The Trinity

Rublev's icon, The Trinity has been a favorite of mine for a few years. Just as I was beginning to hunger after the mystery revealed by icons, along comes Professor MoJo to introduce this icon with a meditation at our first residency.

What has stuck with me most is the attitude of adoration between the members of the Trinity.  I am reminded of the words of C.S. Lewis, "The words ‘God is love’ have no real meaning unless God contains at least two Persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, He was not love" (Mere Christianity, 174).  In this icon you can see the love of that God is, the love of the persons of the Trinity.

I also think about The Shack where Mack experiences the mutual adoration at the dinner table between Papa and Jesus.  This is beautiful stuff to me, and I am invited into the adoration by the curious property of icons, the reverse perspective.  The depth is flipped in on itself. The perspective puts me within the image, turning my head, and my soul inside out. To stare at it prayerfully means that I descend into my heart, where, as Simeon the New Theologian says, I encounter the Triune Mystery waiting for me.