Quote from Laudato Si– this page is dedicated to exploring Eco-spirituality in the Key of Three
In the Key of Three
Reading Creation in Relationship with the Trinity
In his encyclical Laudato Si Pope Francis encourages us to embrace the environment in a “Trinitarian key.” In order to do that we need to have a well developed relationship with the Trinity. Baptism, our introduction to the Three, has come to be regarded largely as deliverance from original sin. Many years ago I was asked by a friend in our bible study group: “If what Vatican II says that people who belong to other religions can be saved, then what is the value or meaning of baptism?” The only meaning it had for him was that he got free of original sin and would not go to hell. Since the church after Vatican II was saying that non-baptized persons could be saved his identity was being threatened. Gradually there has been a shift to emphasizing that baptism also makes us members of the Church, the Body of Christ. But as Catholic culture becomes more and more diluted by secular culture and it becomes almost nondescript, belonging to that particular community also loses meaning. We are faced with the reality of what Karl Rahner, SJ said when he predicted that Christians of the future would be mystics—people who have a personal experience of God–or there will be no Christians. Having personal relatedness with the Persons of the Trinity becomes critical to our faith and perhaps ironically, we will rediscover what the first Christians already knew. Hopefully we will reach the point of seeing all of creation from a Trinitarian viewpoint as Francis encourages
Baptism
“… go make disciples of all nations, baptizing (immersing) them in the name (Person) of the Father, and (Person) of the Son, and (Person) of the Holy Spirit.” Baptism is being immersed in relatedness to each of the Divine “Persons.”
We need to rediscover Baptism. The wonder of that encounter with the Three into Whom we are immersed has been high-jacked by all the focus on original sin. We need to see Baptism as the beginning of a life of intimacy with each of the Divine Persons which becomes a way of life for us. Water washes us, yes, but more importantly, it is necessary for life. It is life-giving. Jesus’ baptism reveals the relatedness of the Three—the Father sending the Son, the Son beginning his work of revealing the Father, the Spirit revealed as the guiding agent leading Jesus. We need to explain Baptism to people as the beginning of a divine intimacy. Jesus said: “Go and baptize (immerse) all nations in the name (person) of the Father, and of the (person) Son and of the (person) Holy Spirit.” Baptism is being immersed in relatedness to each of the Persons. A cleansing ritual is common to many religions. Ritual washing before worship is a symbol of wanting to be “clean” of mind before God. But for Catholics there is no ritual washing just an anointing with water in the name of the Three—a reminder that worship is entering into a deeper awareness of our relatedness to Them.
When St. Patrick brought the faith to Ireland in the early 400’s a spirituality of the divine Threeness quickly and deeply took root. In the prayers and art this people left us there is a wonderful witness to how they related to the Three from the first moments of life. When a child was born the midwife would touch its’ forehead with three drops of water immediately dedicating it to the Three as she invoked each Person of the Trinity all those present would affirm this dedication with a strong Amen after each invocation:
In the name of God, In the name of Jesus, In the name of the Spirit, The perfect Three in power.
The little drop of the Father, On thy little forehead, beloved one.
The little drop of the Son. On thy little forehead, beloved one.
The little drop of the Spirit, On thy little forehead, beloved one
To aid thee, to guard thee, To shield thee, to surround Thee,
The little drop of the Three To Fill thee with Their pleasantness
The little drop of the Three, To fill thee with their virtue
Carmina Gadelica, The Celtic Vision, de Wall pg.115
Recently I was rereading “God for Us” and noted that Catherine Laguna faults Augustine for not developing the concepts of the “psychological Trinity” into lived concepts. I have trouble with Augustine’s hang-up on sin and I believe that he left us a distorted theology in that regard. But as regards the image of the Trinity within us or what she calls the “psychological” Trinity, perhaps just giving us the basic concept was as much as Augustine could do at the time. Theology is a slowly developing science since we as a species gradually gain the capacity to look deeper into our relationship with the divine. There is value in modern science and psychology in this regard and perhaps we are in a better position now than Augustine was to develop the concept.
Laudato Si has encouraged us to read the “book of creation” which includes our own nature. “God has written a precious book, ‘whose letters are the multitude of created things present in the universe.’
Relatedness to the First Person
I associate the faculty of memory with the First Person. Memory is built into our DNA. It is not only our brain cells that have memory, every cell in our bodies has memory. Without memory, cells could not reproduce themselves and develop into different types of cells.
