Imagine this: there is a monk who gets up in the middle of the night to pray. He lights his lamp and sits alone in the dark with God. The next day he spends in silence thinking about God the whole time. He fasts because he wants to become completely dependent on God. When he goes to Church he silently meditates on the presence of God. His last thought putting his head down to sleep is about God. Imagine a different scene: a mother wakes up in the middle of the night because she hears her child crying. As she jumps out of bed she thinks, Dear Lord, I hope nothing is wrong. The next morning on her way to work she remembers the repairs her car needs and utters a silent prayer that it makes it home again. She comes rushing in from work to get supper prepared and when they finally sit down to eat the family is able to say grace together. Before putting on the TV to relax she throws some clothes in the washing machine thanking God she doesn’t have to tote laundry to the laundromat. Before lying down next to her husband to get some rest they talk about the blessing of making through the day. Two scenes, two very different kinds of spirituality. But my question: which is a specifically Trinitarian spirituality?
The question is particularly relevant on this, Trinity Sunday. This is the specific occasion during the year when the Church asks us to think about, reflect on, ponder the very nature of God. Usually we notice the mighty deeds of God – the creation of all things before time began, the liberation of a people from slavery through the Red Sea, the sending of the Son of God into the world, the redemption won for us on the cross, the ongoing presence of God in our hearts. But on this Sunday we focus not on the gift, but on the giver. The experience the Church has taught us of the triune nature of God: God loved the world so much he sent us Jesus to bridge the gap between divinity and humanity and God continues to be with us as a Spirit of love and compassion. So we have come to know God not as sitting on the divine throne throwing thunderbolts. No, God just in being God is a relationship of love. That is what we are saying when we name God as the Holy Trinity.
So to go back to our imaginary scenarios: Our supposed monk is going to have a problem connecting with God. There is a spiritual tradition that looks on the path to God as the “alone being with the alone.” But this can be futile for God is not alone. God is a relationship of love. So the monk will have a difficult time coming to encounter God since he is not doing so as part of a relationship. (And that is why early on the monks formed monasteries, communities, so that they would have to form relationships of love which would help them on their spiritual journey.) The other story: our supposed working mother might not be putting in the kind of silent prayer time that the monk was but because she is in a web of relationships she is more in tune with the Triune God. You see, Church, God is not found on some lonely mountaintop journey on some exotic, windswept island. God is found, when we have the eyes to see, in those relationships of love that are part of the providence of our everyday life. A better image (icon!) of God then that lofty throne would be a family, people who have entered into a relationship of love.
Since the Bible does not use the word “Trinity” specifically we use the scripture to provide us with some descriptions of the divine life which will, in turn, help us to model our lives on that of the Trinity. For example, in the Gospel of St. John we find Jesus talking about the “Spirit of Truth,” talking about the glory of the Father, talking about the Word which he brought as the Son of God. In other words, the persons of the Trinity are not identical, not clones, not indistinguishable. Rather their oneness, their unity, comes out of their otherness. We model the love of the Trinity when we let the other be other. We don’t all think alike or have the same opinions, or root for the same ball team. We are other from one another. We have a Trinitarian spirituality when we love one other even in our otherness.
In the epistle, St. Paul gives us another characteristic of Trinitarian spirituality: hope. “Hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Hope is hard to come by at times when division and disunity seem to pull apart of families, our church, our nation. But since the very foundation of creation is the love of the Trinity, then we know that we are made of love. Scientists like to say we are made up of star dust. We know better. We are made of, and for, love. Divvying the world up into people that I love and people that I don’t love is not what God intends. God made us as one people, the people of God, so we have hope that the love of God will break down all the barriers that keep us apart.
The Old Testament lesson gives a surprising aspect of Trinitarian spirituality: play. “I was his delight day by day, playing before him all the while, playing on the surface of the earth, and I found delight in the human race.” We usually think of play as the work of children. When educators look at children playing they find play allows for the development of cooperation. It teaches children to share. And in play children learn how to communicate with one another. When children play they must learn how to resolve conflicts and develop respect for rules and the opinions of others. Not a bad skill set to have. Playing reflects the life of the Trinity, therefore, in how it creates rich ways of being together. We see this best in one particular kind of play – dancing. I am not talking about the dancing that I knew as a teen-ager where everyone piled on the dance floor and just kind of moved around. Rather, think of something like Folklorico dances for Mexico or the barn dance of rural America. With those stylized movements and gestures a sense of belonging to something beautiful happens. That kind of play reflects the love of the Trinity. That can be a true spirituality. So to deepen your Trinitarian Spirituality, go play!