BREAKING
OPEN THE ORDINARY
By
Sandy Prather
It certainly wasn’t
Hallmark. At first glance, the birthday card was making a startling
claim: “You are living proof that humanity is created in the image
and likeness of God.” Opening the card, I read, “And the
name of that God is Love.” Coming as it did from a dear cousin
who has been an anam cara, soul friend, to me, the card warranted my
closer attention.
How, I wondered, can one
be “proof” that humanity is created in the image and likeness
of God? It sounded quite abstract but, thinking about it, I realized
it is actually very simple, and it invites us to a radical way of understanding
discipleship.
How so? The starting point
is one of the seemingly most esoteric doctrines of our faith, the Trinity.
While theologians and saints assert that this truth is essential, most
of us find it remote to our daily living and understanding. It’s
hard to understand, difficult to visualize and you can’t get it
into in a decent sound bite. Three in one, one in three: what does that
mean? And why should I care? Preachers faced with the task of preaching
on the Trinity state emphatically, “It’s a mystery.”
And then go on to compound it.
But that is a tragedy because
the faith assertion that God is three in one, co-equal, consubstantial
and all the rest of the fancy theological language we use to try and
describe what cannot be described, is truly not only at the heart of
our faith, it should be at the heart of our living and loving. It should
shape the rhythm of our days, the melody of our song and the step in
our dance, because it tells us something amazing about God and therefore
about us.
It tells us something about
God: trinitarian theology is the opposite of abstract because it arises
concretely from our experience of God as LOVE. Christians affirm that
love is not just a quality of God or an activity that God does, but
something that God IS. Theologian Robert Barron states that Love is
God’s deepest name. It is the very BEING of God; it is the dynamic
that describes God’s deepest core and identity; it is God’s
life.
Hence the Trinity. It is the very nature of love to be given away, to be turned toward the Other. Authentic, true love always flows outward to a beloved. So, if God is love, then there must be within God an interplay of Lover, Beloved and the Love They Share. We name them respectively Father, Son and Spirit, or Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer.
This intimate relationship of love being poured out, received and poured
back to the Giver describes the inner life of God. But so what? What
difference does that make for my life? That’s where it tells us
something about us. If we are made in the image and likeness of God
and if the deepest reality of God is a triune relationship of love,
then it means we are created to be lovers. The goal of the spiritual
journey will be to image God in God’s love, to enter into the
trinitarian dynamic of outpouring, giving love.
It is as simple and surprising as this: we become living proof that
human beings are made in God’s image when we love one another.
We are most God-like when we forget ourselves in order to cherish and
care for the other.
I’ve seen this happen. I journeyed with family friends as their
wife and mother died of cancer. Husband, daughter and son poured out
love to her; she poured it back and they all moved deeper into love
and life even in the midst of that painful death. They were an image
of God’s love for many of us. I’ve watched a friend visit
her Alzheimer-stricken mother, daily for years. The tender interplay
of love between them is surely an image of God.
Spouses who live faithful fidelity image God; parents sacrificing their
own needs and wants so that their children might flourish reveal God.
God’s image shines in the woman tenderly massaging her father’s
feet as surely as it does in the family joyfully gathered around the
table for a birthday feast.
When we share life and laughter with friends and when we offer ministry
from a place of compassion, God’s love is made visible. The countless
men and women who look with love on the little ones of the world, who
work for peace, fight for justice and offer for healing, reflect the
outpouring dynamic of God’s trinitarian love. 
Whenever and wherever human beings turn from an inward, self-centred
focus to centre on the other in love and care, we become proof that
humankind is made in the image and likeness of God, and that the name
of that God is Love. That’s got to be better than anything Hallmark
has to say!
Prather, BEd, MTh, teaches and facilitates in the areas of faith
and spirituality and is the director at Star of the North Retreat Centre
in St. Albert, Alta. She and her husband Bob are blessed with four children
and 10 grandchildren.
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