Without memory our faculty of intelligence would not function as judgment and learning which depend upon memory. And certainly free will would not function without the capacity to remember. In this sense memory is the ground, the foundation of personal identity just as the First Person is the primal source within the Trinity, without denying the eternal status of the other Persons. By cherishing the faculty of memory and gratitude for it, we can strengthen our relatedness to the First Person.
Psychologically speaking we never really lose the imprint that parents make upon us. It may be eclipsed by intense personal pursuits but it remains foundational to how we develop. We never completely lose the need to be cherished by a parent and our mental well-being depends upon our ability to acknowledge, not deny that relationship. The relatedness to physical father/mother is an echo of the relatedness to the First Person which is foundational to whom we are—we are always children in some sense in our relatedness to God and our parents no matter how old or mature we become as individuals.
Passionate Lover
John says that God is love (1Jn. 4:8). This love begins within this Person. The first love of the First Person, the “One Who Is”, is the Word, the Second Person. And it is in the love between Them—the First Person and the Word–that all the loves humans can experience originate. It is hard for us to grasp this as we can only think of love in terms of parent/child or man/woman or friend/friend. The love of these divine Persons transcends all of that. It is a love that transcends paternal/maternal instincts and female/male attractions. There is no gender in God even though both of these divine Persons are the origin of the gender traits we cherish. As the virtue of faith transcends but does not destroy our understanding, so love transcends but does not eliminate gender traits. This love is akin to the love between two very mature human persons. It is characterized by equality—the Word is co-eternal and equal to the First Person in every aspect. John says “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God (literally face to face) and the Word was God” (Jn. 1:1). These two are equals locked in intimate communing. Their love is characterized by mutuality –each giving fully to the other and likewise receiving back. Each Person receives from and gives to the Other personal identity and affirmation. Actually such is the love that breathes back and forth between Them that it is the Person of the Spirit, the “Breath” of God.
Biblical imagery of God as lover and spouse in our regard is both prolific and profound. One of the reasons why the Song of Songs is considered inspired is in recognition of the meaning it can have of the love relationship between God and the human person. We are meant to achieve personal maturity in such a manner that we have not simply a parent/child relationship with God but also a Lover/beloved relationship which reflects and enters into the relatedness of These divine Persons.
The First Person is the progenitor of everything else—of the Word, of the Spirit, of spiritual beings like angels and of the material world. This Person is the ultimate source of all. To relate to this generativity we have to appreciate that this Person creates us in the divine image so that we can reciprocate that love not merely as children but from the vantage point of mature free will—of choosing to love as two free, independent, mature persons love each other.
In Christian Ireland before the Nicene Creed they were fond of expressing their faith in creeds and one of these creeds makes mention of the First Person as the source of love and as one to whom we return love.
I believe, O God of all gods,
That Thou are the eternal Father of life;
I believe, O God of all gods,
That Thou are the eternal Father of love.
I believe, O Lord and God of the peoples,
That Thou are the creator of the high heavens,
That Thou are the creator of the skies above,
That Thou are the creator of the oceans below.
I believe, O Lord and God of peoples,
That Thou are He Who created my soul and set its warp.
I am giving Thee love with my whole devotion,
I am giving Thee kneeling with my whole desire,
I am giving Thee love with my whole heart,
I am giving Thee affection with my whole sense;
I am giving Thee my existence with my whole mind,
I am giving Thee my soul, O God of all gods.
Carmina Gadelica
Generativity
Generativity is the very essence of this “Person,” To achieve a deep intimacy with this First Person we must enter into the dynamic of generativity—we must be generators of life in some form. We cannot experience the First Person or mirror that Person without being caught up in this glorious enterprise. Love is creative and life-giving. This is as true of single/celibate persons as it is of mothers and fathers. There is spiritual motherhood and spiritual fatherhood which can be as fulfilling as being a physical parent. There are ways of generating, giving new life to others through teaching and/or spiritual and social activities. Physical parenthood belongs only to our present condition in time and space. It is not an activity we will engage in eternity. Generativity, however, is a characteristic we have for eternity. This is one reason why the call to celibacy is a prophetic role—it reminds humans that all is passing here and the enduring dynamics of life and love are to be fully experienced in the next life.
The Church is an icon of Trinitarian life in that clergy generate spiritual life through the sacraments and ministry. The relationship of First Person and Word is mirrored in clergy and laity. This icon is dreadfully marred when the clergy “lord it over” the laity. For the Icon to be living, clergy must regard the laity as co-equal and there must be mutuality not co-dependence. There are certain moments in the liturgy when we and the clergy are face to face, both standing or both sitting, when the icon becomes physically evident—an image of the Trinitarian dynamic within the community.
