A child once asked his mom: what is God like? What does it mean that God is Trinity? In response, his mother did this: she took him in her arms, then hugged his father too, and when all three of them were within this embrace, she said: “this how God is!”
Dear children, are you happy when your mom and dad hug you? I did not hear correctly: are you happy? When you all hug each other you are one family, aren’t you? Today, on the feast of the Trinity, we can learn this: God is one but he is also one family, God the Father, Jesus his Son and the Holy Spirit. They are one embrace. God is an embrace of love; do not forget that!
Because God loves us, the most important thing for him is to be with us, to accompany us on the journey of life and to make us happy. Did you hear how Jesus greets his disciples at the end of his time on earth? He makes a promise that fills their hearts with joy: “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20).
This is the reason for our celebration today. We are Jesus’ disciples, his friends, and he makes this promise to us too: I will always be at your side; I will be with you all the days of your life because I love you so much. I love you so much! It is due to receiving such good news that we have the desire to celebrate, to do so with the people we love, together with all our friends. You have come here from many parishes, cities, and parts of the world, and we are all here to celebrate together because Jesus is the most important friend in our lives and he promises us that he will never leave us.
Above all, you are Jesus’ beloved friends. The Gospels tell us that Jesus loved children like you so much. He was happy when he saw them playing. Maybe there were times they would run around him and they would pull his robe and the apostles would try to push them away, but Jesus would say, “let them come to me, let them play”. See, Jesus is the most important friend in our life! What about us? Do we want to be friends with Jesus? I ask you again: do you want to be friends with Jesus?
Dear children, if Jesus’ friendship makes us happy then we learn another thing: we can have a life full of joy only when we are not alone, when we have a friend who, like Jesus, promises to stay by our side always. You can see this every day in your life, because the Lord has given you important people who love you even when you do not realize it, even when you are a little angry, distracted or tired. You have your mom and dad, who have given you life and take care of you every day. You have your grandparents, whose hearts are full of love for you, they play with you, they take you on their lap and if you are afraid of something they hug you to tell you just like Jesus: “Don’t be afraid, I am here with you!” You also have so many friends, schoolmates, teachers, catechists, pastors. These people work hard, offer their time, teach you important lessons, give you many smiles, and this is the secret of joy!
Now, I will tell you one last thing. If we want to be friends with Jesus, we also need to make a commitment. First of all, we must seek him in prayer, remember him every day, talk to him just like to a friend. This, however, is not enough. To be friends with Jesus means to try to love each other as he does, to love each other as He loves us. If we all strive to love one another, then an extraordinary thing happens: the world changes, is transformed, becomes a world where there are no more wars, where all children like you can be happy because, as the theme of this Day says, the Lord “makes all things new”. He transforms things when we strive to change! You know that there are many children who cannot be here with us today, some live where there is war, they suffer greatly, they live in poverty, and some are left alone without having their mom and dad near them anymore.
We do not want a world where there are wars, poverty and suffering; but it is not enough to say we do not want it, we must all commit ourselves to change it. We do this when we love each other, when we do not fight with each other, when we try to be good and faithful friends as Jesus is with us. Then we become like one family, where everyone lives embraced in love, just like the Trinity.
Dear children, when you go home, try to do this, with your brothers and sisters, with your parents, at school, at church: commit to loving each other, being kind, not being disrespectful, and being friends in order to become one family. That way we can be peacemakers and truly be happy! Do not forget about friendship with Jesus: He wants to be near you always, “every day, until the end of the world”.