June 6, 2004
Proverbs 8:22-31 + Romans 5:1-5 + John 16:12-15
Understanding does not necessarily lead to prayerful contemplation or to participation in the Holy Trinity; but when we get right down to the truth of the matter, the Holy Trinity is about experience not about understanding. It is about what happens to us, not what we think about. It is about what we know from experience, not what we learn from textbooks or the internet. Explanations are less important than experience, and when it comes to God and matters of the divine or matters of revelation, this is never more the truth. It seems to me that this Feast is best celebrated without wordy explanations that leave us standing outside the locked gate of mystery, but rather with a quiet waiting and watching that prepares us for the gift of God’s self giving and opens the way to realizing a union with God.
This experience of God, which is revealed to us in our faith, is an experience of relationship, not an experience of ideas. Out side of relationship, the Trinity, remains a mystery behind a locked gate; but from within relationships, it a gift that opens the way to a spirituality that is profoundly and authentically Trinitarian. Think of it in terms of the names:
“Father” is not God’s proper name. Neither is “God”.
“Father”, “Son” and “Spirit” are names or words that point to relationships rather than who God is in God’s fullness. They do not begin to tap nor express nor reveal the inexhaustible mystery of God. What they do is invite us IN. Those names are about relationships, relationships with us as much as with each other. They speak of the character of divine mystery, they speak of the One is beyond naming. We may not know God’s name; but we certainly know what God is from the names we use: God is Love, and that love is found in relationship.
The Old Testament prepares us well for images of God as Father with many wonderful stories of many wonderful fathers – Father Abraham who offers what is most precious and most valuable, his own life in his son, as a gift to God, a father who gives away what nearest and earnest to him, his own flesh and blood, and because of his willingness, life is returned to him. And there is Father Jacob who pines for his beloved child who has been plotted against and betrayed by his own brothers and sold for sliver. But the bonds between them are never broken even by age and by silent distance. Joseph the son rises to forgive his betrayers, his own brothers, and is reunited with his father. These are stories that help us to name God: “Father.” The one who is above all naming.
There comes to us another story in the New Testament about relationships and Father and Sons when a Father with two sons again gives God a name out of his behavior in relationship. Contrary to the expected behavior and patriarchy of the time, this “Father” gives all his attention not to the first born who deserves all, but to the last born who deserves nothing. The image of Father is shaped again by Love in the face of need with a gift that is pure gift, not a gift that is reward.
In these stories that lead us into precious and tender treasure of our experience we begin to touch the truth of divine presence and find our place in the Trinity, find our place in this dynamic of love so powerful that it can rise about sin and death itself.
There are three dangers to know and to avoid by those who wish to enter into the mystery of the Trinity:
Individualism – the more we try to be different, to separate ourselves from human nature and other people, the further we get from the Trinity. It is a strange and awful power to arrange the world around us for our own interests, to become competitive. The pursuit of private interests is always at the expense of another and the detriment of community It changes the world from a playground to a battlefield.
Materialism – it’s a matter of wants, not of needs. It is a religious practice, materialism. There is no effort to justify wants, we just want more, more for all kinds and of every kind, because the more the better. We do not deny that there is a spiritual level, we simply do not get there. The result of materialism is devolution. When bears get near humans they go down hill. It is embarrassing to notice. They lose their wonderful hunting skills and dig in dumpsters. Following material instincts, humans do the same thing – they go downhill and end up digging in dumpsters.
Restlessness is the third danger. It’s the “Been there done that” mind. In this mind, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing, just so long as you do something. Perpetual motion becomes and end in itself. We get like ants running here and there following the path of least resistance or the lure of the most attractive, avoiding problems and driven to something better with no goal or rest in sight.
A balance of individualism with community; materialism with spirituality, and restlessness with peace draws us into the mystery of the Trinity where in we shall discover who are to one another, who we are to God, and where we are for all eternity.