In Leo Tolstoy’s short story ‘three hermits’, the three hermits are very old and live in an
isolated, remote island. They had no possessions and had very little needs! One day
the bishop wanted to check on them to see how they live their Christian vocation. The
bishop got their on a boat; when he saw them he asked two questions: how do they
practice Christian charity and how do they pray? The hermits said: your grace we just
help each other. We haven’t studied theology; we have no prayer books. This is how
we pray: ‘God, you are three, we are three, have mercy on us’! It is unique to Christian
faith that the mystery of One God is confessed as three persons. Human language is
incapable of defining God! Trinity is not human invention, it is how God revealed
himself in Jesus Christ. God [Father] so loved the world, he gave his Son to us. The
Son [Jesus] says, ‘I and the Father are One [John 10:30], that I ask the Father and we
will send you the Holy Spirit [John 14:16; 16:7]. Like the hermits, we can only confess
this faith and pray ‘have mercy on us’. Mercy is misericordia in Latin [miseri=poor,
cor=heart]. God has a heart with the poor, for the poor! For this reason it is said, God
can only be loved as in the commandment, ‘love God with all your heart’!
Trying to explain Trinity, St. Bonaventure said, ‘Trinity is like a water wheel with three
buckets on it. Same water flows through all three buckets, shows the unity of three
persons in Trinity; the flowing water is love, what God is; God is flowing love’. Just as
water flows outward on a water wheel, God’s love flows outward on his creation! We
experience this flowing love as God’s mercy for the sinners [miseri] and we are moved
by love toward God. So, St. Augustine said: ‘Lord, the more wretched I was, the more
closer you were to me’! About God’s flowing love, 14th century mystic Julian Norwich
in one of her revelations said, ‘God loved us before he made us, his love was never
abated, never will be; in this love our life is everlasting; in this love we have our
beginning; all this we shall see in God without end. God can see only Christ in us; we
are body of Christ. Christ is our mother, brother, savior. All is one in love! She says, we
are brought into the world to love but human tendency is to dishonor the divine, break
relationships, make unfortunate choices, hide faults. There is wickedness in the world;
we come to God with our flawed way of life. Addressing human despair, she said: ‘all
be well, every kind of thing shall be well’. Grace of Christ is at work to make all well!
Trinity signifies the richness of God; God is not a lone figure sitting on the clouds. God
is love and love is relationship; it is belonging. To be is to be in relationship! God as
Trinity reflects in creation, in unity in diversity. Those who deny diversity in human
family, in nature deny God the creator. Beneath the bad, ugly, disconnecting in the
world, God presents himself as inviting love, truth and unity. Eric Fromm: ‘Love is
giving, enriching the other and giving is joy. In giving something is born’. Love
generates love and joy is what we see in Trinity. Self-giving love between Father, Son
and Spirit flows on to us to change the violent hearts. In human boredom and
indifference, Trinity invites us to participate in love, joy and enrich each other’s life!