Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

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SOLEMNITY of the TRINITY

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May 27, 2018

You may have heard the expression, when referring to age: 70 is the new 50.  Well, in Scripture seven is considered to be a sacred, perfect number.  But today’s feast, the solemnity of the Trinity, tempts me to say “3 is the new 7.”

Some say that “Two’s company; three’s a crowd” but today’s feast would have it otherwise.  In this instance, the figure three symbolizes completeness and perfect symmetry.  The Holy Trinity is a mystery beyond the grasp of human reasoning.  It reminds us of some key moments of the Christ story.  For example, when Jesus stood before John in the River Jordan, the Spirit hovered and the Father’s voice was heard: “This is my beloved Son.”

Recall the Christmas nativity scene.  There were three figures: the Holy Family – Mary, the mother, Joseph, the guardian, the stand-in father, and the infant Jesus.  And, according to tradition, who tracked them down through the desert and into Egypt – the three wise men.  33 or so years later, when Jesus was preparing for his public life he went back to a desert.  And, there he was tempted three times by the devil.

All of us like a good story.  And, Jesus was a story-teller par excellence.   He learned early on at his mother’s knee, or watching her bake bread for the day, or from his favorite bedtime stories that every good story has a beginning, a middle and an end.

We see this in Jesus parables.  The story of the Prodigal Son is about a father and his two sons.  How many passersby were in the story of the Good Samaritan?  A priest, a Levite and the Samaritan.  And, what about the farmer who went out to sow his seed?  Jesus talks about three different types of terrain yielding three different levels of harvest.

At the end of Jesus’ life, like at the beginning, we see the three motif.  During his Passion, Peter denied him thrice.  On the road to Calvary, he fell three times.  In the Crucifixion scene, you’ll recall we see three figures, Christ between two thieves.  At the foot of the cross stood Mary, his mother, and two other Mary’s.  Before his resurrection, he spent three days in the tomb.

Scripture does not explicitly teach the doctrine of the Holy Trinity; it is rather assumed especially through the story of Jesus’ baptism.  The early Christians struggled to explain their understanding that Jesus was God on earth as a human being.  “Trinity” or ‘tri-unity’ was the term that developed in an attempt to explain the relationship between God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.  The Apostles Creed predates the Nicene Creed which was decreed in AD 325, to formalize the teaching about the Trinity.  Either Creed is approved by the Church to be recited during the Eucharistic liturgy.  “We believe in one God.  We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God.  We believe in the Holy Spirit, the given of life.”

This inner relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is such that each of them is fully and equally God, yet there are not three Gods but one God.  This is incomprehensible to the human mind.  It is a mystery.  Together the three Persons in the Trinity, the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit represent the fullness of love.  The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father.  The Holy Spirit is their love for each other.

But love is only a word until someone gives it meaning.  We are made in the image of a triune God – God the Father, who created us, his Son who saved us, and the Holy Spirit who continues to guide us.  To be true to our calling we must be the ones who give meaning to Love in our world.  As Paul says in the second reading to the Romans: We did not receive the spirit of slavery, but of adoption …  we are heirs of God with Christ and destined to be glorified with him.”

A “Trinitarian- like movement” in our prayer life echoes the rhythm of our whole lives.  In Lectio we go up the mountain with Jesus, we have conversation with Him there, and we return to life among his people.  In our community prayer, (again a three-fold movement) we bow, we sit, we stand.  In our chants, we don’t always have to harmonize but we do strive to keep our voices in harmony with each other – one heart, one voice.

In tomorrow’s Responsorial Psalm we will sing: “Blessed the people (that’s us) the people the Lord has chosen to be His own!”  Our lives, individually and as a community, reflect the Trinity.  We are called to be creative like the Father, compassionate like God the Son, and, like the Holy Spirit to use our gifts and talents in service to others.

For “There are three things that last: faith, hope and love.  And the greatest of these is Love!”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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What’s that you say?

