THE HOLY TRINITY
Jesus said “When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own…He will glorify me… All that the Father has is mine”
(Jn 16:13,14,15).
There in a nutshell, is a picture of the inter-dependence of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, subsequently known as the Holy and Blessed Trinity. It is an essential doctrine of belief for Christians, but one which many find puzzling, both within and outside the faith: how can three be one, and one be three? Can the three work interchangeably and in any combination? It may sound implausible; but it does seem to work out in practice. Let me give you two more pictures- from life, as it were, and not just in theory.
This Abbey has length, breadth and height- three dimensions, one Abbey, which would be incomplete, indeed impossible, without any one of its dimensions. Similarly, if we listen to a three-note musical chord (such as a tonic triad) we should be able to discern three separate notes, which none the less blend in harmony. Nor does it have to be a static sound: if the middle note goes a semitone lower, the whole chord modulates from major to minor, changing its character.
To broaden the image somewhat, I was, as I wrote this, in a room only a couple of hundred yards from Horseguard’s Parade, where the Sovereign’s Parade – the Trooping of the Colour – was taking place (this was yesterday!). The ceremony involves soldiers from the five regiments of Foot Guards, but only one each year troops their regimental colour before the King – this year the Coldstream Guards. From a spectator’s viewpoint, all the soldiers are marching in a unified patter, albeit at times very complex; and the music blends harmoniously. Yet of course each individual has his or her distinct part to play, and the whole would not be complete without them.
To put this rather more theologically, the Early Church Father Irenaeus pictured the son and the Holy Spirit as being God’s hands. The Trinity, he says, saves God from being ultimately unknowable, entirely “other”. If God can sometimes feel remote and detached, especially in times of pain or sorrow, yet there lies hope and salve in the person of Jesus. He has shared our experiences, even the worst; he is God-as-one-of-us, suffering or rejoicing along side us. So, we as Christians do not despair of God’s presence with us, even as we hear of a terrible aeroplane crash and read of the devastation of wars. And the Spirit is God-within-us: maybe the voice of our conscience, or perhaps our means of communicating with the Father; or sometimes our guide in important decisions.
Jesus in our Gospel reading affirms to his disciples, on the night before he dies, that he shares “all that the Father has” and will send them the Holy Spirit to strengthen and support them. You see how little distinction there is between the three persons of the Trinity. They are all aspects of the same God, distinct in their functions yet unified in will and purpose. Nor are these mathematical functions: the idea of God as three-yet-one is above all a matter of personal experience and always has been. We reach out in prayer to God the Father; yet without the Son and the Holy Spirit He is ultimately unknowable. We can know him by looking at the life and teachings of Jesus, and by answering the prompting and encouragement of the Spirit. All three are active together in the full life experience of Christians; and it is a dynamic relationship, which I have illustrated here before and – if you will bear with me- shall do so again as a celestial dance routine. The three are not locked into an everlasting figure of eight with each other-heaven forfend! Rather, they are dancing something more like the Dashing White Sargeant. The Choreography in that demands that the trio of dancers face outwards, meeting, greeting and joining the dance with each successive trio on the ballroom floor. So, the relationship is not simply internal: it looks outwards towards others -dancers, players, onlookers. All are involved; all are drawn in. And that is the magic of the Trinity: it is how God draws us in. As Father, He reveals to us the Divine; as Son, we find a historical person with whom we can identify, and who identifies with us; as Spirit, He enables us to be in communion with Him and to be fired up to do His work.
Relationships give meaning to our lives, and this Trinitarian relationship is the supreme one, the pattern of all that is best in every relationship. It tells us that God is not monolithic or static, but dynamic-a dancer, not a statue- and that our relationship with Him should evolve and develop. In this Eucharist we re-affirm that communion. So let us, with St Paul, give thanks that in Jesus “we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God…because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us”. (Romans 5:2,5).