Image credit: Three Russian Dancers (detail), Edgar Degas, 1895, National Museum, Stockholm Sweden.
"Trinity: Week 2"
"Shared Power"
Monday, March 6, 2017
The God of Jesus Christ exists entirely for, with, through another. The law of personhood is that the only way one “has” oneself at all is by giving oneself away.[Catherine Mowry LaCugna] [1]
What if we actually dropped into this Trinitarian flow and let it be our major teacher? Even our very notion of society, politics, and authority would utterly change, because most of it is still top down and outside in.
Trinitarian theology says that true power is circular or spiral, not so much hierarchical. It’s here; it’s within us. It’s shared and shareable; it’s already entirely for us. We have the power of “the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). God’s Spirit is planted within you and operating as you! Don’t keep looking to the top of the pyramid. Stop idolizing the so-called “Top 1 %.” There’s nothing worthwhile up there that is not also down here. Worst of all, it has given much of the world an unnecessary and tragic inferiority complex.
Trinity says that God’s power is not domination, threat, or coercion, but of a totally different nature, one that even Jesus’ followers have not yet adjusted to. If the Father does not dominate the Son, and the Son does not dominate the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit does not dominate the Father or the Son, then there’s no domination in God. All divine power is shared power. This should have entirely changed Christian religion, politics, and relationships.
There’s no seeking of power over in the Trinity, but only power with—a giving away, a sharing, a letting go, and thus an infinity of trust and mutuality. This has the power to change all relationships: in marriage, in politics, and even in international relations. YHWH already tried to teach such servanthood to Israel in the four “servant songs” in Isaiah (42-53) in order to train them in being “light to all nations” (Isaiah 49) but their history predicted what Christianity perfectly repeated: we both preferred kings and empires instead of any suffering servanthood.
Gateway to Silence: In the love of God, the peace of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit
References:
[1] Catherine Mowry LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life (HarperSanFrancisco: 1991), 398.
Adapted from Richard Rohr with Mike Morrell, The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (Whitaker House: 2016), 95-96.
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Come find your co-conspirators!
During this divisive and polarized time, we need connection now more than ever. There’s something powerfully transformative about shaking a stranger’s hand and honoring the divine in them, sitting in silence and letting all barriers dissolve. Conspirare . . . breathe together.
CONSPIRE 2017: Transformation
Friday, July 7–Sunday, July 9
Hotel Albuquerque
Featuring keynote speakers Richard Rohr, angel Kyodo williams, Mirabai Starr, Ken Wilber (via video)
Scholarships, a student rate, and a webcast option are available. Register at cac.org/conspire-2017-overview/.
Copyright © 2017
Center for Action and Contemplation
During this divisive and polarized time, we need connection now more than ever. There’s something powerfully transformative about shaking a stranger’s hand and honoring the divine in them, sitting in silence and letting all barriers dissolve. Conspirare . . . breathe together.
CONSPIRE 2017: Transformation
Friday, July 7–Sunday, July 9
Hotel Albuquerque
Featuring keynote speakers Richard Rohr, angel Kyodo williams, Mirabai Starr, Ken Wilber (via video)
Scholarships, a student rate, and a webcast option are available. Register at cac.org/conspire-2017-overview/.
Copyright © 2017
Center for Action and Contemplation
1823 Five Points Road, SouthWest (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87195, United States
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Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation for Sunday, 5 March 2017: "Self-Emptying" Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuqerque, New Mexico, United States Every created thing is the self-emptying of God.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation for Sunday, 5 March 2017: "Self-Emptying" Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuqerque, New Mexico, United States Every created thing is the self-emptying of God.
Image credit: Three Russian Dancers (detail), Edgar Degas, 1895, National Museum, Stockholm Sweden.
"Trinity: Week 2"
"Self-Emptying"
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and being born in human likeness.[Philippians 2:6]
Could this stanza of the great Philippian hymn be applied not only to Jesus but also to the entire Trinity? I believe so. The Three all live as an eternal and generous kenosis, the Greek word for self-emptying.
If we are to believe the Judeo-Christian Scriptures, then the Trinity—a circle dance of flow, communion, and relationship—which is the very nature of God, is the template for everything created (see Genesis 1:26-27). Every created thing is the self-emptying of God.
God is constantly outpouring. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit can trust that self-emptying, knowing that the space created will be filled. Like a waterwheel of divine love, the Father empties all of himself into the Son. The Son receives and empties all of himself into the Spirit. The Spirit receives and empties all of himself/herself into the Father. The Father receives and the cycle continues. It’s no good telling people to let go if they can’t be assured they will be refilled, but the Trinity gives us a model for how that can happen. I can let go, because I trust I will always be filled up again. That is the pattern of reality.
If you’re protecting yourself, if you’re securing your own image and identity, then you’re still holding on. Your ego remains full of itself—the opposite of kenosis.
