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well as I record these words it's right
before Trinity Sunday and Trinity Sunday
is known in Christian circles as the
preacher's nightmare because what do you
say about the Trinity but I've always
resisted that I think as I used to tell
my students every Sunday is Trinity
Sunday the Trinity names what is most
fundamental in our understanding of God
and understanding of salvation so I
think we shouldn't run away from it we
should enter into the mystery of the
Trinity and here's one way I would
suggest look around the world at every
level and you're going to find something
like communication or to state the same
thing a little bit differently image
making things tend to make images of
themselves or communicate themselves so
I think of something as basic as a rock
or an inanimate object think of a rock
line there and then the rain comes and
softens the ground and the rock will
make an image of itself in the ground
imperfect and and all that sure but
nevertheless the rock as it were
communicates itself think of a little
pebble you pick up and you throw it
through a piece of glass and it makes a
kind of crude image of itself in the
glass now a little bit higher on the
chain of being come to things like like
plants plants can make an image of
themselves in a much higher more refined
way so a plant can drop a seed and the
seed grows up into a remarkable
reproduction of the original plant right
go higher go to the realm of animals
animals think of a mother you know and
then the embryo forming in the in the
womb of the of the animal and then
giving rise to a remarkably accurate
reproduction of the parents it's
image-making capacity at a higher level
now come to human beings we can
reproduce ourselves at those lower
levels but then we can do so much more
think of all the forms of communication
of speech and and broadcast what I'm
doing right now whereby we make an image
of our minds and we project them outward
we communicate to people around us now
you're not satisfied with that go all
the way down to the to the fundamental
structures of reality go down to or just
think of cells within a living organism
how much communication interaction there
is among cells go down even further go
to the atomic and subatomic level think
of you know protons and electrons and so
on relating within the structure of the
atom go down again even at that
subatomic level and the scientists talk
about this spooky action at a distance
they mean when certain subatomic
particles have come into contact that
even later when there were two there a
huge distance from one another there's
still this quantum entanglement whereby
there's a kind of influence or
communication across huge amounts of
space and time still not satisfied go to
the biggest the most macroscopic level
of things go to planets planets and
galaxies and so on do you find
extraordinary communication image-making
if you will sure these great planets and
moons that that communicate through what
they call gravitons think of the way a
Sun will draw the planets around itself
think of the way an entire galaxy will
draw other galaxies into it's a sphere
of influence
okay my point is everywhere you look
around up-down big small you find this
extraordinary capacity to communicate or
produce an image so the curious mind
wonders where they come from how do you
explain the universality of this
phenomenon
well every Sunday we Catholics get up
and we recite the opening lines of the
Cree I believe in one God the Father
Almighty Creator of heaven and earth of
all things visible and invisible God we
say is the creative source of all that
is and if all that is is marked in every
nook and cranny by this image making
communicating capacity are we so
surprised that within the very unity of
God ever I believe in one God within the
unity of God there's something like a
play of communication and image making
and this of course indeed is the faith
of the church we speak of the father
this primordial ground of divinity the
father is capable of forming generating
a perfect image of himself
this interior word at San Agustin and
st. Thomas Aquinas talk about the Sun
stay with the idea image for a second so
I stand before a mirror and the mirror
produces a rather remarkable image of me
but it's an image in the most
superficial way it's a two-dimensional
reproduction of the physical appearance
of my body right what's in the mirror
doesn't have any mind or will or or
passion or personality it's just that
it's just an image of my physical
surface but now consider God the supreme
reality the father can produce an image
that is perfect a perfect reproduction
of his own being possessing the mind
will personality freedom power love
simplicity of the Father so indeed we
say in that same Creed that the son is
God from God light from light true God
from True God the Son is an utterly
perfect imago image of the father we say
indeed consubstantial with the father
one in being ok now from all eternity
the father looks at the Sun the Sun
looks back at the father what do they
see each sees the utter perfection
beauty goodness and truth of the other
and so they naturally necessarily
automatically fall in love with each
other to use Fulton Sheen's beautiful
phrase they they sigh their love for
each other that sigh that holy breath we
call the spiritus Sanctus the holy
breath the holy spirit God is a kimono a
communion a family of image making and
communication
all of creation reflects is a is a
mirror of if you want this white-hot
intensity of the Divine Love Father Son
and Holy Spirit okay take one more step
as this spills over into creation and it
is on display in every aspect of
creation but especially in us human
beings who are destined by our nature to
love in imitation of God what's in
what's sin but precisely you might say
an interruption in this process of
communication and connection so a Gustin
describes sin as being curved Otto since
a right caved in on oneself it's not
imitating the divine communication
what's God's answered us in God so loved
the world that He sent His only Son that
all who believe in him might have life
in his name John 3:16 right God the
Father here so loved the world was so on
fire with the love of the Holy Spirit
that he sent his son His image so as to
gather us back into the Divine Love now
you see my point here the Trinity is not
a arid abstraction simply of interest to
theological you know walks the Trinity
names the ground of reality the Trinity
names the reason for creation the
Trinity names the means by which God
saves the human race so think about all
that every time you make the sign of the
Cross when we invoke the Father his
image the son and the love they share
the Holy Spirit
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