Trinity Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons

Moses & Bush Icon Sinai 12th century

May 26 2024

I asked myself this question before I wrote this reflection. Have I ever found preaching on the feast of the Trinity difficult? You might expect me to say 'yes!', but I have to disabuse you slightly, it has never been a problem because I have refused to take the route of explaining Christian Doctrine and then get caught up in lengthy explanations that belong more in the classroom or lecture theatre than at the celebration of the Eucharist. I was fortunate as a young monk and student to have had several really insightful spiritual teachers, some were Benedictines as I was, some others were Franciscans or Jesuits, professors and lecturers at the various places I learnt my Philosophy and Theology 50 years ago.

The ones I found so inspiring were not the doctrinal experts, but rather those who seemed to understand a presence of God in life, and whose sermons on the Trinity took me into a different place, that of encounter and engagement both in the internal landscape of my soul, but also outwards in the rich tapestry of life -as a faith lived and experienced over the wonderful history of scriptural and Christian tradition.

These men and women introduced me to so many others whose spiritual teachings continue to challenge, guide and inspire me still. In particular I well remember the insight gained from an exposition of Karl Barth's understanding of the Trinity as three ways of being, a well thought out insight exploring the relationship of the Triune God in terms of 'modes of being', which is closer to the early fathers understanding of 'persona', rather than on an more modern interpretation of 'person' as 'personality', Barth's insight helped me to remove a tendency to create the Trinity into defined characters, rather as artists tried to do in the Middle Ages when depicting the Father as an old man holding in his arms the crucified Christ , and the Spirit hovering somewhere in between them in the form of a dove. Beautiful as these depictions might be the do not capture what the Triune God is at all. I found the same excitement of new discoveries with that fascinating word Perichoresis, which means 'to dwell together', and not as some would have it meaning dance. The church fathers used it- and it continues to be used - to describe what theologians regard as the 'interpenetration', 'co-inherence', or 'mutual indwelling' of the members of the Trinity, and also of the 'two natures' of Christ, a connectivity hinted at in our own relationships.

These examples are not meant to confuse you, but to remind us that preaching the Trinity is , yes, a mystery, but one which explains itself in not so much in terms of theological statements ( good and necessary as these are) but to take us into a more exciting world, that of connections, relationships, and yes in some form of indwelling love. Like all relationships we have to make time to allow the Living God to form a connection with us, as a dynamic of love, which we live out in the real world with the gift given us by the Spirit and which takes us to the Word made flesh discerned in the many presences of Jesus the Christ, and it is through this dynamic interplay that we begin to glimpse the Father. The Church shares with us as a rich and wonderful theology of presence, especially in the Liturgy. Whilst, Catholics home in on the 'real presence' of Christ in the Eucharist, we need to understand that is only one of many. Others are the fruit of other active presences given us; we find this Christ in his Word, in ourselves as the baptised Body of Christ as one community, but also in those little ones Christ tells us reflect him in our lives, the poor, the hungry, the captive, all those Christ challenges us to serve.

If we look at our Gospel passage today, the invocation of the Triune God is simply done by speaking their name, and by Christ's command to go out in their name and baptise : '''Go, therefore,* and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.* And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."(Mt 28:19-20) Here we have the hint that the Trinity is a mystery that each of us discovers. It is found when we answer these two questions; 'How did I come to faith? How do I know and love God?'. I would suggest that this comes through others, through a community, a family, and it will be a life times journey of discovery. Perhaps Moses gives us more than a glimpse of a covenant God, binding to us in images far beyond the expression of human words, drawing us closer to that infinity of love we are called to by the voice of the Spirit deep in our hearts, journeying with Christ to the home we have in the eternal house of the Father. We are told by Christ to pray and ask and we will receive., so let us pray for each other that we may discover the love that is the Trinity amongst us, and take to heart the words of Moses speaking, not only to the Israelites, but to each one of us reading this text. May we all find the Lord in our lives:

'Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, with strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the LORD, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? All this you were allowed to see that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other.'

(Dt 4: 33-35))

Lectio Divina

Thomas Merton on the Trinity

It is because the Love of God does not terminate in one self-sufficient self that is capable of halting and absorbing it, that the Life and Happiness of God are absolutely infinite and perfect and inexhaustible. Therefore in God there can be no selfishness, because the Three Selves of God are Three subsistent relations of selflessness, overflowing and superabounding in joy in the Gift of their Own Life.

The interior life of God is perfect contemplation. Our joy and our life are destined to be nothing but a participation in the Life that is theirs. In Them we will one day live entirely in God and in one another as the Persons of God live in One another.

Karl Barth. Church Dogmatics Vol 1.

Hence we are not introducing a new concept but simply putting in the centre an auxiliary concept which has been used from the very beginning and with great emphasis in the analysis of the concept of person. . . . God is One in three ways of being, Father, Son and Holy Ghost . . . "

. . . by preference we do not use the term "person" but rather "mode (or way) of being," our intention being to express by this term, not absolutely, but relatively better and more simply and clearly the same thing as is meant by "person."-Karl Barth

From St Ephrem's Hymn on the Trinity

If fire overwhelms us when we try to examine it,
to see how it is both one and at the same time three,
now the three elements live in one another, how its heat is distinct,

But not cut off; if fire has this effect, when fire is
just a natural entity which we have lovingly received
in threefold form, and with which we have no divisive dispute-

How much more, then, is it right that we should
accept in simplicity those Three Persons, receiving
them with love, and not with questions. Their nature should

Not have to chase after us and become like unto
us-for they are like only themselves in all respects.
Created beings are distinct and unlike one
another, so how much more is that Being,
Great beyond all, distinct from everything else.

(Translated by Sebastian P. Brock, 1989, p. 70-75)