Story 1 Incomprehensibility of God Once there was a man who had the occasion to have a conversation with God. God invited the man to ask him whatever question was on his mind. He asked God: "God, could you live for a million years?" God gently responded, "Son, a million years are to me but one moment." The man thought for a while, then asked, “God, would you like to have a million dollars?” God replied, “My son, a million dollars are as one penny.” Then immediately the man said, “God, could I have just one of those pennies?” God replied, “Certainly. Just wait a moment. There is a certain amount of stress to live in the service of an incomprehensible God. Story 2 Another story tells of a saint walking on the seashore. And this saint was trying to understand the nature of the Trinity. As the story goes, the saint came upon a little boy who had dug a hole in the sand. And the boy would run down to the ocean and come back with a bucket of water and quickly throw it in the hole. Of course, the saint observed the water would immediately sift back out of the hole into the ocean. He told the boy, “You will never fill up that hole that way.” The boy responded, “In the same way, you will never understand the nature of the Trinity”. Theme 1 Mystery We call what we do not understand a “Mystery”. Often people use mysteries to confuse us, or impress us with our ignorance, or hide something from us. Another way of looking at the work implies exactly the opposite. A “mystery” is to give some indication of the reality of what we can't completely understand. A mystery is to make the unapproachable accessible. Theme 2 Analogy It is similar to the way we use analogy: God is like something else. In the Trinity, we learn that God is more like community of persons than a Solitary Being. We learn that God is more like dynamic relationship than static isolation. We learn our God prefers to reveal and not conceal. We see that the inner life of God is more like Play, with Father, Son and Spirit reveling in the presence of the Other, than like serious work. Theme 3 Oneness Central to the mystery of the Trinity is the Oneness of God. The three Persons do not disrupt this unity. So we can apply this insight to all of life: in the midst of abundance and diversity, we are all one, despite the fact we appear as individual distinct beings. Theme 4 Abundance One theme analogously referred to in the Mystery of the Trinity is the abundance of God. In the God Unity there is the plurality consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Scriptural mythology and religious art further elaborates the abundance of God by surrounding the Godhead with a host of "Seraphim and Cherubim, falling down" before the Divine. Scripture throughout attaches the abundance of God not to the wealthy but to the poor. Theme 5 Diversity The Persons of the Triune God are not mirror reflections of each other. Rather, there is differences in the way they are perceived. Hence, the world in its diversity reflects the multifaceted image of God! The tension of living with differences is replaced by the joy of opening onself to a variety of persons and experiences. Theme 6 Community God is more like community of persons than separate Beings. There is nothing isolative about our Godhead! The intimacy characterizing the "Three Persons of God" is extended to the human family as an offer of embrace and inclusion. Theme 7 Revelation Hand in hand with intimacy is self revelation. The Godhead stands exposed and unobstructed in its very nature. Consistent is an ongoing process of revelation to humanity. The Word continues to be spoken to an unlistening and distracted world. God prefers to reveal and not conceal. Theme 8 Adoption We also learn that our God is more like a parent who cares and loves than like a neglectful parent, uncaring and uninvolved. God is like a parent inviting us to share in God’s own family. The Word "Abba" in the Lord's Prayer is not translated "Father". Rather, it is the intimate and tender word the child uses: "Daddy!" Scripture asks us, "Has there ever been anything so extraordinary in human history" and Paul teaches that "We are heirs with Christ." Any adoptive parent knows this godly experience, then, of extending self in love to include another in your family. This is the marvelous gift of God to us. Any adoptive children can speak of the intimacy of a family at the choice of that family. This is the experience of all of us on a spiritual dimension. Theme 9 Relationship That which truly liberates the human spirit is relationship. If we exclude relationship from our life, we will whither like a plant deprived of light and water. And the ultimate liberation is that relationship with God to which God freely invites us. We are in a Partnership not bound by contract but sealed in covenant. Theme 10 Play The hidden life of God is more like human play than it is like serious business. Father, Son and Spirit revel in one another's presence. When God opens God’s hidden life to us, God is inviting us to come along and play! We cannot underestimate the role of play in spirituality. Perhaps we are closest to the reality of the Trinity when we see children at play; when we pass a school yard and hear the cacophony of children playing, maybe we are listening to the song of God. I know that if I make it to heaven, and I don’t see that playful glint in Jesus’ eye, I’m going to turn around and go the other way, because I’ve arrived at the wrong place! To appropriately praise the Trinity, Liturgy should always have a sense of play. We say we "celebrate" the Liturgy. The Word "Alleluia!", that we use time and again, is a "play word". Ritual is simply solemnized play. In this play, we ring bells, sing songs, hold hands, wear colorful clothes, throw water, and burn incense. Even a liturgy as serious as a funeral retains an element of play. Conviviality as the fruit of social change is reforming society on the image of the Trinity! End Theme Liberation In those moments when we seem all alone in the world, the Trinity can break through our isolation and invites us into community. In the coldest moments life, the Trinity can extend to us the warmth of intimacy. When we feel "so lonely we can die", the Trinity can offer us relationship. And Trinity always invites us to come along and play; to respect, nurture, let play the child in us, or the precious children among us or in our family; to never ever let die the sense of wonder or our own unique dance in this world. Thus, the Trinity missions the Church to work to end poverty, oppression, violence, and hunger that hang like a dark cloud over the world, so that we all can enjoy the wonder of living as children of God.