Grace, Love, and Communion (Trinity Sunday)

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The final verse of 2 Corinthians is well known to Catholics because it is often recited as the opening greeting during the introductory rites of the Mass. In its original context, however, St. Paul wrote it as the concluding benediction to his 2nd letter to the church in Corinth. In it, he prays for three things to come upon the Corinthians: Grace, love, and communion.

By grace, we mean God’s free and undeserved favour upon those who belong to Christ. Grace reminds us that we were saved apart from any works or merits by which we could have earned such great salvation. As Paul relates elsewhere: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

God’s grace comes upon us because of His love for us. This love precedes any action on our part. As St. John tells us: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins,” and “we love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:10, 19) The supreme act of God’s love was the Cross, as we read: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

Finally, this grace and love brings us into the communion of the Holy Spirit. The Greek word translated “communion” (κοινωνία) has many meanings, and can be understood either as “fellowship” or “participation.” If “fellowship,” we can understand this to mean that the Holy Spirit bonds believers into a community where every member is in fellowship with one another. If “participation,” we can understand this to mean that believers participate in the Holy Spirit, and thus share in all His gifts (which Paul previously wrote about in 1 Corinthians 12-14).

All this comes to us through the work of the Holy Trinity. Although Paul is not explicitly teaching about the Trinity in this passage, his words nevertheless assume a robust Trinitarian theology, wherein the three persons work to bring believers to salvation. This Trinity Sunday, we rejoice in our Trinitarian God, and all the marvellous blessings He has bestowed upon us.

J. Luis Dizon