We cannot have an intimacy with this First divine Person without being plunged deeply into this mystery of generativity. It is as natural as the processes of our cell’s divisions that keep us alive. Cells do not remain in isolation. They constantly generate new cells. If we are alive our cells are generating new cells. This giving of life even at the simplest level in our anatomy testifies to this generativity.
We are an image of God within ourselves in our faculties of memory, reason and free will. Nevertheless, this image comes to full fruition when we are in relationship with other persons, when we generate spiritual life in another. Recently I read a study done over many years which indicated that what most contributes to the experience of happiness is the quality of our friendships. Mutuality, intimacy, in relatedness is life generating. It generates life in the mutual partners and enables them to generate life in others. We mirror the Three and generate new life when our relationships are mutual, equanamous, intimate, and affirming of the other.
Gratitude
Gratitude is not listed with the theological and cardinal virtues nevertheless, it is of supreme importance in our spirituality. It is as it were, the parent of all the other virtues. The word “Eucharist” means thanksgiving and the Eucharistic prayer in the Liturgy is a prayer of gratitude to the Father. This attitude of gratitude opens our whole being to deep relatedness to this First divine Person as we recognize that all is gift and a gift given out of love. Giver, gift and love in the giving make a wonderful image of the Trinity. The First Person is the giver, the Word-incarnate is the gift and the love with which the gift is given is the Spirit. Gratitude opens us to this mystery. It seems to me that there are two basic attitudes in humans—gratitude and entitlement. Gratitude switches the focus away from ourselves while entitlement entrenches someone in self and exhibits the conviction that “I am the center of reality.” Gratitude is like gravity. It is the force that keeps everything in its place, which keeps us revolving around the correct source.
When water is “living” it is in motion. Streams and rivers flow to the sea and the oceans are in constant motion under the influence of gravity. Ocean waves are like the motion of grace/gratitude. What flows to us as free gift must ebb back to the Creator in gratitude.
Mercy
There is one experience of God which Jesus never had but which we have—mercy. Mercy is the face of love as seen by the sinner, by those who know themselves to be unworthy, by those who despite their sincerity and honesty have found it necessary for survival to live outside some law or regulation. Jesus never sinned and needed no mercy from the First Person, rather he becomes mercy incarnate—the Compassion of God in flesh.
Looking at how our earth was formed maybe we can get some idea of the dynamics between law, mercy and the Spirit. We now know that when our earth was formed vast amounts of minerals as space rocks were molded together by fire with large masses of water in the form of ice. The fire melted rocks and ice so that over billions of years our planet was gradually shaped. We could say that similar forces shape the sphere of our understanding of God and shape our spirituality. Minerals (rocks) are like laws or ethical norms—they are solid, they are the bedrock of justice which, as a foundation, recognizes the equal dignity of all and works to both protect and enable. Mercy—the face of love—Is like the water which is necessary to dissolve the minerals and provide a medium for life to develop. Without it the minerals in hardened form are not available as building blocks of life. The Spirit is like Fire, which is the product of electromagnetic energy and lightening. It provides the force that melts and reshapes rock giving us landscapes as well as providing the spark of energy that begins life in the water where minerals have been dissolved. The fire of the Spirit is what brings our spirituality to life. Fire keeps the mineral iron in molten form always moving and generating at the earth’s core the magnetic shield which protects our planet. Spiritually speaking, we need all three: Justice, Mercy and the Spirit.
Justice is the foundation but justice alone is cold and lifeless. Moreover our human justice and laws are always gravely flawed. They are never adequate to constantly changing human conditions. They never perfectly express divine justice. They never achieve perfect fairness. Human interpretations of divine law and natural law are seriously flawed. Mercy does not destroy justice—it reshapes it like water dissolves minerals but does not destroy their essence. Water makes minerals more available for life the same as mercy makes the elements of law life-giving. The Spirit is the dynamic force that creates the atmosphere for life to flourish from mineral and water. The Spirit protects it while also providing the creative spark that sets the chain of life in motion. We must have justice as a foundation, mercy as a mode of life and the Spirit as the dynamic force constantly recreating our spirituality. Without mercy, justice becomes cold, hard and inhospitable for life. It is inoperative and there is no capacity for the Spirit. Without justice mercy is a chaotic, shapeless void. It is the hovering of the Spirit as we learn from Genesis that brings life and shape.
