98 days and counting later: trinity sunday and after

how do we know "god"?  what do we mean or begin to mean by that three-letter word, these days as often as not profaned by a three-letter abbreviation that is popular with young girls when they see particularly unusual shoes, or receive a surprising tweet?

for the christian church, the answer is the holy one who has self-revealed as three persons, the son whom we have known in the man jesus, the father of the son, and the spirit who proceeds from the father, whose arrival amidst the church we celebrated last week at the festival of pentecost.  and we can know him because he has revealed himself and in the ways that he has revealed himself.

this is dogma,  which we so often forget is not something which and only which must be believed to be "go to heaven," but as even wikepedia notices, is rooted, in a greek word that means the best we can imagine.  so we do the best we can, and use the  the words of the athanasian creed.  if we would be whole, holy,( the concept behind the latin word salvus which transliterates into our english "saved")  what we "need before all things" is the catholic faith.  for us, this is good news:  the holy one, the almighty, the creator of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen, shows himself to us as a communion of love.

you know how we have belittled such understanding in our modern, self-centered way of looking at things.  (indeed, has it ever been otherwise?)  the door bell rings, and there's the (undeniably brave and probably sincere) man in the cheap suit and unfashionable tie holding a hand-full of tracts containing the 12-step program to salvation and the niv translation of the gospel according to john.  "are you saved?"   i try to invite such folks in for a nice cup of tea and a discussion of why one would want to be saved.  because i always answer, "yes, but do you know what for?"  the quote from the gospel according to john that makes is so convenient for the man with the tracts is of course "3:16."  i see those numbers on bumper stickers or window decals of sub's and giant pick-up trucks and the usually rather large t-shirts of harley-davidson riders.  it has become a short-hand for our misunderstanding of the good news, a reduction of the whole of the wonders of the creation and sanctification  of the whole of creation, to one of st. anselm's sentenced--although i suspect that few of the people with the bumper sticker/t-shirt theologies would know about the castratti's sentences

eternal life.  that's what jesus tells nicodemus people who believe in the son of god will have.  that's what it says in the final verse, the 15th verse, of the gospel reading for trinity sunday, and of course it is repeated like the theme in a song in the 16th verse.  and the theme returns in the seventh chapter of the gospel, with the third verse:  "and this is life eternal, that they might know god, and jesus christ whom thou  whom thou hast sent."  now jesus said these words in a prayer as he began 'the one oblation of himself once-offered' because he recognized that they would soon experience the same contempt from the world as he did, that their witness to them would cost them their lives.  a martyr is literally, a witness.  so this eternal life would be a mystery from the beginning.  we certainly seem to die.  they words he spoke before this prayer were, 'in the world ye shall have tribulation:  but be of good cheer, i have overcome the world.'

tribulation, indeed.  the photograph at the head of this post is of holy trinity monastery at meteora, in thessaly.  many western christians forget about thessaly after paul's letters.  the church at thessalonika was having tribulation when paul wrote to her, and the tribulation continued.  the monasteries on the tops of the rocks were built to escape, among other tribulations of the world,  pirates.

but be of good cheer.  despite the horrors of the world, and anyone can come up with a list as well as i, the holy one, who is love,  reveals himself to us, not as one who engages in the conflicts which lead to piracy and envy and hatred, but as love:  a community of love.  and so on the sunday after trinity we continue to hear from s. john, the beloved disciple, who listened to the heartbeat of god, these words:  'beloved, let us love one another:  for love is of god; and every one that loveth is born of god, and knoweth god.'  we know god, the holy trinity, a communion of love, by loving.  more than that is not required.