Talking Trinity #2
One of my heroes, theologian Sandra M. Schneiders, IHM is coming to our Castelot Scripture Conference this summer and I love her insightful statement about the Trinity. She said “God is not two men and a bird!” A good place to begin I’d say!
Before we jump into some heavy lifting, let’s plant our feet on some relatively firm ground. Theologian Michael Himes says that when we hear the word “God,” something goes on in our minds. Now, however wonderful, however deep, rich, powerful, consoling, however philosophically and metaphysically precise, however scripturally sound and orthodox, whatever that idea of God that is in our mind - it is NOT God. And THIS is really the most important thing to know about God: that what we have in our mind when we hear or speak the word “God” is only a very imprecise image of God. Us trying to figure out everything there is to know about God is like an ant trying to learn astrophysics. We are way out of our depth, to put it mildly.
That being said, our scriptures tell us that “God is love.” Himes says this “is the least wrong thing we can say about God.” As Christians, we believe that love is the core of God’s divine essence. This is a very important truth to understand because the Trinity is one of the most confusing and misunderstood concepts in our faith, but if we have ever known love in our life, we can at the very least grasp at an inkling of who God is for us. Because as another hero of mine, Elizabeth Johnson declares, at the root of ALL our doctrine is an encounter with the holy mystery that is God. Our doctrines are not just speculative mental acrobatics but rather an attempt to express a truth we have experienced.
The Trinity is an image, a concept of God that developed historically out of our collective experience. The first Christian believers were faithful to their Jewish monotheistic tradition and without abandoning Yahweh, the God of Israel, they pondered and tried to make sense of their experience of this same God in the person and mission of Jesus Christ - and then once again coming to know this same God in the Holy Spirit in the days following Pentecost.
In the doctrine of the Trinity, and why perhaps it is a non-negotiable for every Christian believer, God has shown Godself to be a community of three persons, equal in every way, living together in loving, mutual relationship - and somehow in the life, death and rising of Jesus we too have been swooped up into this communion, invited into this love of God that is gratuitous, overflowing, and life-giving.
“In the deepest mystery of his being, God is an intimate relationship, a fellowship, a community of love.” (Johnson) So, when pondering the Trinity, I think there are two great places to start. First is from a deep place of epistemological humility. In other words we have to be able to say and believe “There is no way I can comprehend God with my little brain” And truly, if we could understand God, then God would not be a God worth worshipping, right? “A God comprehended is no God at all.” (Tersteegen)
Secondly, our very own Catechism states that the Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and life. It is the source of all other mysteries of Christian faith, the light that enlightens them. So, if we truly believe that the least wrong thing we can grasp about God is that God is a community of equal, self-giving love then – as yet another hero of mine - Catherine LaCugna says – in the Trinity humanity is being invited to ponder “How are we to live and relate to others so as to be most Godlike?
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