June 15, 2014
Trinity Sunday
1st Reading: Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9
2nd Reading:
2 Cor 13:11-13
Gospel: Jn 3:16-18
Jesus said to Nicodemus, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but may have eternal life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world; instead, through him the world is to be saved. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned. He who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the Name of the only Son of God.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
The love shared by the three Divine Persons overflows to creation. When the Gospel says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”, we are shown the extent of the power of love to draw from the lover the highest form of self sacrifice.
Lower forms of love are not capable of total self-giving. The word “Type Kita” gravitates at the lower levels of love. The closest Greek equivalent is ‘eros”, a love heavy with self interest. Higher than “Type Kita” is “Mahal”. The problem with this word is that it is also used to measure the price of commodities. The more appropriate word to be used on persons is perhaps the Cebuano word “palang-ga”. Its closest Greek equivalent is the word “philein” from which “fellowship” is derived.
“Pag-ibig” is our word for love’s highest form. Pilita Corales explored the limits of this love when she sang, “Mahal kita, kapantay ay langit sinta.” After Pilita, Cuneta came with her “T.L. (True Love) Ako Sa ‘Yo, maporma’t mayaman, T.L. wala na man!” Unfortunately “Pag-ibig” is also used to refer to a government agency.
The Cebuano word “gugma” allows an insightful play of words. The letter G in “gugma” strategically located at the first and the middle of the word is fit and proper to stand for God because real love begins in God and is centered on God. The other letters form the word “ugma”, the Cebuano word for tomorrow. Nice! Where love begins and is centered on God, there is a bright future awaiting the lover and the beloved.
This is the only kind of love that lasts, not “type kita” because it fades with the intoxication; not “Mahal” because it gives way to depreciation; not “Palang-ga”, because the love that one feels turns to hatred when the beloved takes him for granted. “Gugma” is akin to the Greek “agape”, the love whose seat lies at the heart of a person’s will and operates as the motive force for action seeking the good of the beloved.
As we celebrate Trinity Sunday, let us pay tribute to our One God of Love by making others feel the love of God.—Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
May comment ka ba sa column ni Father Dan? May tanong ka ba sa kanya? I-type ang BANDERA REACT <message/name/age/address> at i-send sa 4467.