SUNDAY BIBLETALK

Excerpt from

JESUS

THE HOLY FOOL

EAS, Sheed & Ward, 1999

In the early church, candidates for Baptism were taught creeds not as a test of orthodoxy but as "summaries of faith." The creeds varied in wording according to their place of origin; however, they agreed in content, for all made statements about God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. They did not mention the word "Trinity" explicitly but they told the Christian story-- a story with Three Protagonists which reveals something about who God is and what God has done. It is a story filled with absurdity, one which demonstrates how the very Power of God was willing to humble itself and become vulnerable for the sake of wayward humankind; it is only in this respect that Trinitarian arithmetic can be said to be absurd.

And the story tells of a God --God from all eternity-- who created the heavens, the earth and the seas and all things that are in them out of nothing but the Creative Word. This God, in accordance with promises spoken through the prophets, sent the Word to become one of us, to be made flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary; and this Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, preached a new law and a new promise of God's reign among us. He taught, healed, worked miracles and then was crucified, suffering in reality and not just in appearance, dying our common death; then, on the third day, he rose from the dead, later ascending to God's right hand, leaving us the Holy Spirit to guide us, befriend us, and teach us how to live as he taught us.

Absurd as the arithmetic may be, as "foolish" as the actions of the Trinity are by the world's standards, the Trinity cannot be removed from the Christian experience. Our sacred stories are based on God's actions among us as Creator, Savior and Sanctifier. Even our sacred seasons and liturgical observances are based on the reality of the Trinity. How can we celebrate Christmas, for example, if we omit Creator and Son? How can we understand the great liturgical cycle extending from Ash Wednesday to Pentecost if we omit the Holy Spirit?

To ignore one of the characters is to change the story; to focus on the person of Jesus only as a "role model" is to observe a form of monotheism that can hardly be called Christian.

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PRAY

That sanity will prevail

and that all those suffering

on account of the war

in Ukraine

will find the comfort

and resources they need.

Greetings, SBT Readers:

If the Feast of the Holy Trinity invites us to participate in the Divine Mystery, why is it that so many of us miss the invitation? Just as the Creator, Savior and Sanctifier are One, so we, too, have the ever-present opportunity to enter this dance of intimacy and become part of this union. The very Oneness of God holds the space for all of humanity and yet few preachers or teachers communicate this message. The faithful are more likely to hear about St. Patrick's use of the shamrock to explain unity in pluralism (three Persons/ One God) than they are to learn that God desires us to enter the Trinitarian Love union. Or perhaps they will listen yet again to St. Augustine's vision of a child attempting to capture the entire ocean in his small bucket

-- just as we are incapable of understanding the Mystery of the Holy Trinity, the task of draining the ocean is simply too big because the bucket is too small.

While analogies can be helpful, they sometimes distract us from deeper exploration -- unless, that is, we ask the right questions: if the Holy Trinity is the vastest of oceans, what is preventing us from diving in and becoming one with the water? If the Holy Trinity is ethereal harmony, the music of the spheres, how can we attune our souls to the melody? And if the Holy Trinity is an eternal dance of Love, are we ready to put on our dance shoes or dance barefoot?

Many Blessings!

Elizabeth

SCRIPTURE REFLECTION

Link to the Sunday Readings

Brothers and sisters, rejoice.

Mend your ways, encourage one another,

agree with one another, live in peace,

and the God of love and peace will be with you.

Greet each other with a holy kiss.

All the saints greet you.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

and the love of God

and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

2 Cor 13:11-13

In last week's commentary, I observed that while Christians profess to be Trinitarian, most of us tend to forget the presence of the Holy Spirit, directing our private prayer to God the Father/Mother, to Jesus, Mary or one of the saints, depending upon what is going on in our lives. While we cross ourselves in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and while we recite the Creed at public liturgy, we tend to treat the Trinity as an archaic symbol best left to the interpretation of theologians. The concept of "Three-in-One" is so remote from daily life that we are content to focus on Two of the Three-- "God" and Jesus-- and usually not at the same time. Far from relating to the Trinity, we simply believe in it without quite knowing what it is we actually believe. Conveniently, our Second Reading from 2 Cor 13:11-13 holds the key to a Trinitarian spirituality:

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

and the love of God

and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit

be with all of you.

Here, in his concluding words to the Christian community in Corinth, Paul blesses the people in the name of the Trinity; at the same time, he distinguishes the Three Persons and their actions:

* Jesus is the bestower of GRACE. As the Incarnate Word who suffered, died, was buried and rose again, he is the source of cleansing, healing, mercy and forgiveness. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, the One who calls us by name to be Light for the world, no matter how far we have wandered from the path. He is our companion and guide, teacher, friend, Bread for the journey, refreshment for our souls, sacrament of God's love, the Beloved One...

* God -- understood here as Creator/ Father/ Mother-- is LOVE; or, to re-frame this, Love is God-- pure Love, infinite Love, omnipresent Love, omniscient Love, omnipotent Love, self-emptying Love, vulnerable Love, incarnate Love, passionate Love, Motherly Love, Fatherly Love, begetting Love, birthing Love, nurturing Love, unconditional Love, transforming Love, incomprehensible Love, Lover of the Beloved One...

* The Holy Spirit invites us into FELLOWSHIP, into community with each other and communion with God and Jesus, forming us through gifts of wisdom, understanding, courage, and discernment; burning away our ignorance with the fire of Divine Love; awakening us from our slumber; giving life to dry bones and inspiring the weakest amongst us to dream, have visions and prophesy...

Grace, Love and Fellowship are a single reality, a single experience and a single invitation. We cannot relate to Jesus unless we know God's Love and the Fellowship of the Spirit; nor can we know God's Love without experiencing the grace of the Risen Christ; nor will we have the capacity to respond to power of God bestowed on us by the Holy Spirit without Love and Grace. Seen from this perspective, the Trinity is both indivisible and all-encompassing; far from being an archaeological remnant, it is the well-spring of our faith.

QUESTIONS

FOR REFLECTION

* In what ways do you honor the presence of the Trinity in your life?

* How can you invite the Trinity to be central to your life?

* Which Person of the Blessed Trinity do you find most relatable?

* How does the Blessed Trinity manifest in your life?

UPCOMING COURSES/ WORKSHOPS

From VUCA to BANI: Strategies for Navigating a Changing World

Infinity Foundation

August 9th, 7:00-9:00 p.m.

Zoom. Details TBA.

Lazarus and the Rich Man: Archetypes of Agony and Entitlement

Parliament of the World's Religions

Chicago, August 17, 2023; 4:00 p.

McCormick Place, Hall E Room 7

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RESOURCES

Try my Spiritual Self-Assessment Tool! After you take the Quiz, you will automatically receive a computer-generated analysis of your strengths and "growing edges." 

https://assess.coach/eastewart/

Please note that I offer: Workshops | Retreats | Life Coaching | Coach Mentoring | Spiritual Direction | Writing Coaching



www.elizabeth-annestewart.com; www.ChicagoWritingCoach.com

Dr. Elizabeth-Anne Stewart | www.elizabeth-annestewart.com | [email protected]

C. All Photos by Elizabeth-Anne Stewart, www.artfulphotographer.com