Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR C TRINITY SUNDAY Prov 8,22-31; Rom 5,1-5; Jn 16,12-15 The Trinity, the house of love What
can God be likened to? to
nothing and to everything, since God is all we say he is and yet ‘utterly
other’. The search for God has always been and is a never ending quest. People
of all ages & all faiths have tried to penetrate the Mystery of God, who has
been described as Being - Presence - Pure Spirit - Creative power - electrifying
energy - life & love - One immensely distant & yet immensely close. The
Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) gives God many names, always implying a
multiplicity of forces: El - Eloim, El-Shaddai, Adonai... However, God’s
special name - a name never to be mentioned in vain!- is Yahweh, which refers to
Moses at the burning Bush and means
“I am who am”. Here, the basic intuition is that God is one and yet he is
manifold, God is existence but also active presence. With the Incarnation, when
the Lord came to be born among us, we Christians arrived at a new understanding:
that God is active presence and is embodied in the historical person of Jesus.
This person is God-is-with-us, Emmanuel, and through his life death and
resurrection -indeed through the horrendous Passion of the Christ as only Mel
Gibson has been able to depict- transpires the excess of love that God is: He
loves us with a love beyond understanding, an infinite love, since God is love.
Jesus spoke of God in terms of communion and relationship: God as Father - God
as Son - God as Spirit and the three form the most perfect communion of love and
in this very communion of love, we are called to dwell. It is in the nature of
God to seek us in love. There is absolutely nothing that we can do, to make God
love us in a different way: God is God, God is love. Symbols
of the Trinity.
In the English speaking world, we are familiar with St. Patrick’s clover, to
represent our Triune God. In past history, other examples have been given of how
to imagine the concept of Trinity. For a start, the very number three had in
ancient times a numinous effect. It symbolized an all-encompassing perfection,
where everything came in 3: the world was divided in 3: heaven, earth and
underworld. Prayer was thought to
be more powerful if it were addressed three times. Three were the parts of
Jerusalem Temple: Narthex, Sanctuary, Holy of Holies, and the world itself was
viewed in these three sacred parts. We know that Jesus spoke about our
relationship with God as “Father - Son and Holy Spirit”; and we live our
life ‘in the name of Father, Son and Spirit’: in these names, we are
baptized and live our life; we begin our prayer making the sign of the cross,
and conclude it, receiving God’s blessing and again making the sign of the
cross. To honour the Trinity, 3 times we pray beating our breast: “through my
fault” - “Holy Holy Holy” - and “Lamb of God”. In past centuries there
have been many symbols of the Trinity: the triangular shape, with an eye
radiating from its centre, indicated the trinity’s presence and knowledge
everywhere. The harp, was another popular symbol of the Trinity (Hebrew Kinnar
and Greek Kithara): it was the classical instrument for sacred music, evoking
sadness, when reflecting on life’s uncertainty and futility and joy when
celebrating God’s victory and blessings. Because if its ancient triangular
shape, it reminded people of the Trinity. The rainbow, with its three
fundamental colours was another symbol, and indeed even the combined action of
bow, string and arrow reminded people of God’s immense love within the Trinity
and towards us. It is natural for artists and visionaries, to imagine the Mother
of God, the Saints & each of us living in the Trinity. In Rublev’s Icon of
the Trinity, we live in the Trinity, as in the house of love. ______________________________________ |
