Both sender and sent

SINCE we have been created in the image and likeness of

God, we have to see to it that we reflect in our life the very life of

God who is one yet three persons. The dynamics of that divine

Trinitarian life has to drive our life here on earth also.

            One consideration we can make to help us attain that ideal

is to realize that in the Trinity, it is the Father who continually

sends the Son and the Holy Spirit to us. In other words, in that

Trinitarian life, there is a perpetual dynamics of sending and being

sent.

            This is what the Compendium of the Catechism of the

Catholic Church tells us. “From the very beginning until the end of

time, when the Father sends his Son he also sends his Spirit who

unites us to Christ in faith so that as adopted sons we can call God

“Father” (Romans 8:15). (137)

            This is also what we should try to have in our life here

on earth. We have to send ourselves always to others—first, to God,

and then to all the others. Like in the Trinitarian life, we should

always be doing the process of sending and being sent, that is, both

the sender and the sent.

            So, to those of us who wonder how we can develop a

relationship with God that is attentive to his Trinitarian life and

activity, the idea of sending and being sent can be most helpful to

us.

            Like the Father, we should always be doing the act of

sending. In other words, we cannot be just self-enclosed, unmindful of

the others. We have to reach out. We need to send something. In this

case, of course, what we send is actually not just something but our

own selves, just like the Father sending his own Son and the Spirit to

us. We have to send the best of ourselves.

             Like the Son, we have to be willing to be sent in a way that is most

faithful to the sender and his will. Since the Son is the perfect

bridge between God and us, that is, one that reaches both ends, God

and us, and not just coming from one end and goes to the other but

without reaching it, we should also see to it that we, as sent, have

to come from God, reveal everything that God has meant for us to the

others.

             In other words, like the Son who is sent by the Father, we also have

to be a most faithful ambassador and the best image and message of the

sender. We should try to live out what Christ told his apostles:

“Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me;

but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me." (Lk 10,16)

             Like the Son, we have to be the pattern of how all of us should be,

always giving good example to others.

             Like the Holy Spirit, we should be continually renewing ourselves,

reminding one and all about everything the Son is to us--the pattern

of our humanity and redeemer of our damaged humanity.

             This we can do if we continually pray, have recourse to the

sacraments, study the doctrine of our faith, making sacrifices, wage

ascetical struggle, and do a lot of apostolate.

             In this way, we can already reflect the Trinitarian life in ourselves!