Here is a description of the Trinity made by the Holy Father in his recent pastoral visit to San Marino, the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world, established in the 4th century.
“The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one, because God is love: the Father gives everything to the Son, the Son receives everything from the Father with gratitude, and the Holy Spirit is like the fruit of this mutual love between the Father and Son.”
May seem like the usual description one has memorized about the Trinity, but notice the word “gratitude.” The Son receives everything from the Father with gratitude.
Perhaps the take home message to us in our daily lives is this: To be grateful is fidelity to one’s adoption as a son or daughter of God. To be grateful is a mark of the Christian who is called to be Jesus Christ to the world, because gratitude is a mark of Jesus. In gratitude he loved the Father, and us, even unto death. It is love that unites us with Jesus and with him to the Father and the Son.
God is one because God is love.
