My Trinity: Life, Love & Mystery

Kimi Riegel

Trinity. That which comes in threes. There is the Earth, Sky and above that the Heavens, birth, life and death, and of course the phases of the moon; waxing, full and waning. Many ancient traditions particularly Greek held that Gods and Goddesses occurred in groups of three. Among the Goddesses were the fates, the graces, the furies and the Sirens to name just a few. And more generally the representation of maiden, mother and crone or son, father and lover as the stages of our lives form still more trinities.

It is believed that the Nicene Council in 325, when the trinity, father, Son and Holy Spirit became a part of the Christian doctrine, was an attempt to bring many pieces of divergent theologies together; namely that of Christian and Greek. Thus the accepted way of viewing the Christian godhead became father, son and Holy Spirit. They are three but one much the same way as the moon is one but has different phases.

It’s funny to find ourselves in the same company as the Jehovah Witnesses on a doctrinal issue, but here we are. Unitarians came from a heretical group of people in the fourth century who felt that Jesus was a human being separate and not equal with God. This was the group ousted by the Nicene council. It was Arianism following the teachings of Arius. He preached that the Second Person of the Trinity was not equal with the Father but was subordinate to Him. Christ is not God, said Arius; He is but the first and most exalted of creatures! Today Jehovah Witnesses, being very scripturally based, continue that understanding because they find no scriptural backing for a trinity. We have moved a tad bit further to the left then our Jehovah Witness cousins but we have the same ancestors.

When I was studying to be a minister I served for a summer in a hospital in a program called Clinical Pastoral Education. In student groups we would study the processes of trying to help people in the hospital. Nearly everyone in my group including the supervisor was a devout Christian. We had papers due each week about our experiences in the hospital rooms. We would then share these in the group and talk about why we did what we did and what we might do differently next time.

Our final paper was a theological summary. Now I don’t want to imply that any part of that summer experience was easy, but the final paper was very challenging. The first problem with the paper is that theology is the study of God and His relation to the world. I knew from past experiences that my God and the God of my colleagues were so different that it was pointless to write about my “theology”. It would be a paper about why it couldn’t be a paper about theology. That was a dead horse I had already spent the summer beating.

When I thought about those wonderful people I had spent the summer with I realized that their idea of God was this trinity. They all believed in Jesus, God and a Spirit that moved among us. This was true to a greater or lesser extent depending on the denomination to which they ascribed - my Catholic colleagues being most invested and the American Baptist least (he later became a UU and I married him, but that’s another story).

So I tried to think of what held up my reality in the same way this trinity did theirs. I came up with my trinity; Life, Love and Mystery; three things that are separate but one. They are as dependent on each other as The Holy Trinity and for me as essential.
Life with a capital L is the starting point. Life includes everything that is living which is of course a circular definition. For me it might be another word for God. It is everything that affects me and that I affect. It is part of me and I am part of it. It drives my daily affairs and I drive it. Life is the ongoing process of which we are a part. It is that space between birth and death. And it is the biological functioning of growing and changing. William Ellery Channing once said that evil it every thing that separates us from our God given relationships. I would alter that slightly and say that evil is that which is not Life affirming. The first part of my Trinity; my summary of what is essential to reality is Life.

Next comes love. It is what makes life possible and enjoyable. It is what necessitates growth. I am of course referring to all kinds of love. Charity, compassion, affection, commitment, intimacy, passion, and service are all words that are associated with love. When I say love is part of my trinity I mean all of these. It is the Jesus of my trinity. Love is the part that is human. It is the part that is about our particular human relationships. Love is what connects me to Life. It is through Love that I am forgiven for my short comings and given a kind of eternal life.

Life, Love and finally there is Mystery. It is that part of existence that is beyond understanding. Mystery is always present yet beyond our grasp. It is the Holy Spirit of my trinity. In earlier times Mystery was a rite that only the initiated were invited to participate. This Mystery of my trinity is something in which we all participate. There will always be events and processes which we are unable to comprehend. There will always be that part of Life and Love which goes beyond the simply human realm. I have a great deal of respect and reverence for Mystery. It keeps me humble. It reminds me of the limits of my Life and Love.

So you see the three are connected. They are one. You can’t have Life without Mystery and Love. And certainly love is not possible without life and Mystery. And well Mystery infuses the other two in a deep and hard to grasp way.
Life, Love and Mystery. They have helped me to understand my Christian brothers and sisters. We are not so far apart. And I hope at least that summer it helped them to understand me.