[Pearls Ep. 123: Monday Motivation]
We’re looking at the Trinity, and how we fit into it.
On Thursday and Friday we looked at the cycle of self-giving of the Trinity. The self-knowing of the Father begets the Son, and the Spirit proceeds from the love between the Father and Son. Not only that, Jesus tells us that the Father will send the Spirit. What does the Spirit do? He reveals the Son. What does the Son do, He reveals the Father. And on and on.
Where do we fit in? Through Christ and His Spirit dwelling in us, we are adopted sons and daughters of God.
We enter into the cycle of Trinitarian self-giving love with Christ. We share in the love between the Father and Son that produces new life – the Holy Spirit.
It can be asked – how do we do that without detracting from Christ?
Well, we certainly do participate in Trinitarian love. St. Paul tells us, “we make up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.” What is lacking? Our contribution. But how can we contribute anything? How can we add anything to Christ? Well, we can’t, because it is Christ acting through us. Thus St. Paul says, “it is not I that live but Christ in me.” More to the point, Christ tells us that we are part of His mystical Body. In a spiritual way, whenever we do anything good, it is Christ doing it through us.
Still it can be asked, if Christ gives us a share of His grace, isn’t He diminished? Is there less of Him since He gave some of Himself to us? If He gives us even a little of His grace, and I know some of our regular readers are channels of tremendous amounts of grace, isn’t there a little less for Him?
The early Church Fathers wrestled, contemplated and thought on this – particularly St. Cyril of Alexandria. In so many words, St. Cyril maintained that whatever scripture may say about certain things belonging to the Father or being given to the Son, never is the Godhead diminished.
Here’s an analogy from calculus – the concept of infinity (the early Fathers didn’t have the benefit of learning calculus from Sr. Dorothy, since it was millenia before it was discovered). You might recall that infinity plus 1 is … infinity. Infinity plus 10,000 is … infinity. Infinity plus eleventy gagillion is … infinity. And, infinity minus eleventy gagillion is still … infinity. You can neither add to nor subtract from infinity.
And God is infinite. And we are quite finite. So no matter what we do, while it may be a big deal for us, it neither adds to nor subtracts from God. God can share with us whatever He wills and allow us to participate in all manner of ways, and it won’t add or subtract one iota from His perfection.
Here’s a more human example – a family. A loving family with, say, 2 children is a complete family. Nothing is wanting or lacking. But what if they receive the happy news of a third baby on the way? Well, they are now a complete family of five instead of four. Nothing was lacking before, and nothing is taken away from the original four members with the addition of the fifth. Love always has room for one more.
Just so, the Trinity has a place reserved specially for you.
Blessings on your journey with Christ –
Steve and Karen Smith
Interior Life