as invisible as God the Father. We don’t see either.

The Visible, The Invisible

God the Son….we see, in that we know he had lived, he was truly man, this Jesus Christ. With the Holy Spirit, we only feel the effects of it. It causes a kind of wind, a breeze. We see the effect of the wind. The Holy Spirit, we don’t see it but we feel it. We feel it when we have a yearning in our heart for life, for fulfillment, happiness and joy. For comfort and protection. For family and people who carry us and accompany us through life, in difficult times. That is the Holy Spirit. It is also the Holy Spirit who is praying in our hearts. Now, I will try to summarize all of this. There are three wonderful statements, which I think are appropriate

Cogito ergo sum

I think, therefore I am.

René Descartes. We are all familiar with his philosophy. He says, I am only when I think. for me, that is not enough.

Dubio ergo sum

I doubt, therefore I am.

Even in my deepest doubts, I feel my dignity as a person. I think therefore I am - I doubt, therefore I am.

And then comes the most beautiful the third. The third… It is:

Amo ergo sum

I love, therefore I am.

Thinking, I can do that by myself. Doubt, I can also do that by myself.

When I love, alone, by myself, well, then I am lonely. A narcissistic, egoistic love makes me lonely. A love that is ready to become a gift, well, that creates relationships, and builds upon existing relationships.

My Dear Friends

And now we are getting closer to revealing this divine mystery of the Holy Trinity. The Trinitarian God reveals his deepest divinity, his being in his relationships of love. The love of God the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. When we can understand this as the self-revelation of God then we have reached an incredible understanding of God. When we can understand this as the self-revelation of God then we have reached an incredible understanding of our self.

Amo ergo sum. I love, therefore I am.

I wish all of us the strength, the love that creates relationships, that motivates, that carries, that forgives, and that strengthens. I wish us the power of God that moves us and guides us to the light of the world.

Praise be to Jesus Christ. Amen.