God is not a shamrock. Nor is God two men and a bird. God is not a father in any literal sense, nor a son, nor a spirit in any literal sense. God is neither male nor female. God is not even "god" in any literal sense. Our word "god" comes from the ancient Sanskrit word meaning "day."
St. Thomas Aquinas said the only way we can talk about God is by analogy. St. Augustine said, "When you have understood, then what you have understood is not God." Words about God can only point rather than enclose.
We are sometimes afraid to talk about the Holy Trinity lest we end up in heresy. Once we realize, however, that no ideas are adequate, that frees us up to find images and metaphors and analogies that help us to get some glimmer of understanding that is essential for growing in our relationship with God.
This year's first reading for Trinity Sunday from Exodus 34:4-9 is a powerful reminder that the feast is about one God. The earliest Christians began to talk about their experience of this one and only God in a three-fold way as beyond them, with them, and within them, that is, as utterly transcendent, as present historically in the person of Jesus, and as present in the Spirit within their community. These were all encounters with only one God.
No comments:
Post a Comment