Any cleric who has preached on the Trinity knows there is only so far one can go in one’s preparation without the temptation of allegory beckoning from the doorway. Allegory, of course, can be very helpful in drawing us closer to an understanding of God, as St Augustine wrote extensively about, but even he agreed it was only helpful to a point. God, ultimately, cannot be defined in human terms.
Wonder at this great mystery is our natural response, and drives us to define something that cannot be defined. Still, the doctrine of the Trinity matters: not only is it a central tenet of our faith but also the key unifying belief we share with other Christian denominations and the one that most sets us apart from other religions. So it makes sense we would want to define it; package it up safely in neat language we can deliver to those who wonder what we believe in.
Except we already have ancestors of the faith who did this for us. They agonized and fought with each other for centuries to finally land on – not a definition, but a declaration – a summary of what we are actually saying when we pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The Creeds aren’t just a nice little optional add-on in our worship. They are proclamations of the faith that bind us together as a body. On days when our own belief may falter, the persons in front and behind us, and to the right and left of us in the pews will hold that faith for us, and we will do the same for them when their faith wavers.
But declarations of faith and use of allegory can only take us so far: what are we to do when faced with the actual mystery of the Trinity? I think our natural response, and the correct one, is to move from wonder into adoration, as the poem by John Donne in this week’s Reflection, or this beautiful traditional hymn inspires us to do:
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and Mighty!
God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity!
Mother Amanda