On the Feast of The Holy Trinity

Of all those great phrases and expressions, so powerful and pregnant with meaning, which, through much repetition become mere banalities, there are few in the English language so rich and magnificent as the expression "of hearth and home". This simple phrase, as simple and commonplace as the thing which it expresses, has all the power and beauty of such fundamental things, like roots and stone. It captures at once the tenderness and depth of familial love, and the majesty and strength of fire. To those who were blessed to be raised in good and loving families, such an expression carries the gift of inexpressible memories, memories burgeoning with such deeply felt, but unspoken, ideas as growth, life, foundations, and home. To those whose childhood memories are scarred with memories of brokenness, bitterness, separation, and solitude, this expression may stir that deeply hidden longing for stability, comfort, warmth, and family. And these are among the most deeply engraved longings in the human heart.

When one hears the expression "of hearth and home" it is easy to conjure up images of curly-headed toddlers playing in the firelight, of the chiaroscuro of the shadows framing the glowing figure of the woman robed in all the grace and majesty of motherhood, and of the deeply etched lines and shining eyes of the father marvelling to play such a part in all of this.

But what of the firelight? Why the hearth? Is it not simpler and more profound to merely utter that monumental word "home" and leave it as it is? Or why not candlelight, or sunlight, or even darkness flecked with stars? And yet, for some reason, the hearth seems essential, almost as if the subconscious of those who first spoke the phrase demanded that home and family and fire all go together. I, for one, feel quite certain that they do go together. One might almost say that the secret of the family is the fire.

I suspect that God, knowing full well the temptation to power and strength that brought down Satan and so many others, often chooses to hide majesty and power in the fragile and the simple things of life, where only humility and love can find them. What if we, like Prometheus of old, should rebel against the gods and bring down fire from heaven? Would we not soon end the world in some apocalyptic conflagration? But in the love, humility, understanding, and devotion of a Christian family there burns a fire that does not destroy, but may transform all the earth. And perhaps the family itself hides this power because it was patterned upon the Image of God Himself.

And this brings us to the point of theses scattered thoughts. The Trinity. That great and inexplicable mystery of the Christian Faith, is it not the very foundation and fountainhead of all of our Theology? How the Doctors and Theologians discoursed, and debated, and warred upon this central dogma! They wrestled with fine points of doctrine, and "et filioque" clauses, and reminders that we must believe in this single three-Person God never "confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance." And the saints and the mystics marvelled at the Trinity, and dwelt and adored in its Life as if they were swimming in some vast ocean of Love.

There is something terribly exciting about having a secret. It may be a bad secret, like some delightful bit of gossip, which one burns to tell. Or it may be a good secret, which one must hold until the time that it is ready to be revealed, when all may rejoice in it. A person with such a secret will find it very hard indeed to hold his tongue. His very attitude will be one pf knowing, and he is likely to bubble over with excitement and drop veiled hints here and there. It is something very like that with the history of the revelation of the great mystery of the Trinity. Like some Divine secret it is hinted at in various places in past ages. Three angels come to visit Abraham. God says "Let us make man in Our image." The Spirit moves the Prophets, and a Son is mentioned. But there is nothing particularly clear in all of this, and world had to wait until the great Revealer came.

It is Christ Who finally made known to us the monumental secret of the Personal Life of God. It was He, whose death rent the temple veil, who unveiled the very heavens. And the sons of Adam gaped up in astonishment at what they saw, and they have gone on rejoicing in it from that day to this.

When the veil of the heavens was rent, and the remnants of it swept aside, the great secret of Eternity was revealed. And that secret was not that the heavens were empty, nor that Yaweh dwelt in some Olympian solitude as we might expect. The staggering, joyous secret was that the heart of Eternity was Love, that God Himself was a Family. And it is here that the sane and healthy, the wounded and the scarred, all find their Hearth and their Home.