June 4 - Trinity Sunday at the Akron/Canton Airport

I am traveling this week and found myself catching an early flight on Sunday morning at the Akron/Canton Airport. It was Trinity Sunday and my travel plans were making it possible to reach my destination in time to attend a local parish where the priest in charge is an exceptionally fine homilist. I was looking forward to a winning understanding of the Doctrine of the Trinity. Little did I know that the Trinity would be made visible to me before I even left the ground!

Traveling by air is no longer the fun it used to be: perhaps, my age is affecting my judgment. By the time you practically disrobe, unpack, repack, and redress after the TSA security process, the joy of taking off to some destination begins to lose most, if not all, of its charm. Don’t get me wrong – I am glad for the security but I wonder if it has gone too far?

Once through that process, I was off to the gate. After twenty-three years of marriage to my wife, Kathy, I have come to appreciate observing more closely my surroundings and the reactions of other people. On the Delta flight to Atlanta across the hall from where I was seated, a number of military troops were heading out for yet another tour of duty in the Middle East. These were young men and women seated with parents, spouses, partners, and siblings. There was a sense of urgency, of time running out, of making sure things were said and heard before the Delta representative stepped to the microphone to announce the boarding of the aircraft.

One family in particular caught my attention. A young man in fatigues with his mother and father were engaged in deep conversation. They had leaned into one other and the mother was resting her hand on her son’s shoulder almost as if she was praying over him. The father nodded his head slowly as his son imparted last words of wisdom. The bond of affection between these three persons was real and relevant.

Finally, the announcement came that the flight was in its final boarding process. The three family members rose and embraced one another; tears, kisses, final goodbyes. Three separate individuals united and connected in so many ways by love, biology, name, passion, and concern. They were a living example of three in one and one in three.

Perichoresis - reciprocal love and total empathy

Perichoresis, from Greek, (peri, around, chorein, to contain) meaning
“interpenetration” was first observed in the writings of Saint Gregory of Naziansus and later in the works of Saint John of Damascus. It is a term that refers to the mutual interpenetration and indwelling within the threefold nature of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

I am not sure why the Doctrine of the Trinity presents such a challenge to the modern day Christian. Saint Patrick, it is said, presented a three leaf shamrock to the Irish people in trying to explain the mystery of the Trinity. Gregory of Nyssa, in his treatise, That There are Not Three Gods, compared the divinity shared by the three persons of the Trinity to the common
"humanness," or human nature, which is shared by individual human beings. In recent years, I have heard the Trinity described in terms of water which is seen as vapor, liquid and ice.

While the word “Trinity” does not appear in the Bible, it certainly is referenced to in the writings of the Gospel of John where Jesus speaks of the Father and Son as being one and the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. But the clearest expression of the concept of the Trinity comes to us in the writings of Tertullian, a Latin scholar and theologian writing at the beginning of the Third Century CE. It was Tertullian who actually coined the word “Trinity” and “person” explaining that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were “one in essence – not one in Person” (Ante-Nicene Fathers, page 621).

Whatever the development of this foundational Christian belief, the example of the Trinity was clearly expressed in the love shared in a brief moment yesterday between a father, a mother, and a son. I hope that I will never forget that image of perichoresis which was for me a comprehensive example of relational love, understanding and oneness. In an airport of all places? God is awesome.

Love One Another – Brian