In the beginning is communion, not solitude
28/10/2012
- Opinión
We previously wrote that God is mystery in Itself and to Itself. For Christians, it is about the mystery of communion, not solitude. It is the Most Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Orthodoxy affirms: there are three Persons and only one God. Is that possible? Would it not be absurd, 3=1? Here we touch on what Christians understand when they say "God." It is different from the absolute Jewish and Moslem monotheism. Without abandoning monotheism, we should clarify this Trinity.
The Three is certainly a number. But not as a result of 1+1+1=3. If we think that way, mathematically, then God is not three but one and unique. The number three functions as a symbol indicating that under the name God there is communion rather than solitude, distinctions that are not exclusive but inclusive, that are not opposed but are composed. The number three would be like the halo we symbolically place around the head of saintly persons. It is not that these persons go around with their halos, but that to us it is the symbol that indicates that we are before saintly figures. The same occurs with the number three.
By the number three, we indicate that in God there are distinctions. If there were no distinctions, the solitude of the one would reign. The word Trinity (three) stands for love, communion, and inter-retro-relations. Trinity means exactly this: distinctions in God that permit the inter-exchange and the mutual offering of Father, Son and Spirit.
In truth, as the genius of Saint Augustine understood, it should not be referred to as three persons. Each divine Person is unique and the uniques are not added up because unique is not a number. If I say one as a number, then there is no way to stop: two, thee, four and to infinity would follow. Immanuel Kant erroneously understood it that way and for that reason, he rejected the idea of the Trinity. Consequently, the number three has a symbolic value, rather than a mathematical one. What does three symbolize?
C. G. Jung comes to our help. He wrote an extensive essay about the archetypical-symbolic meaning of the Christian Trinity. The three expresses the intimate and infinite relationship among distinct Persons that unify themselves, this is, make themselves one, an only God.
But if they are three Uniques, would it not result in triteism, this to say, three Gods instead of one; monotheism? That would follow if mathematical logic controlled. If I add one coat + one coat + one coat, I have three coats. But it is not like that with the Trinity, because we are faced with a different logic, the logic of interpersonal relationships. According to this logic, relationships are not added; they are interwoven and inclusive, forming a unity. Thus, father, mother and children constitute a unique set of relationships, forming a unique family. The family results from the inclusive relationships among the members who comprise it. There is no father and mother without a child; neither there is a child without a father and mother. The three are unified, are one, a unique family. Three different beings but one single family, the human trinity.
When we speak of God-Trinity, it is the logic of inter-personal relationships that is in play, not the logic of numbers. In other words, the intimate nature of God is not solitude but communion.
If there were but one single God, absolute solitude truly would reign. If there were two, one facing the other, there would be distinction, and both separation and exclusion (the one is not the other), and mutual contemplation. Would that not be double egoism? With three, the one and the two turn towards the three, overcoming separation and finding each other in the three. A circular communion, and inclusion of the ones in the others, by the others and with the others; in a word: the Trinity.
What exists first is the simultaneous nature of the Unique three. None is before or after. They emerge together, always communicating in a reciprocal and endless manner. This is why we say that at the beginning there is communion. As a consequence of this infinite communion, there is the union and the unity in God. Thus: three Persons and only one God-communion.
Are not modern cosmologists telling us exactly that? The universe is made up of relationships, and nothing exists outside those relationships. The universe is the great metaphor of the Trinity, all is relation of all with all: a uni-verse. And we are part of it.
- Leonardo Boff, Theologian / Earthcharter Commission, author of the book, Holy Trinity: Perfect Community, Orbis Books, New York, 2000.
Free translation from the Spanish sent by Melina Alfaro, done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.
https://www.alainet.org/en/articulo/162200
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