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Trinity SundayTrinity Sunday

The Gospel just proclaimed comes near the end of Jesus’ discourse at the Last Supper and is an example of the implicit teaching on the Trinity.   Jesus tells his disciples, and us, there is much more He could tell us, but we cannot bear it now.  When the Spirit comes we will be guided to all truth – for the Spirit will take what is Jesus’ and declare it to us.  Elsewhere Jesus has told us, “The Father and I are one.”  If Jesus and the Father are one and the Spirit speaks what Jesus says, it follows that the three must be one.

In first reading God is revealed as wisdom.  The words of the Responsorial Psalm remind us that human beings are the work of God’s fingers, little less than the angels and crowned with glory.   In the 2nd reading, from the letter to the Romans,  We are reminded that the love of God has been poured into our hearts.  And, as you just heard in the gospel, the Spirit will make the revelation.

But, if one expects today’s readings to give a clear presentation of the doctrine of the Trinity – they will be sorely disappointed. In fact the word “Trinity” is not found in the Scripture.  One writer has said if Jesus were to ask the question today, “Who do you say that I am?”  A modern theologian might answer: “Thou art the Logos, existing in the Father as His rationality and then, by an act of His will, being generated, in consideration of the various functions by which God is related to his creation, but only on the fact that Scripture speaks of a Father, and a Son, and a Holy Spirit, each member of the Trinity being coequal with every other member, and each acting inseparably with and interpenetrating every other member, with only an economic subordination within God, but causing no division which would make the substance no longer simple.”  Jesus might have replied: “What’s that you say?”

You have most likely heard this incident attributed to St Augustine of Hippo, who wanted so much to understand the doctrine of the Trinity and to be able to explain it logically. One day as he was walking along the sea shore and reflecting on this, he suddenly saw a little child all alone on the shore. The child made a hole in the sand, ran to the sea with a little cup, filled her cup, came and poured it into her hole in the sand.  Back and forth she went to the sea, filled her cup and came and poured it into the hole. Augustine asked her, “Child, what are doing?” and she replied, “I am trying to empty the sea into this hole.” “How do you think,” Augustine asked her, “that you can empty this immense sea into this tiny hole and with this tiny cup?” To which she replied, “And you, how do you suppose that your small head you can comprehend the immensity of God?”  With that the child disappeared.

Like Augustine we may not be able to understand the how of the Trinity but it seems very important to understand why God revealed this mystery to us.  An overriding reason, it seems to me, is because we are made in the image of God. Therefore, the more we understand God the more we can understand ourselves. An important question for us today is: What does this doctrine of the Trinity tell us about the kind of God we worship and what kind of people we should be?

Remember the old saying “Two is company, three’s a crowd?” The Trinity shows us that three is community, three is love at its best; three is not a crowd.  Love when it becomes complete is a trinity.  We become fully human only when we are in relationship with God and in relationship with each other.  When we receive forgiveness and a new determination to live a life more purposefully in the service of others, then we have an experience of God’s redemption.  We have a more personal, more dynamic, experience of God – we come to more fully know the inner relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Our understanding grows but it’s still a dynamic that is incomprehensible to the human mind. It is a mystery!

In days gone past, more so than today or so it seems to me, Trinitarian symbolism held a significant place in family life and here at the monastery.  For example: parents signed the cross on their spouse’s and children’s foreheads as part of a goodnight or leaving the house ritual; at mealtime people would break a slice of bread into 3 pieces in honor of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  A tiny piece was left on the plate in remembrance of the poor who had no bread to eat.  Even today, three candles, three flowers or a bunch of three colors of flowers remind us of the Trinity.  Of course, there is also the lesson of the Trinity seen in St. Patrick’s clover.  In some cultures when a person blesses herself the ritual includes three smaller crosses.  In preparation for the reading of the Gospel we sign ourselves on the forehead, lips and heart praying: “May the Word of God be in my mind, on my lips and in my heart.”  Here at home, I recall one feast day when, in perfect silence, a large box of chocolates was being passed along the dining room table for each one of us to make her choice.  Suddenly Mother de Chantal’s stern voice was heard: “Sisters, You don’t need to honor the 7 sorrows of Mary or Jesus’ last words on the Cross;  three in honor of the Trinity will do just fine.”

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