We have much to learn from this interaction of mineral, water and fire. One of the great dangers of the spiritual life is to become frozen in stone, to cling to laws to such an extent that we have little or no mercy. We may become greatly convinced that such “conservatism” is faithfulness to God, but in reality we are not participating in the great dynamic of creation. We are not life-giving. Jesus found a religious world largely frozen in stone. “Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice. ‘I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” (Mt 9:13). He provided mercy.
Contemplating the ocean can teach us a great deal about mercy. The ocean is the cradle of all life. It provides the conditions where life began. And mercy provides the milieu for rebirth spiritually speaking. It is not possible to have a deep relationship with the First Person until we can express that Person’s love by showing “El’s” face of mercy.
Creator
“The universe did not emerge as the result of a desire for self-assertion. Creation is of the order of love. God’s love is the fundamental moving force in all created things” (Laudto Si, 77).
All creation is a product of the generativity of God. Creation is the first source for encounter with God, the first source of revelation: “Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made” (Rom. 1:20). We can deepen our intimacy with the First Person, as Creator, when we take time to enjoy and to absorb the beauty of creation, of our environment. Only when we come to understand that as creatures of God, all of creation is our brother and sister, are we ready for deep intimacy with the Creator. True, other creatures have different capacities but, nevertheless, they are our siblings by reason of creation—all of creation is a product of the generativity of God.
Pope Francis speaks of this relatedness we have with all creation in Laudato SI: When we can see god reflected in all that exists, our hearts are moved to praise the Lord for all his creatures and to worship him in union with them. This sentiment finds magnificent expression in the hymn of Saint Francis of Assisi:
Praised be you, my Lord, with all your creatures, especially Sir Brother Son,
Who is the day and through whom you give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor;
and bears a likeness of you, Moth High.
Praised be you, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,
In heaven you formed them clear and precious and beautiful.
Praised by you, my Lord, through Brother Wind,
And though the air, cloudy and serene , and every kind of weather
Through whom you give sustenance to your creatures.
Praised be you, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
through whom you light the night,
and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.
Laudato Si 87
Francis also quotes Aquinas: “he wisely notes that multiplicity and variety come from the intention of the first agent’ who willed that ‘what was wanting to one in the representation of the divine goodness might be supplied by another,’ inasmuch as God’s goodness ‘could not be represented fittingly by any one creature.’ Laudato Si 86
Aquinas and Francis were not the only saints to find the Three in creation. Ignatius’ had a predominating experience of the Trinity in the wilds of Manressa as he contemplated the river valley. It was there that he developed his Trinitarian theology—a vision of ministry flowing from the Thee and back to Them. The great vision at la Sorta later would be by way of confirming that he had arrived at the place where he could put the driving force of his Trinitarian vision into effect. He found God in all things and delighted in the little garden of the Jesuit residence in Rome. He said he never felt closer to God than when taking in the stars at night from the roof tops of Rome.
The unknown writers of prayers that have come down to us from the Celtic tradition expresses this understanding of the Three and creation very well:
Bless to me, O God
Each thing mine eye sees;
Bless to me, O God
Each thing mine ear hears;
Bless to me, O God,
Each odour that goes to my nostrils;
Bless to me, O God,
Each taste that goes to my lips,
Each note that goes to my song,
Each ray that guides my way
Each thing that I pursue,
Each lure that tempts my will,
The zeal that seeks my living soul,
The Three that seek my heart,
The seal that seeks my living soul,
The Three that seek my heart.
Carmina Galica, de Wall, The Cetic Vision, pg. 24
Contact with nature tells us a great deal about the nature of God.
I have seen the face of God.
it is the mountain’s craggy crest,
brow bedecked with leafy boughs.
I have heard the voice of God,
it is wind laughing in the trees,
whispering in the breeze.
I have seen the glory of God,
it is a bud burst into flower,
petal on petal unfolding.
have looked into the eyes of God,
they are a million twinkling stars,
in an unfathomed universe.
I have felt the touch of God
it is softness of goose down,
silk of rabbit fur.
I have known the fidelity of God,
it is the promise of sunrise
in every sunset.
I have felt the heartbeat of God,
it is surf pounding sand,
rhythm of the tides.
I have known the lavishness of God–
snowflakes, spring grasses, summer
fields, leaves in autumn.
I have felt the serenity of God,
it is the still of a crystal lake,
mirroring the sky.
God has a human face too,
in Christ Jesus,
in me, in you.