In earlier Christian times, not everyone was able to read the written word, so pictures, stained glass windows and statues were used to help them remember. If you look in a children's bible you will see pictures to facilitate that remembering process. Often if there is something we really want to remember we do it with a picture. For instance to remember the flower "hibiscus" I picture a biscuit on a high tower. That is how this icon was used -- to help us remember certain things about the Holy Trinity.
This is perhaps the most famous icon of the Holy Trinity. It was painted by Andrei Rublev in 1410. It is the only icon attributed only to Rublev. Icons in the 15th century were often group efforts by several artists. It is currently in Tret-ya-kov Gallery in Moscow, a state repository of many pieces of Russia's finest art. You might wonder how did the artist know who God is? I think he may have used apophasis, that is he knew what God was not and painted the opposite. I will illustrate this when we look more closely at the icon.
In regards to the Holy Trinity the story is told of Augustine of Hippo, a great philosopher and theologian. He was preoccupied with the doctrine of the Trinity. He wanted so much to understand the doctrine of one God with three persons and to be able to explain it logically One day he was walking along the sea shore and reflecting on the matter. Suddenly he saw a ;little child all alone on the shore. The child made a hole in the sand, ran to the sea with a little cup, filled her cup with sea water, ran back and emptied the cup into the hole that she had made. Back and forth she went to the sea, filled her cup and came and poured it into the hole. Augustine drew up and said to her, "Child, what are you doing?" She replied, " I am emptying the sea into this hole." "What do you think?" Augustine asked her, "Do you think that you can empty this immense sea into this tiny hole and with this tiny cup?" She answered back, "And you, how do you suppose with that tiny head of yours you could ever have room for the immensity of God?" With that the child disappeared.
The doctrine of the inner relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in such a way that each of them is fully and equally God, yet there are not three Gods but one, cannot be fully comprehended by the human mind...
The doctrine of three persons in one God, equal in divinity yet distinct in personality, is not explicitly spelled out in the Bible. In fact the very word "Trinity" is not found in the Bible. Early Christians arrived at the doctrine when they applied their God-given reason to the revelation which they had received in faith. Jesus spoke about the Father who sent him (the Son) and about the Holy Spirit whom he was going to send. he said that the Father had given him (the Son) all that he has and that he had given that to the Holy Spirit as well. In this we see the unity of purpose among the three persons of the Trinity.
Like Augustine we may not be able to understand the HOW of the Trinity but it is very important to understand the WHY. Why did God reveal to us this mystery regarding the very nature of the Supreme Being? The importance of this doctrine lies in this: we are made in the image of God, therefore, the more we understand God the more we understand ourselves. Experts in religion tell us that people always try to be like the god they worship. People who worship a warrior god tend to be warmongering, people who worship a god of pleasure tend to be pleasure-seeking, people who worship a god of wrath tend to be vengeful, and people who worship a god of love tend to be loving. Like a god, so the worshippers. Therefore, the more important question for us to ask is: What does the doctrine of the Holy Trinity tell us about the kind of God we worship and what does this say about the kind of people we should be? Let's look at the Icon for answers.
-- Look at the loving soft eyes of each person of the Trinity, eyes exuding warmth, welcome, and kindness.
-- Notice how each person looks so similar to the other like they are of the same substance. (Nod distinctive individuals.
-- Look at the matching staffs which each person holds in his left hand - indicating equality in power and perception. (Not hierarchical in power)
-- Look at the way the son (in the middle) gazes toward his Father and his Father returns his gaze with respect. This indicates he is both God and man. (Both, Not one or the other.)
-- Look at the father's hand held in the posture of blessing.
-- Look at the Holy Spirit gesturing towards the chalice and pointing toward a place in the altar where the relics are stored indicating a place at the table for all of us to join the Trinity in Communion.
-- Look at the three halos of the three persons in community. They indicate further the horizontality or equality of their relationship.
