Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

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The Holy Trinity – There are Clues

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I quote Richard Rohr: “I think it’s foolish to presume we can understand Jesus if we don’t first of all understand the Trinity.  We will continually misinterpret and misuse Jesus if we don’t first participate in the circle dance of mutuality and communion within which he participated.”

The reality of the Holy Trinity a mystery – an incomprehensible concept.   Thankfully, mysteries can be talked about.  They can be described.  They have clues that our minds can grasp.  A mystery remains a mystery unless and until we grasp it in its totality.  But, when it comes to God we simply cannot grasp the total reality of God.

We know, because we’ve been taught, that the inner nature of God, in whose image and likeness we are made, is Three Persons who, however distinct they are, totally belong to each other.  Humans, because they are made in God’s image, are made to belong in a special kind of belonging.  We (Benedictines at Holy Name Monastery) are free persons who chose to live in a community where we are mutually dependent on each other for full existence.  While there is a style of belonging that enslaves – a possessive belonging – there is also a belonging that gives freedom, the freedom to be who we are as persons.

The concept of the Holy Trinity is a mystery, but not a total mystery.   Mysteries, after all, are made up of clues. In a mystery story we pursue and piece together clues in order to see the whole picture.  So it is with the Holy Trinity.  We have lots of clues about the Holy Trinity.  And when we pursue them and piece them together we get a good glimpse into what kind of a god our God is.  God is all about love.  And when we live in love we live in God, and God lives in us.  Living in love, however, does not mean we must all be exactly the same.

There’s a great deal of confusion about this in today’s culture.  But it’s ridiculous to think that all persons must be the same.  We aren’t meant to be ducks in a row, waddling to the same tempo.  We honor our Triune God in whose image we are made.  God the Creator is a distinct Person; the God the Son, our Savior is a distinct Person; and God the Holy Spirit is a distinct person.  Distinct though they are, however, they exist in one being of infinite love.  They exist in one unbreakable bond, in one infinite union of being together.

While all of that remains a mystery to us, it is not so mysterious that we cannot live with each other in a reality of life that reflects and shares in the reality of God’s life.  To live a God-like life we must forgive rather than condemn.  We must build-up and affirm rather than tear down.  We must see the best, not the worst.  We must be self-sacrificial and not self-centered.  We must be giving rather than grasping.  We must offer hope, not despair.  We must heal rather than wound.  All of this is best affirmed and nurtured in what we know as a community.  There is nothing in life that more closely reflects the reality of the Holy Trinity than genuine family life.   This concept is mimicked in intentional community life.  For it is in such a setting that we not only belong but also where we discover, nurture, and affirm our own unique and individual personalities.  It is in living the reality of being truly a community that we have a glimpse into the life of the Trinity.

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

We all have different views about the mystery we celebrate today.  We have different views in our heads about who God is and what God is like.   But I think we agree:  God is love and we are made in God’s image.  But, love is only a word until someone gives it meaning.  To be true to our calling we must be the ones who give meaning to love in our world.  We, Benedictine Sisters of Florida – and our Oblates and Volunteers – put flesh on that calling through our Corporate Commitment: We commit ourselves and our resources to respond with the compassion of Christ to the hungers of the people of God.

~Reflection By Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

First Reading   Exodus 34:4b-6,8-9                  Second Reading 2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Gospel  John 3:16-18                    
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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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