The intriguing thing about the mutuality of the Trinity is that the names, roles, and energies are really interchangeable. We don’t want to typecast the Father as the only infinite one, the Son as the only immanent one, or the Spirit as the only intimate one. All is absolutely given to the other and let go of. For the sake of our human minds, it’s helpful to identify three persons.
When all three of those divine qualities start drawing you into the flow and when you’re at home with Infinity, Immanence, and Intimacy—all Three—you’re finally living inside a Trinitarian spirituality.
I have often noticed these divine qualities in people who are marginalized, oppressed, “poor,” or “mentally challenged” more than in many others. They have to trust love. They need communion and mutuality.
Once you have allowed yourself to be vulnerable and received infinite grace, you will find ways to let the love flow through you, serving others. People filled with the flow will always move away from any need to protect their own power. They will be drawn to the powerless, the edge, the bottom, the plain, and the simple. They have all the power they need; it always overflows, and like water seeks the lowest crevices to fill.
Gateway to Silence: In the love of God, the peace of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit
References:
Adapted from Richard Rohr with Mike Morrell, The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (Whitaker House: 2016), 90-91; and
Living School symposium, unpublished talk, August 2016.
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"Self-Emptying"
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and being born in human likeness.[Philippians 2:6]
Could this stanza of the great Philippian hymn be applied not only to Jesus but also to the entire Trinity? I believe so. The Three all live as an eternal and generous kenosis, the Greek word for self-emptying.
If we are to believe the Judeo-Christian Scriptures, then the Trinity—a circle dance of flow, communion, and relationship—which is the very nature of God, is the template for everything created (see Genesis 1:26-27). Every created thing is the self-emptying of God.
God is constantly outpouring. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit can trust that self-emptying, knowing that the space created will be filled. Like a waterwheel of divine love, the Father empties all of himself into the Son. The Son receives and empties all of himself into the Spirit. The Spirit receives and empties all of himself/herself into the Father. The Father receives and the cycle continues. It’s no good telling people to let go if they can’t be assured they will be refilled, but the Trinity gives us a model for how that can happen. I can let go, because I trust I will always be filled up again. That is the pattern of reality.
If you’re protecting yourself, if you’re securing your own image and identity, then you’re still holding on. Your ego remains full of itself—the opposite of kenosis.
The intriguing thing about the mutuality of the Trinity is that the names, roles, and energies are really interchangeable. We don’t want to typecast the Father as the only infinite one, the Son as the only immanent one, or the Spirit as the only intimate one. All is absolutely given to the other and let go of. For the sake of our human minds, it’s helpful to identify three persons.
When all three of those divine qualities start drawing you into the flow and when you’re at home with Infinity, Immanence, and Intimacy—all Three—you’re finally living inside a Trinitarian spirituality.
I have often noticed these divine qualities in people who are marginalized, oppressed, “poor,” or “mentally challenged” more than in many others. They have to trust love. They need communion and mutuality.
Once you have allowed yourself to be vulnerable and received infinite grace, you will find ways to let the love flow through you, serving others. People filled with the flow will always move away from any need to protect their own power. They will be drawn to the powerless, the edge, the bottom, the plain, and the simple. They have all the power they need; it always overflows, and like water seeks the lowest crevices to fill.
Gateway to Silence: In the love of God, the peace of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit
References:
Adapted from Richard Rohr with Mike Morrell, The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (Whitaker House: 2016), 90-91; and
Living School symposium, unpublished talk, August 2016.
-------
Come find your co-conspirators!
During this divisive and polarized time, we need connection now more than ever. There’s something powerfully transformative about shaking a stranger’s hand and honoring the divine in them, sitting in silence and letting all barriers dissolve. Conspirare . . . breathe together.
CONSPIRE 2017: Transformation
Friday, July 7–Sunday, July 9
Hotel Albuquerque
Featuring keynote speakers Richard Rohr, angel Kyodo williams, Mirabai Starr, Ken Wilber (via video)
Scholarships, a student rate, and a webcast option are available. Register at cac.org/conspire-2017-overview/.
Copyright © 2017
Center for Action and Contemplation
During this divisive and polarized time, we need connection now more than ever. There’s something powerfully transformative about shaking a stranger’s hand and honoring the divine in them, sitting in silence and letting all barriers dissolve. Conspirare . . . breathe together.
CONSPIRE 2017: Transformation
Friday, July 7–Sunday, July 9
Hotel Albuquerque
Featuring keynote speakers Richard Rohr, angel Kyodo williams, Mirabai Starr, Ken Wilber (via video)
Scholarships, a student rate, and a webcast option are available. Register at cac.org/conspire-2017-overview/.
Copyright © 2017
Center for Action and Contemplation
1823 Five Points Road, SouthWest (physical)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
PO Box 12464 (mailing)
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87195, United States
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