THE BLESSED TRINITY OPERATES IN THE INCARNATION

VATICAN CITY, APR 5, 2000 (VIS) - In today's general audience, held in St. Peter's Square, the Pope spoke on "the glory of the Trinity in the Incarnation."

"The glory of the Trinity," said John Paul II to the 40,000 pilgrims present, "is manifested in time and space and reaches its high point in Jesus, in His Incarnation and in His story."

The Pope indicated that "the Holy Spirit also participates in the Incarnation and it is precisely this intervention that renders that generation unique and unrepeatable. ... The Father, the Son and the Spirit are, therefore, present and operate in the Incarnation in order to involve us in Their life."

"To know God and His Son," he said, recalling the Encyclical "Evangelium vitae," "is to accept the mystery of the loving communion of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit into one's own life, which even now is open to eternal life because it shares in the life of God. Eternal life is therefore the life of God Himself and at the same time the life of the children of God. As they ponder this unexpected and inexpressible truth which comes to us from God in Christ, believers cannot fail to be filled with ever new wonder and unbounded gratitude."

The Holy Father affirmed that "in the Incarnation, we contemplate the trinitarian love that takes shape in Jesus, a love that does not remain closed in a perfect circle of light and glory but radiates out in man's flesh and history. It pervades all men and women, regenerating them and rendering them sons in the Son."

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