“Caritas” is a Latin word for “love.” It is from “caritas” that we get the English word “charity.” At the start of the rosary people offer the first three “Aves” for the virtues of faith, hope, and love. Sometimes people use the word charity in place of love. “Caritas” is a charitable love. This charitable love which gives freely and asks for nothing in return can most perfectly be seen in the Most Holy Trinity.
Of God we know that there is one Nature which is of three Persons. These three Persons being God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. How sad it would be if God did not manifest Himself is such a way. Without the Son or the Holy Spirit, the Father would only be concerned with self. This cannot be for God is creative and by His very nature pours forth this love. Therefore, we came to be created as an outpouring of this love.
God cannot be only Father and Son for here we have two whose love becomes exclusive. Again there is nothing which is exclusive of this love. From the cross we see God the Son who pours forth His love for us as He comes to surrender His Spirit.
It is from the manifestation of this love that another comes forth. That being the Holy Spirit. Thus in the Most Holy Trinity we see this perfect outpouring of love. The love between God the Father and God the Son is so great that it begets another. It would be an error for us to say there was a time when was not God the Son or God the Holy Spirit. From the Last Gospel we are told: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
To married couples it ought to be the Most Holy Trinity that one looks up to in their love as a couple. So many allow themself to get caught up in a false sense of love which is not mutual and flowing over. In this manner love itself becomes perverted to the very sense that it cannot be love. We cannot go through life living an attitude that everything is about me. We cannot go through life loving another at the exclusion of others. True love is to see the other and to do what is best for them, while expecting to receive nothing in return. This is the very basis of charity itself.
Despite perversions of love we should see that living out the love of the Trinity is something that we are called to. Contraception rejects this love and twists mutual love from its purpose. Those who reject children fail to see the beauty that springs forth from the the giving of oneself to another out of love. If we are lowering another to become a means to an end we cannot claim that we love them for if they are lowered to such they fail to be treated as one created in the image and likeness of God.
On this Most Holy Trinity Sunday may we come to see the true meaning of love. May we enter into the beauty that is discovered through this love and desire to live it out in our own life. May we remember at all times “Deus caritas est” “God is love.”
