June 4, 2023

Sister Therese O’Grady shares a reflection. Scripture readings: Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18

A story I used to tell the children about the Trinity is that Augustine was at the seashore one day and he saw a little boy digging a hole in the sand. He would take his little pail and run to the water, fill it, run back to the hole and pour the water into it.

Augustine watched this procedure for a while then, feeling quite superior to the child, he said “Little boy, what are you doing?”  The little boy looked up at him and said, “I am going to empty all of that water into this hole!”

Of course, Augustine, with all his knowledge of the things of God said, “Little boy, that is not possible.” At that moment a great glow surrounded the boy and he replied, “Augustine, neither can you understand who God is in the Trinity.” Then the boy disappeared.

Thomas Aquinas is another man of the church who had some thoughts about great mysteries such as the Trinity. Since I believe what the little boy said to Augustine, I’m going to share some of Thomas’ thoughts from a contemporary theologian, Walter Principe, CSB, since I don’t have any of my own!

“When we are…constantly being loved into existence within the very divine trinitarian love and fashioned through graced knowledge and love into images of the Trinity, we are so constituted in our very being and powers, Thomas (Aquinas) teaches, that we have not only a natural capacity for such a divine-like (supernatural) existence and life but also a necessary drive implanted within us by God. Therefore, whether consciously or not, we are always seeking God as our only true beatitude, our only ultimate good or end. The gift of existence given us, within and by God’s knowledge and love, implants in us an affective thirst to see and enjoy God perfectly, a thirst that can never be satisfied by any creaturely good. This inborn thirst, derived from knowledge, is the root source of human free choice, an essential component of any spirituality. Affectivity is at the center of all human striving for beatitude.” Walter Principe, CSB, “Affectivity and the Heart in Thomas Aquinas’ Spirituality,” Peoples Companion Breviary, Vol II, p. 333

There was a woman who lived a few hundred years after Augustine and Thomas Aquinas who also had some exquisite thoughts about this mystery that we celebrate today. You know her as Julian of Norwich.

“Greatly ought we to rejoice that God dwells in our soul; and more greatly ought we to rejoice that our soul dwells in God…And I saw no difference between God and our substance, but, as it were, all God; and still my understanding accepted that our substance is in God, that is to say that God is God, and our substance is a creature in God. For the almighty truth of the Trinity is our Father, for he made us and keeps us in him. And the deep wisdom of the Trinity is our Mother, in whom we are enclosed. And the high goodness of the Trinity is our Lord, and in him we are enclosed and he in us.” Julian of Norwich, Showings. Peoples Companion Breviary, Vol II, p. 330

Another woman, a contemporary biblical scholar, Mahri Leonard-Fleckman, has this to say about the Trinity.

“What we know about the Trinity, we know through relationships. After the Israelites’ grave misstep in Exodus, Moses pleads with God to forgive them and inherit them again as God’s treasured people. This story is our own, reminding us that our God is a compassionate and ever-forgiving God who is always present among us and between us, drawing us into relationship. As Christians, we experience this relationship through the Trinity, which theologians have likened to a “dance” or “choreography” (Greek perichoresis). The Trinity dances in and around us, pulling us into the divine embrace through the greatness of God, the humanity of the Son, and the Spirit that breathes us into union. The Trinity calls us tirelessly to join this dance through our own relationships and commitments. How are you being called into relationship this week.” Mahri Leonard-Fleckman. Ponder. Contemplative Bible Study Cycle A.

The week in which we celebrate Trinity Sunday offers an opportune transition from the season of Easter to the season of Ordinary Time. As we who have journeyed with different communities during the weeks following Easter begin to ponder the ways in which God dwells in ordinary days and spaces, Trinity Sunday captures images of both: the God who is communal by nature showing forth in the dailiness of life.