-- See the verticality in the picture starting at the top of the tree next to Jesus and running down the side of his chair and through the altar and along the Holy Spirit's left leg. This verticality is the true welcome mat for us to join them. The horizontality and verticality form a cross. The halos are circles. Where circles and cross intersect we are invited to join the Holy Trinity.
-- We are made in God's image and likeness. Just as God exists as god only in a Trinitarian relationship. so we can be fully human only in a relationship of three partners. We need to be in a horizontal relationship with our loved ones and others and we need to be in a vertical relationship with God. We look up to God as the immense ineffable transcendence. And like Augustine we are urged that we cannot get our little minds around that but we can experience the presence of God in a Trinitarian sense through our relationships with others plus our Relationship with God....
Happiness research has shown that the single most important ingredient in happiness is a sense of community with family and friends. A sense of community with God is a multiplier in that happiness. True happiness on earth does not happen in the absence of faith.
On the next page is a reprint of another's view on this particular Trinity Icon and on what it represents.
Rublev’s Icon: Contemplating the Trinity, Inwardly and Outwardly
Paul Fromont
The Hospitality of Abraham.
For many of us, any talk of Trinity brings to mind Andrei Rublev’s 15th century icon, painted it is believed, sometime around 1410. Type “Trinitarian icons” into Google Images and the predominant image you’ll get is this well-known icon.
I have in my library a beautiful copy of it – written by the Benedictines from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem – a gift from one of my sisters. Called by its traditional Eastern name it is known as “The Hospitality of Abraham.” It depicts the three angels who visited Abraham near the great trees of Mamre (Gen 18: 1-15), but has long come to be seen as an icon of the Trinity; although it must be said that it is far from clear that that the intention of the “writer” was to identify each of the three figures as a particular member of the Trinity. Tradition does however suggest that the central, and thus pivotal figure in the icon, is Jesus Christ iincarnate.”
“If it pleases you, stop for a while with your servant [Abraham]. I'll get some water so you can wash your feet. Rest under this tree. I'll get some food to refresh you on your way, since your travels have brought you across my path."
They said, "Certainly. Go ahead."
Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. He said, "Hurry. Get three cups of our best flour; knead it
and make bread."
Then Abraham ran to the cattle pen and picked out a nice plump calf and gave it to the servant who lost no time getting it ready. Then he got curds and milk, brought them with the calf that had been roasted, set the meal before the men, and stood there under the tree while they ate.”
At its most obvious level this icon depicts three angelic persons gathered around a square, or perhaps a rectangular table. On the table appears to be a chalice of wine, with Christ’s hand extended in blessing over it. In the background are the portico of Abraham and Sarah’s home, and presumably a creative representation of one of the oaks of Mamre. The spatial sense of the icon is a little difficult to grasp but most interpreters suggests that as we look at the figures in the icon, the eyes of each defer to the other in a circling movement around the table. At theological level we can talk of these “three” as God, yet we also understand that “God, [though] three persons…is one in nature, substance and essence.”
While at yet another level we can say that to reflect on Rublev’s icon is to sit with a continuing awareness that beyond our words and attempts at definition and description, God remains “mystery”3 – a mystery of being, relationality and action. Indeed, we are told that the Trinity “is the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life.”
In what follows, I want to (briefly) reflect on how it is that we are invited into this mystery of trinitarian relatedness. I want to say a little about the action or direction of trinitarian spirituality. And finally, I want to earth an engagement with Rublev’s Trinity in the ordinary and everyday4 by suggesting that mission, or action, is the needful outworking of a contemplative life that takes seriously ones location within the divine relatedness of the Trinity.
Returning to the Centre: Participating in the Trinity
“To look at Jesus is not to enter into a simple one-to-one relation. It is right to think of Jesus as my
personal Lord and Saviour [and] to express that in terms of loving devotion; but we need to be careful that we do not stop there… we must never lose sight of the fact that the thrust, the direction of all Jesus is and does and suffers is toward the Father from whom he came… To understand Jesus and to relate rightly to Jesus is to be with him in his movement toward the ultimate source of divine life…”5 (Italics, mine).
