Tag: Trinity (Page 1 of 2)

The Mystery of the Trinity

June 6, 2018 / MSFriend / 1 Comment

Trinity

Have you ever struggled with understanding the mystery of the Holy Trinity? I know I have. The concept of one thing being three is difficult for a simple human mind to fathom.

Many questions come to mind when I think of the Trinity. How can one person be three? Can the same person be the Father and the Son? As difficult as the Trinity is to understand, this is exactly what faith is all about. Faith is not only believing in something we can’t see. It is also believing in something we may NEVER understand.

I once saw an interview given by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk, where he attempted to explain the Holy Trinity. In that interview he compared the different persons of the Trinity to different forms of water in order to illustrate how one thing can take three different forms. His explanation was beautiful. What he said was just like water can become ice and steam, so the Trinity, the one thing, is three. That explanation made sense to me. It provided clarification.

As I continued on my spiritual journey, thirsting for the Lord and seeking true holiness, I began meditating more. I was able to quiet my mind for longer periods of time as I progressed in my practice. As a result, I began to see God in all things. My ability to see Him in the people I meet, in the books that I read, in the movies I watch and in nature itself grew.

I found myself contemplating God’s word, daily routines, relationships and the mysteries of my faith. As I journeyed on, I was no longer looking for others to give me answers. I was seeking to be still long enough to hear the answers directly from God. By the grace of God, one day as I was sitting in stillness, a profound explanation of the Trinity came to me. I hope you find it enlightening and as profound as I did when it came to me. So here it goes:

In the summer of 2014, my husband and I took our niece and nephew to the drive-in for a double feature. One of the movies we saw was Lucy starring Scarlett Johannsen. The movie itself was not one I desired to see but the kids wanted to see it so we obliged. The premise of the movie was scientific and revolved around the fact that human beings use only 10% of their brain capacity. In the movie, the protagonist ingests blue crystals which slowly leak into her bloodstream, increase her brain power and gradually poison her.

By the end of the movie Lucy is able to use 100% brain capacity. The instant this happens she explodes and disappears into thin air. Shortly after her disappearance, another one of the characters receives a text from Lucy which states “I AM EVERYWHERE.” The first thing that came to my mind when I saw that was GOD – but that was the extent of my thought that night.

For some reason I could not get the scene of the movie out of my head for weeks. I began to question the bigger meaning. The Holy Spirit was stirring within me and would not let it go. I couldn’t understand why that movie (that particular part) kept popping into my head when I didn’t even think it was so good.

Then several weeks later, as I sat in my recliner still and contemplative it hit me. God is everywhere. God is omniscient and omnipotent, all-knowing and all-powerful. He is, like Lucy, the only one in the universe that uses 100% brain capacity. God is everywhere because of that.

The more I sat with this idea of God using 100% brain capacity and being everywhere, the more I thought about the Trinity and one thing being three. I realized that we humans (one) are made up of three things – body (flesh), mind (brain) and soul (spirit). Bingo! So it is with God. If we are made in the image and likeness of God, then God must also be made of mind, body and soul. We believe God is everywhere. He is everywhere because He uses 100% brain capacity. So He is the “mind” of the Trinity. We believe Jesus is the Word made flesh so He is the body, the flesh of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Trinity. That is what came to me during contemplation.

Sometimes we ask the same questions that have been asked for centuries. We accept the answers that have been given for centuries without asking God to give us a new set of eyes and ears, to renew the Spirit within us to understand what is before us. We ask how one thing can be three when, in fact, we human beings are three things in one. Scripture says seek and you will find, ask and it will be given, knock and the door will be opened. Keep faith brothers and sisters. Depend on the Lord for guidance. You too have the answers to many of life’s questions. You just have to sit still long enough to hear the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

I have to say, one of my favorite pieces of advice to give is ‘just go with the flow”. It’s my life’s motto. I see the “flow” as God’s hand guiding me and I know God will never steer me wrong. Looking back on the night I went to the drive-in, it was another one of those times I “went with the flow.” Both movies of the double feature were not movies I would have run to see. As a matter of fact, I remember being torn about staying to see Lucy. It wasn’t a must see for me.

The Lord works in mysterious ways and I love it when His plan comes together. The joy and awe I feel when I think of how God enlightened me on the Trinity brings tears to my eyes! All I can say is don’t resist the joy God has planned for you, don’t resist the answers God has at the ready. BE STILL and GO WITH THE FLOW!

