Trinity Thoughts

Writing about the Trinity, Fred Beuchner, says, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit mean  that the mystery beyond us, the mystery among us, and the mystery within us are all the same mystery.”

This abiding mystery that we spoke of yesterday can be experienced in the words of Jesus; “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[a] in you.” (John 14:16-17)

The fact that Jesus promises to send us ‘the Advocate’, ‘the Counsellor’. Could suggest some sort of legal figure but really Jesus is telling us that we will be accompanied by his friendly, life-giving, enabling and affirming Spirit. So far from assuming that such a divine mystery is far or distant from our everyday existence, the profound words of Alfred Lord Tennyson ring so true. “Closer is He than breathing and nearer than hands and feet.”

Someone once said: “Here’s the beautiful thing: you don’t need to fully understand the Trinity to worship the Trinity, pray to the Trinity, and enter into the life of the Trinity.”

Fred Beuchner continues his Trinitarian exploration by suggesting, “If the idea of God as both Three and One seems far-fetched and obfuscating, look in the mirror someday. 

There is (a) the interior life known only to yourself and those you choose to communicate it to (the Father). There is (b) the visible face which in some measure reflects that inner life (the Son). And there is (c) the invisible power you have in order to communicate that interior life in such a way that others do not merely know about it, but know it in the sense of its becoming part of who they are (the Holy Spirit). Yet what you are looking at in the mirror is clearly and indivisibly the one and only You. 

Loving God,

we are limited in our understanding of you,

but we know that you care for us and for all creation.

Thank you for loving us

and remaining with us in our sorrows and joys.

Thank you for the life of Jesus

whose life shows us the way to life and happiness and trust.

Thank you for your Spirit who leads us.

Warm our hearts and unite us,

that we might open our lives to you

to accept all your love and to respond to it

by entrusting ourselves to you

with all that you have made us and given us.

We ask this in the name of Jesus the Christ. Amen.