One of the first features to draw your attention in Rublev’s icon is its inherent invitation – an empty seat at the table beckons you. But, “how”? How is it possible for us to enter into this relational mystery – to sit, as it were, at the table? How do we move from talking about God (as Trinity) to a way of relating too and being in relationship with this tri-personal God?
US theologian Kathryn Tanner6 offers an evocative response to these questions: “…In Christ the … human [is incorporated] within the divine Trinitarian life. By joining us to those relations, Christ gives us the very relations of Father, Son, and Spirit for our own. By becoming incarnate, the second person of the trinity takes [our] humanity … into [his] own relations with Father and Spirit … In Christ we are shown what the trinity looks like when it includes the human and what humanity looks like when it is included in the trinity’s own movements … By being taken up into them as the very creatures [we] are, [we] come to share a divine form of existence …by becoming [incorporated into] it…” (Italics, mine).
Michael Downey7 locates this act of “incorporation” in baptism. In fact he argues, rightly I think, that “Trinitarian spirituality is nothing more, or less, than baptismal spirituality. In baptism we are conformed to Christ, anointed by the Spirit, gifted by the Father to live as sons and daughters of God.” We live within the circle of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Jesus space is made for us on the ‘vacant’ side of the table. But more than that, this ‘vacant’ space at the table serves to remind us that Jesus is God’s “self-gift” for whom we must make increasing space.
Emerging from the Centre: Contemplation and the invitation to mission
“The doctrines of Christ and of the Trinity can seem … remote and theoretical to most people … [but] what we seem to forget is that they were designed in order not only to tell us the truth about God but to make us live that truth. They are invitations…” (Italics, mine).8
“To know God is to participate in his mission; what he is doing in the Son through the Spirit.”9 (Italics, mine).
Episcopalian priest, author and teacher Cynthia Bourgeault has been helpful to me in terms of thinking about the Trinity and the contemplative life; particularly in terms of the way we are carried from contemplation to action. In a wonderful interview on centering prayer and inner awakening she describes the Trinity as being like a “great paddle wheel”.
“… [The Trinity] works by self-giving love. [This] describes a process. The one point, call it the Father, spills [over and] into the other point called the Son; spills [over and] into the other point called the Holy Spirit; spills [over and] into the point called the Father, just like a great paddle wheel. And, what is generated [out of that continuous movement] is love made visible… The way that we will always know and be connected to God in this life, at the deepest level, is through this process. And the whole process is Father, Son and Holy Spirit – undivided unity”.
So, in Christ our full humanity is “incorporated into” or immersed within a “circling movement” of love between the persons of the Trinity. “Knowing the Trinity is being involved in this circling movement: drawn by the Son towards the Father, drawn into the Father’s breathing out of the Spirit so that the Son’s life may be made real in the world. [This] is where contemplation and action become inseparable.” (Italics, mine).10 This act of “deflection”11, or to use Bourgeault’s paddle wheel image; this generation of “love made visible”, is an outward movement that is always towards the “other”. Self-emptying (kenosis) for the love of the other12. This outward movement, I believe, lies at the heart of a trinitarian understanding of the action of God in God’s creation. To emerge from the contemplative experience, the “centre” if you like, is “in order to do compassionate action.”13
Again, Kathryn Tanner captures this sense wonderfully when she tells us that: “…The character of [God’s] mission, as Jesus’ own way of life makes clear, is to inaugurate a life-brimming, spirit-filled community of human beings akin to Jesus in their relations with God: the mission means bringing in the kingdom or new community that accord with Jesus’ own healing, reconciling, and life-giving relations… We are to participate in the Father’s mission for the world, mediating the life-giving Spirit of Christ, through union with him”14
In Jesus Christ we enter into what Meister Eckhart describes as the “flow of the Trinity into Creation.”15 The contemplative and the mystical are given expression through our sentness (‘missio’). To put it another way, the authentic contemplative experience and the wisdom that emerges from it, are given flesh in our down-to-earth love of neighbour.16 We become “contemplatives in action”17, immersed in the continuous ebb and flow of the inward and the outward.18
Eucharist – a concluding thought
Rublev’s icon and trinitarian spirituality remind us that contemplation is not an end unto itself. Indeed, I wonder, thinking of my earlier reference to Jesus’ Eucharistic action in the icon, if this doesn’t also serve as a reminder of this point. We are gathered to the table, at the cost of Jesus’ suffering and sacrifice, to be fed. To be fed in order that we, being “filled with” God’s “life and goodness” are strengthened “to do [God’s] work”; and “to be [Christ’s] body in the world.” A Trinitarian spirituality holds in tension both an “inward” or gathered dimension, and an “outward” or sent dimension. Both are needful.
