For Father Richard, our stories are found within God and the story of creation. He looks to the generative love of the Trinity as our origin story that begins in Divine Love instead of fear, punishment, isolation, or domination.
Let me share an astounding bit of poetry from Meister Eckhart (1260–1327), the wonderful German Dominican mystic:
Do you want to know
what goes on in the core of the Trinity?
I will tell you.
In the core of the Trinity
the Father laughs
and gives birth to the Son.
The Son laughs back at the Father
and gives birth to the Spirit.
The whole Trinity laughs
and gives birth to us. [1]
God has done only one constant thing since the beginning of time: God has always, forever, and without hesitation loved “the Son” (we can equally and fittingly use “the Daughter” or “the Child”), understood in this sense as creation, the material universe, you and me. The quality of the relationship toward and between each Person is the point, not gender or anything else. This flow of love goes full circle. The divine Child also creates the “Father” precisely as Father—as any parent can attest. A mother or father is not truly a parent until their child returns the flow. Watch the joy and tears on a parent’s face when their little one first says “Mama!” or “Dada!”
The Trinity has tremendous practical, pastoral, and political implications. We don’t have time for anything less than loving! Fear will never build a “new creation” (Galatians 6:15); threat is an entirely bankrupt and false storyline. The lowest level of motivation is guilt, shame, reward, and punishment; it has not moved us anywhere close to a civilization of love. [2]
When we—as individuals, a family, a church, or nation—find ourselves drawing any negative or fearful conclusions about God, we need only look deeply inside ourselves and we will probably find that we are angry and projecting our anger onto God. This very human pattern is illustrated throughout the Bible. [3]
Our sacred stories reflect both the growth and resistance of the human soul. I call it three steps forward, two steps backward. References to the “wrath” of God are examples of two-steps-backward storytelling. Yet the whole story moves slowly and inexorably toward inclusivity, mercy, unconditional love, and forgiveness.
The Trinity beautifully undoes all negativity by a totally positive movement that never reverses its direction. God is always giving, even in those moments when we experience the inaccessibility of love as if it were divine anger. I do not believe there is any wrath in God whatsoever—it’s theologically impossible when God is Trinity. [4]
References:
[1] Meditations with Meister Eckhart, versions by Matthew Fox (Santa Fe, NM: Bear and Company, 1983), 129. This text is based on Meister Eckhart, Scio hominem in Christo, a sermon on 2 Corinthians 12:2.
[2] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Essential Teachings on Love, selected by Joelle Chase and Judy Traeger (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2018), 38–39.
[3] Adapted from Richard Rohr, “Laughing, Liking, Delighting, Loving,” Daily Meditations, September 28, 2016.
[4] Rohr, Essential Teachings, 39.
Image credit: Joel and Jasmin Førestbird, Untitled (detail), 2018, photograph, public domain. Click here to enlarge image.
Stories are layered like the rings of a tree.
Story from Our Community:
Both my parents died within 10 weeks of each other, and the Daily Meditations have helped me greatly on my journey. I realized that I had underestimated the total transition you make when you experience grief. When I was grieving my parents, … I also found that I was grieving an old version of myself. Although there has been growth in this transition, I find myself craving that old state of innocence sometimes. Recently, I have been offering this experience up in prayer. I realize now that so much in life is out of my control. If I had realized that sooner, I would have saved myself a lot of struggle. I find great freedom in knowing that now. —Jackie B.
