By The Rev. Daniel Robayo
"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."
- John 16:12-15
Andrei Rublev (1370-1430) wrote the most revered icon (icons are written, not painted) of the Holy Trinity as Abraham and Sarah’s three mysterious visitors (Genesis 18). The icon depicts three angels in equal dignity as a symbol of the triunity and equality of all three persons. The angels are engaged in conversation as they bless the chalice, forming a community of love in full regard of one another.
In the Christian family of faith, we have come to know the eternal One as a community of love. God is not the remote “unmoved mover” of philosophers, unconcerned and untouched by either joy or pain. On the contrary, God is a “moved mover”: the Holy Trinity shows us that God’s very being is relational in a mutuality of dignity and love.
What are the implications of our being made in the image of God, who has been revealed to the Church as “the glory of the eternal Trinity” in whom we “worship the Unity,” as the collect for Trinity Sunday proclaims? This feast day is an opportunity to reflect on who we are and whose we are, in light of the Trinitarian nature of God.
One of my favorite collects in the daily office affirms that God has “made of one blood all the peoples of the earth” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 100). Our unity as single human family comes from the God who is One. There is only one human race. Our concepts of race are a social construct, created to form systems of dominance and oppression, but unpacking that truth requires lengthy and intentional conversation beyond the scope of this reflection. The point is that theologically, humanity is one because its origin is in God, the One who made us all.
A Trinitarian anthropology also affirms the great variety of peoples as individuals, communities and cultures as a divine creation. The unity of humanity is manifest in many shapes and forms. Our multiplicity of personalities, communities and cultures also comes from being made in God’s image.
Our vision for community is rooted in the nature of God as one holy and undivided trinity, that is, God’s revelation as a community of persons, indivisible yet united by the divine nature, which is love. This means that human beings, created in the image of God, are made for community and to be in communion with one another, with the created order and with God. We are made by love; we are born to love and to walk in love.
Because of who God is, we celebrate the uniqueness and particularity not only of each of us as individuals but in the multiplicity of the cultural and ethnic mosaic of the one human race as a gift of God, as a sacrament of the Holy Trinity. All people are outward and visible signs that declare the glory of God. Though we indeed “fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23), each individual and each part of the human family in its own way participates in the divine image. The richness and variety of humanity are a blessing to be celebrated, a delight to be enjoyed, and a means of coming to a closer appreciation of God’s greatness and goodness.
Being human is a wonderful and delightful mystery! And this is reflected in our shared identity as a diocesan community of faith that strives, across our varieties of experiences, languages and cultures, to reflect the glorious image of God in a way that invites everyone into life-giving relationships, into community, into the Way of Love. When we get together on Sundays in our particular worshiping communities, we learn more about our vocation as a fellowship that glories in the uniqueness and variety of all human beings. Trinity Sunday is a specific moment in time to rejoice and to renew the bonds of affection that unite us one to another and to the Father through the Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Focus for meditation: “I have come to learn, after all these years of walking, that there is only one religion: Love. There is only one language: The language of the heart. There is only one race: Humanity. There is only One God: The One who is everywhere.”
–Facundo Cabral
