Trinity is all about relationship.

I would like to share my thoughts with you about this beautiful icon which hangs in the foyer of our aged care facility in Melbourne. Modelled on the Andrei Rublev 15th Century Russian icon ‘The Trinity’, this icon by Judith Mehr in 2016, invites us not only to come to the table, sit awhile and listen to the conversation, but also to reach out to comfort Omran, the young Syrian refugee. We are lured into this deep centre of persons with compassion and reassuring gentleness to this bloodied, tiny child.  He sits, embraced in the warmth of the three persons we call the one God.   Each one of us is invited to sit within this divine circle to join in the flow of mutual friendship and love.

Where would you put yourself in this picture?

Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury reminds us that the place ‘where God happens’  is ‘between each other’. [1] Where is that daily place where God happens for us in our neighbourhoods, with refugees, in church or where humanity is celebrated or diminished?

I feel grateful to the late Fr Denis Edwards who presented lectures to delegates at the 2013 General Chapter. From my notes I read again of how he spoke of Richard of St Victor of the 12th Century who referred to the Trinity as Father as Lover, the Son as the Beloved and the Holy Spirit as the love between them. He went on to explore the giving nature of God’s own self, the movement of mutual love and the experience of friendship as ways of understanding God.  God is always Trinity, beings giving and receiving; always Communion – always in motion.

Richard Rohr, in his recent online reflections on the Trinity writes:

Whatever is going on in God is a flow, a radical relatedness, a perfect communion between Three – a circle dance of love.  God is absolute friendship.  God is not just the dancer; God is the dance itself. [3]

‘God moves towards us so that we may move toward each other and thereby toward God. The way God comes to us is also our way to God and to each other: through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is our faith, confessed in creed and celebrated in the sacraments.’ [4]

What does this faith feel like when we live it?

Kerrie Cusack rsj

Footnotes:
[1] Rohan Williams: Where God Happens: Discovering Christ in One Another, New Seeds, Boston. 2005
[2] Simon Pedro Arnold OSB: LCWR Assembly 2018
[3] Richard Rohr: Daily Meditation, Trinity 5 May 2019  Meditations@cac.org
[4] Richard Rohr: Meditation, Practical Participation 13 May 2019  Meditations@cac.org

Painting entitled:“Omran Angels are Here’’  by Judith Mehr. Donated by Br Mark O’Connor on behalf of the O’Connor family in April 2017, provided by Kerrie Cusack rsj. Used with permission.