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After participating in Baptized into the Three-Person’d God, the question “Now is your brain numb?” came to my mind. Jon Stotts presentation on the Trinity was wonderful - it’s just that Sr. Marie Ancilla was so right: the Trinity is a mystery.
Yet there is one aspect of this adult education series I would like to mention to those of you who missed it. Jon took us through the creed backward, starting with “I believe in the Holy Spirit” and ending with “I believe in the Father.” This change-up allowed the reflections to begin with a touchstone, my experiences, and then ripple out from that point - as when a stone is thrown into a body of water.
I’ll try to explain but you must remember I’m the one with the numbed brain. I have seen the Holy Spirit - in certain people, in events in my life, in things that I have read or seen depicted. I suspect there are times in all of our lives when we feel touched by something holy; stirred by a spirit that, like the wind, is invisible yet palpable. Starting the presentation on the Three-Person’d God with the Holy Spirit allowed me to feel grounded in such experiences.
Then it was easier to move to a reflection on the second person of the Trinity. The incarnation of the Son in Jesus of Nazareth is a wider ripple, but I felt like had a small foothold. Jesus was a human being fully connected with Holy Spirit. He conveyed that Spirit to those who encountered him.
Reflecting on the Father took me into an even wider circle - and yet knowing the Father is one in being with the Spirit and the Son; I felt less distant, more connected, albeit inexplicably, with this person in the Godhead.
I am thankful to Jon for not only the intellectual work he put into Baptized into the Three Person’d God, but also for his commitment to living a life of prayer and sharing his understandings within our parish. I am thankful for all of you as well for being willing to live in this mystery of interconnection with me.