This summer, I heard an explanation of the trinity that kind
of blew my mind and so I will now attempt to pass it on to you without
committing heresy. Here. Goes. Nothing.
If you acknowledge the Christian God as God then you must
acknowledge St. John ‘s definition that GOD IS LOVE!
And so to understand the
nature of God we can look to the nature of love and to understand the nature of
love, we can look to the nature of God. The two are interchangeable. Let us
start with love and begin with what we know… relationships.
Disclaimer: I know that my little illustration below is
simple and idealistic. Many of us have had disastrous relationships but in
doing so I would bet that we were searching for something that would mirror what I have described
one way or another. Ok onward.
Illustration: Boy meets girl, girl meets boy. Boy likes girl;
girl tolerates boy. The two go out on their first date and have an amazing
time. As the dates continue and the individuals get to know each other, they
begin to find a radiating joy in sharing life with each other. She takes his
breath away; he makes her laugh... they even disagree well. The two are finding
a deeper life fulfillment because they have found a partner with whom they can
share their life. They can make choices together, support each other, they can
give love to one another and know that they will receive it back. In fact, this
love often becomes so strong… deepening as it grows, that the couple decide
that they want to share it with everyone! They want everyone to be in on the
love that they are giving to one another, and so they make it official. They
have a wedding, everybody parties (Jesus' first miracle hollaaaa) and the couple
not only spread the love that they are giving and receiving to one another, but
they stamp it to be eternal… till death to they part. True love must be shared.
True love must be eternal.
The fun however, does not stop there! It continues, this
eternal living love is completed through creation. No matter your opinion on
sex and babies, natural sex ends in the creation of something that at one time did not exist. True love must be shared. True love must be eternal. True
love must create.
And so we come back to trying to understand the trinity. Love
is meant to be given and received… it is meant to be shared. Love is then made complete when it is made eternal, but it actually ends in creation (again
I am not trying to impose a view, I am just looking at the natural law of sex…
it ends with the creation of a child.) And so complete love must involve three.
We can know this because we can see it, but it reflects what is unseen. God is
love, and we are made in God’s image. We are made in the image of love.
Ok, with that said, let us try to understand the trinity. If
God is love, then by nature, God can not end on himself. Because GOD IS LOVE, there
must be a giver and a receiver… God the Father and God the Son. And so as God
is perfect love, the Father is constantly pouring out His love on God the son
who receives it fully and then gives it back onto God the father. But if love
is only completed in the form of creation, then the constant essence of a
love exchanged must create a third being, the Holy Spirit. See, if God is love,
then love is only completed when shared and given through at least three beings. If God
is not three, God is not love and God is not God.
