Our Call to Contemplate the Holy Trinity

Sermon Trinity Sunday, June 11, 2006 Year B
By Father Aidan Hix+
St. Aidan’s Charismatic Episcopal Church
Tradition Care Chapel, Antioch, CA

Title: Our Call to Contemplate the Holy Trinity
Readings:


HOOK
Uncle Troy in the hospital
The Dietitian
“You are what you eat.”

LOOK at the BOOK

The Doctrine of The Holy Trinity
Ø Not an explicit but an implicit teaching in Scripture

Ø Example: The Baptism of Jesus: “16When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and £He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” –Matthew 3. 16-17

Ø The Doctrine developed over the centuries

Ø Mystery of the Number Three (trias, triad)
Ø “The monad is set in motion in virtue of its richness; the dyad is surpassed for the deity is above matter and form; the triad contains itself in perfection, for it is the first which surpasses the composition of the dyad. Thus, the Godhead does not dwell within bounds, nor does it spread itself indefinitely. The one would be without honor, the other would be contrary to order. The one would be wholly Judaic (Jewish), the other Hellenistic and polytheistic.” –St Gregory N.

Ø “One gains a glimpse of the mystery of the number, three; the deity is neithrer one nor many; its perfection goes beyond the multiplicity of which duality is the root ( we recall the interminable dyads of the gnostics, and the dualism of the Platonists), and expresses itself in the Trinity.” –Vladimir Lossky

Ø “Trias: the name which unites things united by nature, and never allows those which are inseparable to be scattered by a number which separates. Two is the umber which separates, three the number which transcends all separation: the one and the many find themselves gathered and circumscribed in the Trinity. When I say God, I mean Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; for the Godhead is neither diffused beyond these, so as to introduce a multitude of gods, or yet bounded by a smaller ompass than these, so as to condemn us for a poverty stricken conception of deity, either Judaizing to save the monarcy, or falling into Hellenism by the multutude of Gods.”

Ø The Trinitrian Doctrine of Ousia & Hypostsis
Ø Ousia- “Ousia is a thing that exists by itself, and which has need of nothing else for its consistency…it subsists by itself and …has not its being in another
Ø Hypostasis- generally means “existence” or substance as does ousia but refers to “particular” existece or substance.
Ø Prosopon or persona- person, personality
Ø Conclusions: Trinity= Three persons sharing one essence or three hypostasis in one nature. They are Three in Properties, or Hypostasis, or Persons; but One is essence, substance, nature or Ousia, in One Godhead.
Ø Example #1: “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things are made..”
Ø Example #2:
Ø The Trinity is a Mystery beyond our grasp
Ø “You ask what is the procession of the Holy Spirit? Do you tell me first what is the unbegottenness of the Father, and I will explain to you the physiology of the generation of the Son, and the procession of the Spirit, and we shall both us be stricken with madness for prying into the mystery of God!” –St. Gregory N.

v The Contemplation of the Trinity
Ø It is the goal of the spiritual life to contemplate and be in Beautific Union with The Trinity. “I pray that these may be one with me, eve as I am one with Thee.” -Ø St. Gregory of Nanzianzen- the minstrel of the Holy Trinity

ü “From the day whereon I renounced the things of this world to consecrate my soul to luminous and heavenly contemplation, when the supreme intelligence carried me hence to set me down far from all that pertains to the flesh, to hide me in the secret places of the heavenly tabernacle; from that day my eyes have been blinded by the light of the Trinity, whose brightness surpasses all that the mind can concieve; for from a throne high exalted the Trinity pours upon all, the ineffable radiance common to the Three. This is the source of al that is here below, separated by time from the things on high…From that day forth I was dead to the world and the world was dead to me.”

ü “When I contemplate the Three together, I see but one torch, and canot divide or measure out the undivided light.”

ü At the end of his life he said that he longed to be “there where my Trinity is, and the gathered brightness of Its splendor…Trinity, whose dim shadows exalt me.”

v This Doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the Call to Contemplate the Mystery of God is the basis of St. Paul’s teaching on living by the Power of the Spirit (Romans 8)

Ø Those who live according to the Flesh (not the body and skin but the corrupt nature of this world
ü Set their minds on the things of the flesh
ü To set the mind on the things of the flesh is death
ü The mind that is set on the things of the flesh is hostile to God (enmity, division, separation)
ü It does not submit to God’s Law, indeed it cannot
ü Those who are in the flesh cannot please God
ü You will die
ü Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him

Ø Those who live according to the Spirit
ü Set their minds on the things of the Spirit
ü To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace
ü You are in the Spirit
ü The Spirit of God dwells in you (the Indwelling of the Spirit)
10And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
12Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

TOOK

v “Unlike Gnosticism, the storing up of knowledge, theology, and philosophy is not the goal of the Christian. For the Christian, Theology and Spirituality, or prayer, is inseparable. True theology is the adoration offered by the intellect. The intellect clarifies the movement of prayer, but only prayer can give it the fervor of the Spirit. Theology is light, prayer is fire.” –Olivier Clemet, “The Roots of Christian Mysticism.”

v Our Call and Vocation in Life is to Contemplate God. Contemplation is not thinking or studying but experience of Union with God.

v We must, as St Paul says, set our minds on the things of the Spirit.

v How can we do this?

Ø The Classic shape of a sound Christian Piety and Devotion to God is the regular (Rule of Life) commitment to Three Essentials (a Threefold Rule of Life):

1. The Eucharist- “53Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55For My flesh is £food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. 56He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. 58This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” (Jn 6)

2. Private Devotion- our own prayers and devotions

3. The Daily Office- “The Daily Office flows from the Mass, the climax of the Liturgy. The Mass is the diamond, the Office is its setting. The Hours of the Office lead to the Mass and follow from the Mass, preparing for it and bringing us its fruits the rest of the day.” –(William A. Hinnebusch, O.P., Dominican Spirituality).

Ø “If one practices this threefold rule, he will be adequately nourished, inwardly transformed, and possess the right God-given balance of objective and subjective elements in is spiritual life. Such a rule is a old as the faith itself…

Ø The Practice of the Presence of God I our lives by this threefold rule assists us in “standing objectively above and beyond ourselves and our worst tendencies to become emotionally self-serving in prayer, a condition to which may subjective and often sentimental devotion lead.” –(Fr. Addison Hart, Prayer Rythms, Touchstone, June, 2002)

Ø St. Dominic said, “The greater part of our penance consists in the recitation of the Divine Office” (the Daily Office).

Ø An ancient name for the Divine of Daily Office is “Opus Dei,” or the Work of God.
Ø Praying the daily Offices is work, a sacrifice of thanksgiving and prayer.