Today I write around the
simple yet complicated paradox in our Christian faith – the Trinity. Thomas
Berry, the theologian, environmentalist, and author of The Dream of the Earth, once
said, “The universe is not a collection of objects, but a communion of subjects.”
The greatest minds of Christendom have applied philosophical rigour to
understanding and interpreting the church’s experience of the “father/parent” “son”
and “holy spirit” or the Trinity which is the feast or celebration day for this
Sunday But in the end, knowing God and
knowing fully God’s truth and love is as elusive as predicting a firefly’s
trajectory over a field of hay after dusk, as futile as keeping track of a drop
of rain fallen into the ocean in a storm, as blinding as gazing directly at the
sun.
Yet contemplating Trinity
offers lessons in the dynamism of creation, incarnation, delight, genesis, the
interrelationship of being, of nothing, of everything, of darkness, of light.
Image. Silence. And, again, nothing. Ah the return to those words from early
study for me and words which are a technical language or theology for those
outside. And yet, you and I, through Christ and in the Holy Spirit, are invited
to co-create, to enter into the imaginative diversity of the unfolding of time.
Once trained in the Trinity,
it’s not a great leap to consider the God of multiple dimensions,
multi-universes, string theory (to give a nod to the character of Sheldon in the Big Bang Theory TV show),
and hyperspace. Opening to new perceptions of God’s self-revelation is as
natural as contemplating innovations in theoretical physics. As I learn and
grow, I can be open to God’s Reality more fully, if ever more humbly. Awe
deepens. And yet . . . when I pray, it seems Love surfaces from the deep place
where the soul touches the universe.
Is that right? Does the soul
touch the universe? If that love comes not from something outside ourselves but
from something deep within ourselves only, then we are simply made for love.
Whether God exists or not, love lies at the heart and meaning of human
life—dynamic, relational, intimate, challenging, open Love.
But rather than wander too
far let us now look at one of the members of the Christian
Trinity – the Holy
Spirit. You know there is a whole language in the land of text speak that I and
many older people have no idea about: LOL—Laugh out loud. BTW—By the way.
TBH—to be honest. TMI—too much information. It’s this last one, too much
information, that Jesus seems to be trying to avoid when he began to say
farewell to the disciples. Jesus didn’t want to overload the disciples with
information. They had more than enough to digest. He knew they simply could not
process any more. Jesus also knew that they would have the rest of their lives
to work things out, to measure and weigh things in the light of all that he had
taught them and shown them.
With the perspective of
hindsight. But, more than that, Jesus knew that they wouldn’t have to wrestle
with it all on their own. And so he kept it light. Too much information is not
good for any of us. We do not and cannot know everything. But Jesus could
reassure his disciples that they would not be left to their own devices. That
they would have the gift of the Spirit to help them in their discernment.
So as Christians we hold that
still, today, the Spirit is our guide. Sadly, we often drown out the soft
whisper of the Spirit. We fail to hear her prompting and make the wrong
choices. Jesus intentionally did not overload us with too much information. His
intention was that we should listen carefully for the prompting of the Holy
Spirit. And so, as our world changes, and as we are faced with more and more
perplexing choices, the example of Jesus and the guidance of the Holy Spirit
leads us to make loving choices. Choices that reflect the loving nature of God.
Choices that enable us to find a way through the information overload that
assails us today. TBTG (Thanks be to God)!
So for the disciples and for
us it becomes a question of what to say and when? Important in any
relationship. Thus, the significance of the presence of the Spirit here and now
for the disciples and for us. Recognising why the Spirit is front and centre in
the reading from John 16 this week at this point may provide a perspective of
the Spirit that is less explored in our Christian faith. That is, the Spirit is
the one who comes to our aid so as to fill in the gaps Jesus left behind.
As Jesus bids the disciples
farewell, the Spirit enters into the space of Jesus’ absence. The Spirit will
have a good sense of timing as well—guiding the disciples and us, sharing that
which should be known about Jesus, telling them what is to come only when they
are able to bear the part of the truth that will support them then. There is
something touching, poignant, in this role for the Spirit. The Spirit is not
only our Advocate or helper. The Spirit is the Companion that connects one
breath to the next, the compassionate one.
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