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Not
a Puzzle but a Mystery
June
6, 2004
Fr.
George Smiga
John
16:12-15
The
Trinity is not a puzzle. It is a mystery. And those are two
very different things. A puzzle has an answer. It is something
that you try to figure out, something that you attempt to
understand. A mystery has no answer. You cannot understand
it because it is greater than you are, something beyond your
grasp. You cannot comprehend a mystery, but you can appreciate
it. Like a great piece of music it takes you deeper. You cannot
solve a mystery, but you can stand before it and allow it
to lead you to contemplation. Like beholding a beautiful sunset,
it can move your soul.
So
as we gather together today to celebrate the mystery of the
Holy Trinity it would be foolish to try to explain it and
impossible to understand it. All we can do is stand before
this description of God's life and ask, “How does it deepen
us? How does it reveal the truth about God and about ourselves?”
Even doing that is difficult. For any effort to express the
dogma of the Trinity is contrary to human logic. But I am
going to give it a shot.
We
believe that the Trinity reveals to us the very life of God.
This is important because God is the source of all things
and so everything that exists is somehow reflective of God,
reflective of the Trinity. The Trinity tells us that God is
one, that there are no parts and pieces to God. Like our brothers
and sisters in Judaism and Islam, we are monotheists. We believe
that God is simple, perfect, one. Now that much is something
that you can at least get you mind around. However, the next
piece totally complicates it. Because we as Christians believe
in Christ, and because we believe that Christ is God, and
because we believe that Christ is not the Father, or the Spirit,
Christians believe that there are three persons in God: Father,
Son, and Spirit. We believe that the Father is God, that the
Son is God, and that the Spirit is God. But we believe that
the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father,
and neither the Father nor the Son is the Spirit. And yet
there is one perfect, simple God.
Confused?
We certainly are if we approach the Trinity as a puzzle, trying
to figure it out. But what would happen if we approached it
as a mystery? What would happen if we stood before it and
allowed it to lead us deeper? If we asked, “What does the
Trinity tell us about God? What does the Trinity tell us about
ourselves?” Now when we ask that question there is no one
answer. It would be like standing in front of a sunset and
saying, “What does this mean?” It could mean many things,
and in some ways it means all things. But just for the focus
of today's liturgy, let me offer one possibility of how the
Trinity speaks to our lives.
The
Trinity tells us that there is a contrast in God between oneness
and personhood. God is totally one, and yet the persons of
Father, Son, and Spirit do not lose their distinctiveness.
Since God is the model for all things, the Trinity invites
us to mirror a similar contrast in our own lives. What the
Trinity is telling us is that if we are going to love deeply
we must have within ourselves a tension between our union
with others, our oneness, and our own personhood, our individuality.
The
Trinity tells us that if we are going to love deeply, we cannot
live life alone, we must seek oneness with others. Relationships
are essential in order to live a full life. But at the same
time, the Trinity says that, as we seek that union, we can
not lose our own personalities or individual characteristics.
Even as we seek union with others, those things that make
us unique cannot be forgotten.
The
mystery of the Trinity implies that all healthy human love
will experience this tension between oneness and personhood.
Spouses seek intimacy and yet that intimacy cannot involve
the loss of their own personal identities. Parents love their
children but must try to do so without smothering them. Children
seek their own independence but at the same time must maintain
a connection with their parents. Friends move towards closeness
yet cannot do so by denying the differences that make them
unique. If we are going to be fully alive and deeply in love,
we must somehow mirror this tension between oneness and individuality.
Now,
each one of us will find ourselves in a different place across
that tension. Some people are very good at being independent
and appreciating their own uniqueness. The Trinity would lead
them towards greater unity with others, inviting them to build
relationships. Others might constantly be giving themselves
in service for others. What the Trinity would call them to
appreciate their own individuality and to give voice to their
own uniqueness.
The
Trinity is not a puzzle. It is a mystery, a mystery that applies
to us. Let us listen, then, to the call of the Trinity. Let
us see in it an invitation to love others deeply and, at the
same time, preserve and treasure our own selves. We can find
in the Trinity a model for ourselves, a way of loving deeper
and of living better.
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