The Circle with Love at the Center

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is the way we Christians systematically account for the deepest meaning of human existence and systematically express our experience of the ultimate source of that meaning, which is the Triune God, disclosed through Jesus Christ and abidingly active as the instrument of reconciliation and unification in the Holy Spirit.

The doctrine invokes deep thoughts, which when followed logically; it is difficult or impossible to be totally comprehended. Faith is all we need to flow with it. Our approach to the doctrine of the Triune God should be more of description and application rather than definition and explanation.

There have been a lot of efforts in trying to explain the meaning of One God in three persons. Jesus Christ used the term “Father” in talking about the Creator God and “Son” in referring to himself who is the Redeemer God. In John 5:26, Jesus states "As the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself." The Holy Spirit is always considered neutral. If we have to go by this interpretation, women will be wondering if they have a chance in this triune God, since none of these persons of the Blessed Trinity is said to be a woman; however, this is not about gender. Also how would children whose parents were divorced even before they could open their eyes to see who is around them and how their environment looked like? How can teenagers and young adults who never had any good experience with the men who should be their fathers, understand this explanation of the Trinity? This is where the description and application of the mystery of the Trinity comes. So let us do more of describing the Trinity God as relationship in the form of a Circle with Love at the Center. No matter from which point we approach the center, we still have the same distance to cover. The beginning and the end of the circle is not known. If any of the ‘persons’ detaches himself from the circle, everything will fall apart since the center cannot hold with a broken circle.

The solemnity we celebrate today will be more relevant to us if we apply the description of the Trinity as relationship in form of a Circle with Love at the Center to our entire existence. After thirty years of dating and twenty four of marriage, a couple wanted divorce because they felt that they were incompatible. They had three children out of their presumed incompatibility. The term of the divorce is that they will share everything the have equally. Inventory of everything they acquired during the years they were officially married was made and everything divided, with their families, friends and secret contenders present. After the division of their properties and everyone was about to depart, the spiritual Director who tried to no avail to dissuade them from taken that rout requested to make a point of order, and he was given a chance. He reminded the couple that there were still very important things they have not shared. Everyone wanted to know what those were; they priest called the three children (fruits of their “incompatible” love) to stand at the center of the circle, and they did. He asked each of the couple to take whatever he/she contributed in producing those children, and their divorce will be meaningful, total and recognized. This was amazing thought that kept everyone in a box. They could not do it; so they began to understand that “incompatibility” is not the issue but that at a stage in their relationship, they broke the circle that formed the love at the center.

Today as we celebrate this solemnity, let us think of the many children, teenagers and young adults who are suffering different kinds of mental, psychological and even physical torture and illnesses because the family that is supposed to be a relationship in form of a circle with love at the center was torn apart. What will happen if God divorces the world he created in love? Of course, we human beings that are the fruits of the love that God has for his creation will suffer like products of divorced marriages and dysfunctional families. But God will never abandon us or divorce his creation.

The same reasons why families and marriages break are also the causes of war, terror and all kinds of violence in our world. What are these reasons? Counterfeit love (love that does not want to get committed; love that is selfish and only sensual); pride and superiority complex; non forgiving spirit and revenge, belief in temporary things and deceptive powers; three uncompromising forces operating in one person (the body does not agree with the mind, and the mind quarrels with the spirit) thereby creating frustration and violence as consequences; and greedy, etc.

The solemnity of the Holy Trinity is a challenge to fix all our broken circles of relationship so that we could find love at the center. Our thoughts should agree with our words, and the actions we perform should confirm our words. The Trinity as a mystery of relationship of love teaches us never to put ourselves at the center to be worship or feared but to form part of the circle with love at the center: and God is love.