Notes
1 Rowan Williams, The Dwelling of the Light: Praying with Icons of Jesus, Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2003,
p. 50.
2 Ibid, p. 57.
3 No matter how seriously I take the incarnation and Christology, this always seems to be the case for me.
4 It doesn’t get more ordinary and everyday than the scene depicted in Genesis 18:1-15 and Rublev’s iconic
representation of that event.
5 Williams, Ibid, p.54.
6 In a lecture in Auckland in 2007 titled: Kingdom Come: The Trinity and Politics.
7 Michael Downey, Trinity and Spirituality in The New SCM Dictionary of Christian Spirituality. London:
SCM Press, 2005, p.625. See also Downey’s very helpful little book Altogether Gift: A Trinitarian
Spirituality, Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2000, especially chapters 4 (“Participation in the mission of Word
and Spirit”) & 5 (“Living freely from the Gift”).
8 Williams, Ibid. pp. 57-58.
9 Kevin Vanhoozer. Asbury Seminary 2007 Theta Phi Lecture: The Stage, the Story, and the Script.
10 Williams, Ibid, p. 57.
11 Rowan Williams, in an essay titled The Deflection of Desire: Negative Theology in Trinitarian Disclosure.
12 C.f. Philippians 2:5-11. “…Kenosis means self-emptying, always with the proviso that one hopes to make
more room for God and ones neighbour.” James K. Baxter Jerusalem Daybook, Wellington: Price Milburn,
1971, p.40. This deeply practical notion of Trinitarian “self-giving love”; the generation of love made
visible, “puts us”, as Greek Orthodox Bishop Kallistos Ware says, “under an obligation to struggle at every
level, from the strictly personal to the highly organized, against all forms of oppression, injustice and
exploitation.” (The Orthodox Way, Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, revised edition 1995, p. 39.
13 Richard Rohr.
14 Kathryn Tanner, Kingdom Come: The Trinity and Politics.
15 Philip Sheldrake, Apophatic Spirituality in The New SCM Dictionary of Christian Spirituality. London:
SCM Press, 2005, p.118.
16 St. Teresa of Avila.
17 A description often attributed to St. Ignatius of Loyola.
18 For me, the “ebb and flow” evokes memories of many walks along Whangamata beach: the ebb and flow of
tides; the breaking of waves on the beach and their withdrawal back to the ocean from which they came.
19 Quotes in this closing paragraph are from Liturgies of the Eucharist in A New Zealand Prayer Book – He
Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa.
[Word count 1727]
AND another explanation of meaning and symbolism in the Rublev Trinity Icon, even down to what the meanings of their various dress and colors are. Here is a link to that discussion. By the time you are done, you are going to have a wonderful understanding of this Icon and by its association of the doctrine of the Trinity.
http://www.sacredheartpullman.org/Icon%20explanation.htm
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