Trinitarian Life-force
(05-30-2010)
The Trinity is a matter of faith, and as such, impossible for us to explain away, and so we grapple to understand that God is Three yet One. All of our logic and critical thinking falls away when we try to approach matters of faith such as theTriune God. Perhaps our attempts with the definition of roles in the Trinity brings some relief to one of the greatest challenges to our comprehension of the Life of God. At various times and references we speak about the life force and work of the Holy Spirit, the compassionate loving care of God the Father, and the sacrifice for salvation and our redemption by Jesus Christ as the core responsibilities. Also at the core of the Trinity is relationship: “The Father and I are one… “He (the Holy Spirit) will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine…” (The Gospel of John)
Relationship is sacred. Creation is sacred. And our relationship to creation is a sacred bond designed by God. As we hear in Genesis, God made us as stewards of all that God created to care for –relate to, tend to, nurture. That relationship includes the sacred bond with one another. If we do not treasure human life how could we treasure all life on this earth!
John Paul II wrote in a reflection on creation in 1990 “respect for life and for the dignity of the human person extends to the rest of creation.” Our beloved pope expressed clearly the link between faith in God and ecological ethics—behavior and the human responsibility to all creation. To politicize conservation of species, energy, the entire planet is to depart from the sanctity of all life. Creation—all of it—the entire cosmos—belongs to God. To be stewards of such a huge gift that is not of our own making makes us responsible-culpable—for all creation.
When I hear people say that global warming isn’t real or just a political ploy, I ask what difference does it make if it is, what harm comes from conservation and good stewardship?
We live and are embedded in nature—we are placed on this planet—given life here as God intended. Nature is more than just a use and lose backdrop for us, our existence for the air we breathe depends on our creationship (no such word, but reflective of relating to creation).
Someone once said that when God created the world and declared it very good, humans have been trying to prove God wrong ever since. Such a view comes from not only with our consumption of natural resources, pollution, and destruction of species, but also our destruction of human life itself. Such destruction comes about not only in wars, apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing, but in disregard for when human life begins –conception in the womb; for disregard for the dignity of elderly, for care of all children—especially those that are starving and going without basics and medical care. Where is the relationship to creationship in our lives?
The Trinity is creationship and teaches us how we are to live God in daily sacred life with one another and on our planet that is sacred. No news there, but do we live such lives as we have been born to live? That’s rhetorical, we all know better. And that is what it comes to for us. Knowing is culpability—responsibility.
The Holy Spirit of God—the creator God our Father and our Savior Jesus Christ-is the Trinity that holds all life together. Many of our wonderful saints saw all creation as an expression of the Trinity and love in God. St. Francis believed that all animals are made of the same love as us and worthy of heaven—with all of God’s creatures.
Salvation too is a creative life force taking us into eternity based upon a relationship in Christ. The saving work of Jesus in the world brought about great spiritual and physical healing, he brought Lazarus back to life here on earth, and claimed God’s love for all creatures: concern for a dead sparrow, or the feeding of all the birds of the air, God’s care of wildflowers, the riotous colors in nature that not even Solomon’s man made creations could match.
I’m stretching a bit here, yes, but with good reason. Until we see God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and God the Son, as calling us to a higher awareness of how sacred our lives are, we will not cherish all life here.
The reign of God is all inclusive, planet-animal, plant and human—goodness very goodness. And our relationship to one another is a reflection of how we see God—or not.
The Trinity is all about relationship. That is how God chose to create all things and how God chose to reveal who God is—three persons in relationship to one another and each of us; for we are not created to be loners. In fact, God said it in Genesis: It is not good for man to be alone.
We are made to be relational beings and to live lives of relationship involving unity, love, and trust and in creationship to all of life.
Very simply, we were baptized into the life and relationship of the Trinity—in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit--into Their Divine family --we are to live with one another as loving family members, to bring hope to the world and one another through that relationship that starts with Jesus.
Wouldn’t life be better for us if we stopped to remember how sacred each member of our family is—and how sacred every family is and how sacred our planet is and how we are sacred stewards of all life?
Trinity—is love in unity—that is not a great mystery it is a natural desire. Blessings, Fr. Gordon
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