When Love is Perfect, the LOVE is EQUAL to the PERSONS who love.
It has taken me perhaps my entire earthly life to really come to understand something about the Holy Spirit.
When I was a little school girl, one of my primary school teachers explained the Holy Trinity to me using Saint Patrick’s metaphor of the three leaf clover. She explained that just as the three leaves of the clover are united in one stem, so too are the three persons of God really part of one whole being.
When I was younger, that analogy made adequate sense to me in terms of God the Father and God the Son, but I must admit that I remained quite confused about God the Holy Spirit. After all, that Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity was not really a Person at all. He is neither the Father nor the Son, and is instead the RELATIONSHIP between the Father and the Son. And it was the relationship part that had me in a muddle.
As I grew older, various things in the world only served to aggravate my confusion about the Holy Spirit. It was not so much that I refused to believe in Him or in the Holy Trinity, it was that I was completely unable to understand anything about Him or to connect with Him in any way, and because of this I missed out on so much. You see, when I studied a little commercial law at university, I learned about Trusts (and in fact I later wrote a thesis about the tax implications of the trust structure). And in many ways that trust structure reminded me of the Holy Spirit. You see a Trust is not a person in law. A trust does not have its own rights and only acts as a conduit – or vehicle – through which the beneficiaries of the trust (which were about the same as God the Father in my mind) can be awarded their distributions or entitlements by the executor of the trust (who was represented by Christ crucified).
And so – in my mind at least – the Holy Spirit was a vessel just like that trust. And being a vessel (a relationship), the Holy Spirit was somehow LESS than the other Holy Persons of the Most Blessed Trinity in my mind (even though I believed that He was perfectly equal to Them, through my faith)…
And then – following my conversion which occurred through Grace and no merit of my own, while I was praying for my little niece who was so very sick – I suddenly (in an instant) came to understand that the Holy Spirit is EQUAL, PERFECTLY EQUAL, to the other Persons of the Most Blessed Trinity because He is the love between Them. You see, the LOVE between the Father and the Son is so perfect that the LOVE itself is perfect.
And my tiny human mind could never comprehend anything like that. You see, I love my children as much as it is possible to love another creature in this world. I would literally die for my children. And I know that my children love me too. And yet, my love is imperfect. I know this because sometimes my children annoy me. Sometimes they upset me. Sometimes they disappoint me or I disappoint them. And sometimes we misunderstand each other. And so, the greatest love that I can feel for another creature is imperfect.
Now, consider my love in comparison to the perfect Divine love of God… There is no annoyance, no upsets, no disappointment and no misunderstanding. There is simply PERFECTION. Perfect LOVE. And when Love is Perfect, the LOVE is EQUAL to the PERSONS who love, which means that the Holy Spirit is EQUAL to the Father and the Son...
And today I settle back into my chair as I ponder this mystery. For I am a daughter of my Beloved God, and He has prepared a place for me in His Kingdom to contemplate such a love as that… He has prepared a place.
What could I possibly have to fear?
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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