Divine Relationships

I had to be very young, perhaps three or four years old.  My mother taught me the gestures of what’s called “the sign of the cross” and to say the words, “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”  I liked ghosts.  I grew up with Casper the Friendly Ghost, so I knew what ghosts were all about!

I was older when I learned the concept of God as a trinity of three persons.  When I began to study theology, I read all I could to understand this concept of Trinity.  I learned that after writing an extensive treatise on the Trinity Thomas Aquinas threw his writing into the fire. In frustration, he said that no one could understand the Trinity.  Today, I don’t agree with much of what Aquinas wrote, but he was spot on with his conclusion that a deity comprised of three persons is beyond our grasp.  In time, I learned more theology, including contemporary theologies, and my understanding began to expand.

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (Spirit) …. those aren’t words I use today to describe the deity I’ve encountered.  Trinity…well, perhaps, but not in a traditional sense.  What rings true to me is that I know and experience the Divine as a relationship.


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Rooted in the simple yet profoundly deep statement by John the Evangelist is his first letter, I have come to understand that God is love.  The love which is the Divine appears to me to have two different dimensions.  The first dimension is self-love or the inner life of God.  In the sixth century, Maximus the Confessor explained that the Father and Son are so enraptured in love with each other that their breath becomes one.  That breath is the animation of the life-creating Spirit. The life-creating Spirit is what the Hebrew writers of the Bible called the ruah  (the breath or Spirit of God which is the source of the cosmos).  It’s a beautiful image and similar to the one depicted in the icon of the Trinity in which three angels sit in peace at a table sharing a simple meal.  The three figures are joined in a kind of mutuality and are clearly in relationship with each other.

The other dimension of the love which is God involves us as well as all of the cosmos.  Yes, it is God’s love for you and me and everything that exists.  The ruah, the breath or Spirit of God, could not be contained within the Divine Being.  Instead, it broke forth and became the Source of Creation and continues to sustain all life.  The life-creating Spirit holds the cosmos in being and permeates it.  Because of this, we are able to encounter the Divine deep within us as well as in others and in all of nature.

As I speak with people about their experience of the spiritual dimension of life, there is often a kind of testimony about the Divine presence which is encountered in nature, through animals, or with others.  People often share how learning to breathe mindfully in yoga or meditation draws their awareness to something Divine within them.  Those who take time to develop regular spiritual practice become more aware of the life-creating spirit within and around them.  They also begin to experience a deeper union with a Presence greater than themselves.

Experiencing deeper union with a Presence greater than self:  this is something the icon of the Trinity attempts to depict.  The three angels are seated at a table with four sides: one side of the table is left open and faces the person viewing the icon.  It’s an invitation to sit at the table and share the meal in communion with the angels who represent the Divine.  The image of the icon is meant to draw us deeper into an intimate relationship with the Holy One who is the Source of our Being, the Eternal Word (the ruah) which continues to create, and the Holy Spirit which sustains all life.


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In the end, I’ve come to understand that the Divine is all about relationship.  It’s a relationship which gives birth and animates the cosmos.  It’s a relationship which is the source of re-birth for us when opening ourselves to the profound love who is God.

 

 

 

Photo by Jim Forest  on Trendhype / CC BY-NC-ND

2 thoughts on “Divine Relationships”

  1. I think everyone agrees this is an almost impossible idea. I wonder if you have read the book or seen the film of ‘The Shack’ – not everyone’s cup of tea, but in a kind of populist way, it does as well as anyone else I am aware of to explore the idea of ‘three in one and one in three’!

  2. What the Trinity means is that the essence of God is not “divinity” but “relationship” or “intimacy”. Also, that “the image” of God in humanity is not “reason”. Instead, it is in relationships of deepest intimacy that one most completely imitates and experiences the true God and Lord of all. The first marriage in the Garden of Eden portraits a life of intimacy; The Fall portrays the loss of intimacy; but the great Marriage Supper of Lamb at the end of time portrays the recovery of intimacy between God and man and man with man! Developers of relationships of ever deepening intimacy are those who will most fully live the life and do the work of God! Despite the incredible inventions and awesome works of modern man, this great monument to human ability is built on a crumbling foundation because all of this world is built without the most essential ingredient…INTIMACY!


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