What is good is “diffusive of itself”, says St. Thomas. God
is too good, and therefore too “diffusive” of himself—too exuberant and
squandering of his Being—to keep his secret delight to himself. The action of a
divine self-outpouring is a central biblical category already at work from the
first verses of Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…. And the Spirit of
God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said,
‘Let there be light.’” Each of these verbs—creating, moving and saying—imply a
dynamic outward movement on God’s part, beyond the sphere of his own
self-sufficient Being and into the void of nothingness, that he may pour
himself out into what is not-God. Note the Trinitarian undertones present in
Scripture from the outset: God creates not out of a splendid isolation but with
the collaboration of “the Beginning, the First Principle, who says: “I was
beside him as his craftsman.” The Father created all things in the Word through
the Spirit. Every action of God is a
self-outpouring of divine life that in no way depletes the Being of God.
The expansive throbbing of God’s triune Heart
can never quite contain itself. The
beaming forth of primal triune joy provides
the blissful pattern for all created love and friendship. From the Trinity we
learn that our own greatest joy should be to fill someone else with life.
Excerpts from Father Simeon's Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.