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Today, June 7, the Catholic community celebrates the feast of the Holy Trinity. In preparing to celebrate this day I read a lot of priests making comments about what the Holy Trinity is: It's nature, It's persons, It's attributes, and so on. Others made comments seeking to understand what is beyond understanding - this Mystery of the Three in One. All in all, they get A's for effort and F's for content.
By definition the Holy Trinity is MYSTERY, all caps, because no one can explain It in Itself. We can guess and make assumptions and even try using nature to illustrate It but we'll never really know.
I used to have a lot of examples about the nature of the Trinity. Oh, they weren't mine actually, I borrowed them from St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo and St. Thomas Aquinas and others. I noted how St. Paul mentions Father-Son-Spirit some thirty times and said, see - that's proof. But in reality the word Trinity never actually appears in the Bible, although people more clever than I have deduced It from Sacred Scripture.
So that leaves me with a huge question mark about the Trinity. What am I supposed to glean about this Triune God? For me, it comes down to relationship. The problem with relationship is that every one I've seen is flawed. Almost every human relationship I've encountered harbors some kind of injury or suspicion or doubt or fear. The Trinity by comparison is absolute love and acceptance and trust and is intrepid - that's a far cry from human relationships.
Perhaps this is my lesson: If I am made in the image and likeness of God then I have the potential of becoming like God. But to do that I guess I need to deal with my shipwrecked life and acknowledge the injury, suspicion, doubt and fear that I've created for myself, about myself, or that others have created for me, or that I have created for them. No matter which one, it's a mess. And the way I deal with all this is by making a full and free choice to live in a way that allows you to be loved, accepted, trusted and encouraged, that's rather Godlike. Maybe if I give you the fullness promised to you then maybe it will be given to me.
I don't know - but I can try.
Here's the rub: I've been so conditioned from my relationships that I cringe whenever I hear the ever ubiquitous "uh-huh" and "oh, I see" simply because they never come across as an acknowledgement but sound like veiled questions. So I've learned to choose the right words, to remain silent, to just be distant; and of course that only gives rise to yet more question. Sadly I admit, that even among my most trusted companions I worry that what I say or do will be judged unkindly. Maybe you do too, or maybe I'm alone in my experience.
I commend people in relationships: Jolly good show, mate! But I suspect that many relationships are self-serving because in seeking to please the partner they fail to please God or worse, one demands to be served by the other. You know, I've never heard anyone in a relationship say, "because of you I'm able to seek God with all my mind, heart and strength".
In that famous icon of the Holy Trinity I find a relationship that is open and dynamic. There, gathered at a common table, exchanging glances, they are one. It is a relationship that is whole and complete. Each sustaining and helping the other, no harshness, no rudeness, no insult, no dysfunction - just pure goodness. That's what I want, it is my heart's desire!
So perhaps this is why we keep this feast. Its not so much about understanding what the Holy Trinity is, its about teaching us who we are to become for each other.
 AMDG |
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