The Father so loves the Son, and the Son so loves the Father, that the Spirit arises as a third. The complete kenosis between two in any relationship begets a third – the relationship itself becomes fully embodied in its own right as a person in the same sense as the Holy Spirit is a person of the Trinity. The bond in relationships is love and it is love that embodies all relationships. Just as the strong and weak molecular forces are the glue of any element and are what sustains it in being, so too gravity between planetary systems and star systems. As God does anything so God does everything, no exceptions.
When we love as modeled by the Holy Trinity – when we exercise total surrender of self and total acceptance of the other – we too create a third. This is obvious in healthy families as children, born of love, are the created third (or fourth or fifth, etc.). This is equally true in adoptive families – a love so needed today for children in the foster care system. There are other family alternatives as found in the communal life of religious communities dedicated to caring for the poor and other excluded persons who live on the margins. This was recently reinforced during my pilgrimage to Assisi in Italy.
In the 13th Century, Francis and Clare voluntarily chose radical poverty to respond to a calling to live in service to others. They chose to surrender everything they held in the world and to live simply, so others could simply live. … the lepers of their time. They cared for these forgotten children of God who were of no account to the rich and famous. The stories told of their acts of love and justice testifies to the impact of their lives. Lives lived in the joy and the sufficiency of the moment. Lives not lived apart in monasteries, but holy lives lived with the whole world. Neither were their lives ones of shrinking or false humility, but revolutionary lives that changed the course of history. They lived with courageous trust in God; trust in themselves, and a deep commitment to the created third – the community they birthed. Francis and Clare may have lived a lifestyle that may not be compatible with our gifts, but their spirit and passion resonate with the Image of God that is within everyone.
Our Church is also called to become a revolutionary community, born in love and dedicated to the created world. This is why marriage is an aped metaphor of the relationship between Christ and the Church. “For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church because we are members of his body.” (Ephesians 5:29) “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20) What does this mean for a believer? It means that as a believer, I am called to surrender to the other so that the third can arise, to create the greater whole, a community that we nourish and cherish as our own body. This is the great model of the Trinity.
It is the model of the Trinity in which we have all been baptized. As the Father surrenders all to the Son, (everything that is the Father’s is given to the Son) and the Son to the Father (the Son has come from the Father and returns to the Father), and it is from this that the third arises, the Spirit. To live in this reality of a loving relationship means placing our lives in service to all. As Paul writes to the Romans, “The Spirit bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God…” (Romans 8:16) As children of the same Father, we are called to live in service to our brothers and sisters with our brother, Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit. This is the spirit of the community that was created by Clare and Francis 800 years ago in Assisi, Italy. We are called to create that same spirit today, right here in Chandler, Arizona.
We have a good start, begun by the Francis’s and Clare’s of our community. We see this in Grow Haiti’s Children, Habitat for Humanity, and the many caring ministries. I will end with this prayer;
Come Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of us your faithful
enkindle in us the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created.
And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Lets us pray in the name of the Most Holy Trinity
- What of my substance can I surrender for service to the world?
- How can I think globally and act locally for the Body of Christ?
- What can I do in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit?
AMEN
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