Just a word before we go...Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity...June 4, 2023

The celebration of the Trinity always brings to my mind Andre Rublev’s icon of the Trinity, which offers us a glimpse into the inner life of God, in which Father, Son and Holy Spirit abide in an endless circle of self-giving love.  Images can only go so far in helping us to understand who our God is.  But images, similes and metaphors are the tools that artists, theologians and homilists employ to open our imaginations, that we might reflect on our creative, redeeming and inspiring God. 

This icon not only depicts the essence of God’s life, it goes further, by inviting us all into that endless circle of self-giving love, reminding us that we were created in the image and likeness of God.  An array of implications is suggested; for our purposes, the primacy of relationship speaks loudly.  The equality of the figures with the heads inclined toward one another in a listening pose, show respect and love toward one another; this is a model for relationships, human and beyond. The hallmarks of the way of life shown in the icon are respect, mutuality, equality and love.

But there’s more...we have learned that “Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We have to stop pretending we are individuals that can go it alone,” so says Margaret Wheatly, an expert in leadership and community building.

We may have learned about the related nature of the universe in recent times; however, that truth seems to have been intuited by a fifteenth century iconographer, probably through his own lived experience.  Humans need relationships to be whole; it is intrinsic to our nature. And this is one of the ways in which we mirror the relationships of the Trinity. 

I suspect that the more we realize how much of a mirror we are, or we can be, the more driven we will be to nourish others...with our presence, with the necessities of life, or with a simple phone call.  Pope Francis says, “God, who is the author of life, is transmitted not so much through books as through the witness of life.  We are to live as a reflection of God’s love.”  And we are to do this in our families, in our communities and in our world.  Glancing at or gazing upon Rublev’s “Trinity” can remind us of this sacred calling.