Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. We remember and pray especially for parishioners in our parish who have a particular connection to the former parish of the Holy Trinity today. We also take this rare opportunity to consider the great love of our God, made known to us in the persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
For your convenience, the podcast version of this reflection can be accessed here. As always the text is also available:
When two people fall in love, there is an almost euphoric joy, and all things seem to be better when they are together. As long as they don’t fall out of love, they may discover that they can truly rely on one another to work through the problems of life, to find solutions and to help one another to become the best, most loving people they can be. Even better, love is not limited to just two people. The more it is genuinely shared, the more it can strengthen bonds of friendship and trust between ever widening circles of people.
Today, the Church’s liturgy invites us to consider the fact that we have all been invited to fall in love with God, and what’s even better, God demonstrates the power of perfect love as it is unfolded in the relationship of the Holy Trinity. The tradition of the Church tells us that God is one, but God is also made known to us in three persons: the Father, who created us, the Son who came to live among us and to model for us the ideal of the Father’s love, and the Holy Spirit who was sent among us as the Father’s gift of perfect love. Each of these three manifestations helps us to know and to appreciate a different aspect of God, but all three of them are part of the same God, and all three invite us to be caught up in God’s love, as if we were entangled in a slow-moving dance.
So it is with the relationship we are invited to explore with our God. From the day of our baptism, we are invited to stand on the dance floor, and to allow God to lead the dance. If we ourselves are intent on dictating the movements, we often may find ourselves stumbling, but if we are willing to listen, to follow the promptings of the spirit, the dance can be fluid, graceful and moving in perfect time to a music that seems even more sublime than any instrument could render.
From the beginning of time, God has invited his people to enter into this dance. Moses was privileged to discover these graced movements when God revealed himself as merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Jesus revealed another aspect of this dance when he instructed Nicodemus in the dark of night: God did not send the Son into the world to condemn it, but in order that the world might be saved and the apostle Paul also revealed another layer of the relationship when he urged the Corinthians to agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.
The dance of divine love continues today. We in our turn are being invited to play our part, to discover what it’s like when we allow the Father to lead, when we look to Jesus for guidance and when we allow the Spirit to act through us. This is a gesture of mutual love, and we are being asked, May I have this dance?
For your convenience, the podcast version of this reflection can be accessed here. As always the text is also available:
May I have this dance?
Many years ago, when I first began to seriously entertain the thought that God was calling me to a life of service, a wise person counseled me not to be in a hurry to find the answer to this quest, not before I had had the opportunity to fall in love first. The advice sounded strange to me at the time, but as the years have unfolded, I have come to appreciate the wisdom these words contained.
When two people fall in love, there is an almost euphoric joy, and all things seem to be better when they are together. As long as they don’t fall out of love, they may discover that they can truly rely on one another to work through the problems of life, to find solutions and to help one another to become the best, most loving people they can be. Even better, love is not limited to just two people. The more it is genuinely shared, the more it can strengthen bonds of friendship and trust between ever widening circles of people.
Today, the Church’s liturgy invites us to consider the fact that we have all been invited to fall in love with God, and what’s even better, God demonstrates the power of perfect love as it is unfolded in the relationship of the Holy Trinity. The tradition of the Church tells us that God is one, but God is also made known to us in three persons: the Father, who created us, the Son who came to live among us and to model for us the ideal of the Father’s love, and the Holy Spirit who was sent among us as the Father’s gift of perfect love. Each of these three manifestations helps us to know and to appreciate a different aspect of God, but all three of them are part of the same God, and all three invite us to be caught up in God’s love, as if we were entangled in a slow-moving dance.
In our modern day, dancing seems to be more and more a community affair. Have you ever noticed that modern music lends itself more to groups of people gathering on a dance floor? Admittedly we still count the slow dance among our repertoire, but the intricate movements of a tango, or of a Viennese waltz hold a certain beauty for the bystander which seems almost to be lost except to only some relative few. For a waltz to move gracefully, there must be one who will lead and another who will follow. If both partners tried to lead, there would be confusion, and if both were to follow, there would be equal muddle.
So it is with the relationship we are invited to explore with our God. From the day of our baptism, we are invited to stand on the dance floor, and to allow God to lead the dance. If we ourselves are intent on dictating the movements, we often may find ourselves stumbling, but if we are willing to listen, to follow the promptings of the spirit, the dance can be fluid, graceful and moving in perfect time to a music that seems even more sublime than any instrument could render.
From the beginning of time, God has invited his people to enter into this dance. Moses was privileged to discover these graced movements when God revealed himself as merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Jesus revealed another aspect of this dance when he instructed Nicodemus in the dark of night: God did not send the Son into the world to condemn it, but in order that the world might be saved and the apostle Paul also revealed another layer of the relationship when he urged the Corinthians to agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.
The dance of divine love continues today. We in our turn are being invited to play our part, to discover what it’s like when we allow the Father to lead, when we look to Jesus for guidance and when we allow the Spirit to act through us. This is a gesture of mutual love, and we are being asked, May I have this dance?
No comments:
Post a Comment