Editor’s note: This is the fifth post in our newest series, Beholding True Beauty, which consists of prayerful reflections on works of sacred art. The series will run on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the month of October. Read the whole series here.
The Father speaks.
The Word is spoken.
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
The Son is the stream, the Father the source. The Son is the brightness, the Father the light.
The Father and I are one.
The Speaker is never without his Word. To speak the Word flows from his nature. He is the one who speaks. The Word is the one who is spoken.
The Speaker is never without his Word.
The word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.
The Father is never without his Son.
The Son is never without his Father.
When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.
This is the heart of Jesus Christ’s identity. He is from the Father. The Father sent him; the Father is with him; the Father works in him, speaks in him, loves in him.
The Father is not absent from Christ’s crucifixion. He is not standing at some distance, watching and waiting.
A son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also. For the Father loves his Son and shows him everything that he himself does.
The Son is never without his Father. The Word is never without its Speaker.
What does this Word breathe out? Love.
The impulse that rushes forth from Father and Son, from Speaker and Word, is Love. This inner dance, this swelling, glorious life, has been so from all eternity. The Father is never without his Son, and they are never without their Love.
I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.
He said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the Spirit.
God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.
✠
Image: Masaccio, Holy Trinity
