Mark Jacks

The Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—is a profound mystery that reveals the very nature of God as love. When we say “God is love,” we are not just describing an attribute of God but expressing His fundamental essence.

One key to understanding the Trinity is the concept of personhood. In contemporary language, “person” typically refers to an individual human. However, in theology, it refers to identity, “who” someone is, not “what.” Angels are not humans, yet each is a person. Furthermore, while Jesus is simultaneously God and man, he is not two different persons. Jesus is not a divine person and a human person. Who is Jesus? He is the Son, the second person of the Trinity; he is a divine person. As such, he has always been God, yet, he added a human nature or human existence to himself, one day in time.

Thus, Jesus is one person, the divine person of the Son, who exists two ways at the same time: as God and as man. Jesus is not a human person; he is a divine person. Personhood and nature, as in human nature, are two different things. Furthermore, we distinguish person from personality. While Jesus is a divine person (answering the question of “who” did all that), he is still 100% human, and thus still has a human personality. Personality pertains to what we like or dislike, what we find funny or the foods we like.

In Mark 16:15-20, Jesus instructs his disciples to “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.” This commissioning is the foundation of the Church’s mission, which is to carry the message of salvation to all corners of the earth. The word “mission” comes from the Latin word “missionem,” which means “to be sent.” This reflects the nature of our call—to be sent by God, the ultimate sender, to fulfill a specific task.

Reflecting on the mission of the Church, we are reminded of our role in this divine mission of love and redemption.

We often use the word “love.” We say everything from “I love pizza” to “I love my children.” Yet, we hope that people “love” their children in a very different way than the way they “love” pizza. In the Gospel today, Jesus tells us, “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.” But what did he mean? In Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament, there are different words for love, each of which means something different. For example, there is philos, which means “brotherly love” or close friendship; hence Philadelphia is the “City of Brotherly Love.” The word Jesus uses, however, is agape, which means to do good for the sake of the other person, without expectation of repayment or return.

For Jesus, it isn’t merely altruism, but the willingness to pour out your own life for the benefit of others, hence he says, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” We see this agape in the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus; he gave his life for our salvation.

The Gospel for the 5th Sunday of Easter, John 15:1-8, invites us to reflect deeply on our spiritual journey. Christ uses the analogy of plants needing care to thrive. Just as plants require attention, our spiritual lives require us to remain connected to Christ, who is the vine. This connection is not merely superficial; it necessitates recognizing that our lives belong to Christ, who redeemed us. This understanding should fundamentally shape our daily lives, leading us to live as disciples of Jesus, seeking to grow in our faith and avoid sin.

John 15:1-8 emphasizes this message, with Jesus declaring, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.”

There is something scandalous in the readings of today’s Mass – Skandalon (from the Greek σκανδαλον) meaning a stumbling block or an offense. Particularly in today’s climate of “tolerance” and indifferentism, to make such a bold claim as Peter made when he said, “There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved,” is seen as arrogant and exclusive. It is exclusive – a claim that Jesus has something precious and unique to offer. Jesus Himself told His Apostles, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6.

Other world religions do not have the understanding of salvation that Christ revealed to us. They reject the notion of “divine filiation,” or becoming sons and daughters of God. That is also a scandal to other world religions.

“You are witnesses of these things,” says Jesus to the Apostles after His resurrection. What things is Jesus referring to? “Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” Luke 24:46-48

In these verses Jesus is speaking to the whole Church as well. He is speaking to us today. Witnessing our Catholic faith to the world is the urgent task of every baptized and confirmed Catholic.

Easter greetings to all on this happy and blessed day! We rejoice with the Church at our liberation from the bondage of sin. Jesus has won the victory for us.

One of the most dramatic and awesome moments in the reading of the Passion happens at the moment of Jesus’ death: Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed His last. The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51-53).

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. – Philippians 2:6-7

St. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, chapter 2, presents the “Philippians Hymn.” This scripture is a moving description of Jesus’ humility in willingly sacrificing his own life out of great love. The concept of “emptying” (in Greek: kenosis) is understood as Jesus willingly laying aside his divine power. Dr. David Campbell wrote, “Jesus, the god-man, was fully divine, but veiled his glory to accomplish his mission – and prove humans could fulfill the Law of God with the help of the Holy Spirit and a commitment to faithfulness.”

This is the mystery we walk through this Holy Week, beginning with the reading of the Passion today.