Making Christianity Relevant Again

January 2, 2017 / MSFriend / 0 Comments

The Lord Bless You!

Making Christianity relevant again. Isn’t that what all Christians want? Yesterday’s first reading at mass was from the Book of Numbers 6: 22-27. It reads: The Lord said to Moses: “Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them: This is how you shall bless the Israelites. Say to them: The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace! So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them.”

At the time, the Israelites were a “stiff-necked” people. Regardless, God had a plan to turn their attention back to Him and to bless them. Today, we are surrounded by many whom we can liken to the Israelites of Moses’ day. This passage should make us hopeful that positive changes are possible. It should also help us realize our priestly role in society. We too, like Aaron, can invoke God’s name upon His people today and He will bless them. Isn’t that encouraging?

I think of all the people in need of prayer, searching for peace. I carry their names in my heart. Now, with great hope and humility I pray this prayer, simple yet profound, confident that God will bless them and give them peace.

I often recommend Richard Rohr’s books and his website Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org). I subscribe to his daily meditations and would highly recommend them, if you’re not already subscribed. Each year he chooses a theme and his meditations for the year coincide with that theme. This year’s theme is “rebuilding from the bottom up.” To follow (in italics) is yesterday’s meditation. I hope it inspires you to subscribe to cac.org. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Making Christianity Relevant again

What will make a difference to the future is awakening to a faith that fully communicates God’s love—a love that transforms how we believe, what we do, and who we are in the world. —Diana Butler Bass [1]

Our religion is not working well. Another year has ended—a new year begins—in which suffering, fear, violence, injustice, greed, and meaninglessness still abound. This is not even close to the reign of God that Jesus taught. And we must be frank: in their behavior and impact upon the world, Christians are not much different than other people.
The majority of Christians are not highly transformed people, but tend to reflect their own culture more than they operate as any kind of leaven within it. I speak especially of American Christians, because I am one. But if you are from another country, look at the Christians where you live and see if the same is true there.
Let’s be honest: religion has probably never had such a bad name. Christianity is now seen as “irrelevant” by many and often as part of the problem more than any kind of solution. Some of us are almost embarrassed to say we are Christian because of the negative images that word conjures in others’ minds. Young people especially are turned off by how judgmental, exclusionary, impractical, and ineffective Christian culture seems to be. The church seems hostile toward most science (the objective outer world) and thus unable to talk about its inner dimensions with any authority. As we saw in the recent U.S. election, Christians overall showed little prophetic or compassionate presence.
Most Christians have not been taught how to plug into the “mind of Christ;” thus they often reflect the common mind of power, greed, and war instead. The dualistic mind reads reality in simple binaries—good and bad, right and wrong—and thinks itself smart because it chooses one side. This is getting us nowhere.
Throughout the history of Christianity, it would seem Jesus’ teaching has had little impact, except among people who surrendered to great love and great suffering. Could this be the real core of the Gospel? Such people experience God rather than merely having disconnected ideas about God. We need the mind of mystics now to offer any kind of alternative—contemplative or nondual—consciousness. We need practice-based religion that teaches us how to connect with the Infinite in ways that actually change us from our finite perspectives.
We must rediscover what St. Francis called the “marrow of the Gospel.” It’s time to rebuild from the bottom up. If the foundation is not solid and sure, everything we try to build on top of it is weak and ineffective. Perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise that so much is tumbling down around us. It’s time to begin again. This will be our new Daily Meditation theme: rebuilding from the bottom up.

Auspiciously, this year is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s important attempts at reform.
In the year 1205, Jesus spoke to Francis through the San Damiano cross: “Francis, rebuild my church, for you see it is falling into ruin.” If Jesus himself says the church is falling into ruin, I guess we can admit it also without being accused of being negative or unbelieving. Maybe we have to admit it for anything new and good to happen.
Through these daily reflections I will delve into the meaning of Christianity’s powerful “first principles,” or essential elements, in this order: God as Trinity, the Cosmic Christ, the life and teaching of Jesus, and other teachings of Incarnational and Mystical Christianity. Even if you aren’t Christian, I hope you will find universal principles here that you can apply to your own spiritual journey. – Richard Rohr, January 1, 2017 cac.org