An Image Worth a Thousand Words
The Orthodox have gifted all of us in many ways. Our schism with them has deprived both them and ourselves. In recent years much dialogue has resumed, and part of this discussion bore great fruit for the doctrine of God.
We in the West, in the Roman Catholic Church, have resorted to triangles and clovers as standard images for the Triune Mystery in the past. Now Orthodoxy offers an image much more profound, and in my view, mush more helpful.
The image is that of the living flame of Love. The flame is familiar in worship, both for East and West. It adorns our altars and adds beauty to our homes. So common is it, that it provides an excellent image for the Triune Mystery of God, so present yet overlooked.
The flame can be known to be present only by its light. It’s light is its “outer manifestation” as it were. But if your were blind, you would know its presence by its heat, not its light. The heat radiates out…you might say it is the very outreach of the flame.
You might ask what this has to do with the Trinity. The flame itself symbolizes the hiddeness of the persona in God we name “Father.” Hidden in the depths of the godhead, the Father is not known except through the Word, who we name “Son.” Just as the flame will not be known except through its light, so the Father will not be known except through the Word. And when we are blind…which is a good part of the time, this Mystery makes itself known by the dynamic outreaching love of the Spirit.
These are three distinct realities: flame, light, heat, yet they cannot be separated. Each “needs” the other to be what it is. So in this image, given us by our Eastern brothers and sisters, we have a beautiful symbol of a Oneness that is Three, and a Threeness that is inseparably bound in the Oneness of a God that is pure dynamic self-giving Love.
A parting thought: the candle is the cosmos…we hold the flame.
Carla Mae Streeter, OP
Aquinas Institute of Theology
23 South Spring Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63108-3323
streeter@slu.edu
phone: 314-256-8882
fax: 314-256-8888
