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Benedict XVI - God is not Infinite Solitude, but Communion of Love

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"Lover, Beloved and Love"

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 12, 2006 (Zenit) - Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave Sunday before praying the midday Angelus with the crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square.

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Dear Brothers and Sisters!

On this Sunday, following that of Pentecost, we celebrate the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.

Thanks to the Holy Spirit, who helps us to understand the words of Jesus and guides us into all the truth (John 14:26; 16:13), believers can know, so to speak, the intimacy of God himself, discovering that he is not infinite solitude, but communion of light and love, life given and received in an eternal dialogue between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit -- lover, beloved and love, to recall St. Augustine.

So, no one can see God, but he himself has made himself known so that, with the Apostle John, we can affirm: "God is love" (1 John 4:8,16), "we know and believe the love God has for us" ("Deus Caritas Est," No. 1; cf. 1 John 4:16).

Whoever encounters Christ and enters into a relationship of friendship with him, receives the very Trinitarian communion in his own soul, in keeping with the promise of Jesus to his disciples: "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him" (John 14:23).

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For him who has faith, the whole universe speaks of God one and triune. From interstellar space to microscopic particles, all that exists refers to a being who communicates himself in the multiplicity and variety of the elements, as in an immense symphony.

All beings are ordered according to a harmonic dynamism, which we can call, analogically, "love." But only in the human person, free and rational, this dynamism becomes spiritual, a responsible love, as response to God and to one's neighbor in a sincere gift of self. In this love the human being finds his truth and happiness.

Among the different analogies of the ineffable mystery of God one and triune, which believers have the capacity to perceive, I would like to mention the family. It is called to be a community of love and life, in which differences must come together to become a "parable of communion."

The masterpiece of the Most Holy Trinity among all creatures is the Virgin Mary: In her humble heart full of faith in God, he prepared a worthy dwelling for himself, to fulfill his mystery of salvation. Divine love found in her perfect correspondence, and the only-begotten Son was made man in her womb. With filial confidence let us turn to Mary, so that, with her help, we will be able to progress in love and make our lives songs of praise to the Father, through the Son in the Holy Spirit.

[At the end of the Angelus, the Pope greeted pilgrims in several languages. In English, he said:]

I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present for this Angelus. Today we celebrate the great solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.

In praising the Father who sent into the world the word who is truth and the Spirit who makes us holy, let us strengthen our commitment to bear witness to our faith, bringing Christ's "good news" to our families, our work places and all whom we meet.

Upon each of you and your loved ones at home, I invoke God's blessings of peace and joy!