I want
you to share with you an icon of the Holy Trinity painted by Andrei Rublev in
1425. Artists always painted the last supper with peculiar seating
arrangements. Leonardo da Vinci oddly
(if you think about it) put Jesus and all the disciples along the same one side
of a long table, not just so we could study their faces and gestures, but so we
might acknowledge a place for ourselves across the table from our Lord, from
the saints of old. Rublev depicts Father, Son, and Spirit as angels occupying
three sides of a table, with the fourth side open, inviting the viewer to join
them.
Henri Nouwen reflects that this icon
is
painted not as a lovely decoration for a convent church, but as a holy place to
enter and stay within. As we place ourselves in front of the icon in prayer, we
come to experience a gentle invitation to participate in the intimate
conversation that is taking place among the three divine angels and to join
them around the table.[1]
This
is my destiny, my identity, my hope – and it is your destiny, and that of the
person next to you, and that of the garbage collector and the neighbor who
annoys you, that of your ex, that of the foreigner, the stranger, the homeless,
the rich and powerful. There are no mere mortals. Every person’s past and
future are defined entirely by this holy invitation to share in, by their
secure place at the table of this trinity of enveloping, tender love.
Furthermore,
Nouwen believes the Rublev icon was painted during a time of political turmoil
and hatred, a striking stroke of hope in troubled time. Is this not our most
desperate desire? That our only hope during harsh times is being drawn into
that holy circle of love? This is glory, knowing there is a place in God’s own
heart, for me. This is my desire, my joy, my reality, my truth.
Moreover,
this is unity. In a world of strife, in a place where there is no peace, we try
to resolve conflicts by applying force, by truces, by policing one another –
when true unity is always offered to us in the remarkable home that is ours
with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit painted so peacefully by Rublev. Jürgen Moltmann put it like this:
Through
their tenderly intimate inclination towards one another, the three Persons show
the profound unity joining them, in which they are one. The chalice on the
table points to the surrender of the Son on Golgotha. Just as the chalice
stands at the centre of the table round which the three Persons are sitting, so
the cross of the Son stands from eternity in the centre of the Trinity. Anyone
who grasps the truth of this picture understands that it is only in the unity
with one another which springs from the self-giving of the Son “for many” that
men and women are in conformity with the triune God.[2]
Our
glory is our belonging in the loving life of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our
glory implies unity, and our unity is our glory. Yet, we are not good at unity, even in
church. We see division. We are not one.
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