We could dream away on God's lap.

Monday, 1/12/15

As Christians we believe in the Blessed Trinity, even though we possess only scraps of information concerning it. We speak of the first two persons as the Father and the Son, even though we are using those terms somewhat metaphorically.

With Scripture saying very little about their relationship, we make the best of the scraps of information it gives So, we take up passages like that in today’s reading from, the Letter to the Hebrews.

Of the Son it says, “Who is the refulgence of his glory, the very imprint of his being.”

What is the refulgence of his glory? I don’t know, but it might mean that like the moon that shines only with the sun’s reflected light, so it is with the Son.

Let me quote from Paul’s letter to the Colossians, Chapter One, verse fourteen. “He is the image of the invisible God.” Well, there cannot be an actual image of what is invisible, but we must make the best we can of it.

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote about the relationship of the Father to the Son, and this is my imperfect grasp of what he wrote. Thomas said that God from all eternity had a mental picture of himself. And since that picture was an exact image of himself, and since it never wavered, it could be thought of as the Father’s brainchild, his Son.

I like the story of St. Philip Neri who lived so much in love and awe of the Trinity that when he offered Mass in honor of the Trinity the altar body had to ring the belll and tug on Philip’s alb to bring him back to earth.

Let me try analyzing my relationship with my own dad to grasp something of the relationship of the Son to the Father.

When I was a kid my dad worked nights, and tended to be grumpy. But once when I was eight, and he was on vacation, he called me over, setting me on his knee.

I remember a sudden feeling of it being very right and pleasant to be in his grasp. So, instead of our theorizing about the Trinity, we might just  dream away on God's knee.