Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Trinity Sunday


For Trinity Sunday here's a quote from page 72 of Why Go to Church: The Drama of the Eucharist by Timothy Radcliffe:

I do assent to various propositions, such as that God exists, even if I do not understand what it means for God to exist...But that is not enough. Aquinas points out that even the Devil accepts the truth of these propositions. Friendship with God changes how I see everything. The persons of the Trinity are not three 'imaginary friends', in the words of [Richard] Dawkins, three people with whom I can have fantasy conversations. Rather friendship with the Triune God reshapes my perception of the world. Believing in the Father, the creator of heaven and earth, I see everything with gratitude. Believing in the Son, I delight in its intelligibility and seek understanding. Believing in the Holy Spirit, I am thrown beyond myself in love. The doctrine of the Trinity, therefore, should not make me a bigot, intolerant of those whose faith is different or non-existent. It should fill me with gratitude for their existence, open my mind to them and help me to see them lovingly. Dogma matters. Orthodoxy liberates one from prejudice and petty-mindedness, and unlocks our hearts and minds.

Another way to come at the same understanding is to own that Trinitarian Orthodoxy is the outcome of a great adventure into the truth of existence, a quest at once passionately and exigently personal and at the same time communal. It is the crystallization of the most profound religious experience, wedding contemplative discernment of the highest order and the progressive development of revelation. And the frontier of this adventure is the nature of reality itself.

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About Me

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Petaluma, California, United States
I am a priest in the Episcopal Church, and have been (among other things) an organic farmer and gardener, and a Zen monk. I have a lifelong interest in social and spiritual renewal on the basis of contemplative discipline, creative nonviolence, and ecological practice. In recent years my work has focused intensely on the responsibility of pastoral ministry in the humanistic, evangelical, and catholic branch of Christianity known as Anglicanism. I'm married with a daughter, and have three brothers and two parents.