By Sister M. Edna Cole
Before this mystery, I am mute. Yet, Father Karl Rahner reminds me to particularly reflect upon the ways in which these three Persons are distinctly One.
It is simply because the mystery of the Incarnation is so central to our understanding of who God is! Assuring us that this tremendous mystery is much “MORE” than we can fathom, he notes a shift after Vatican II – in thinking of God – not as a potent, distant Reality, but as One who is close to us (within us), vulnerable, seeking us out and even becoming like us, one with us in Jesus, His Word in human flesh – all expressions of His loving breathing Spirit. His call to us is to be receptive to His sanctifying creative Spirit within us – so he/she can eventually return us, divinized, to our Father. Thus, Rahner emphasizes the need to see Jesus as part of history (scripture), of materiality (bodiliness) as well as in the whole of His creation (resurrection).
In grappling with this new insight, my images are becoming more earthy and integral to my life. While I loved the shamrock and the “the vine and branches,” for their the flow of divine life through my veins, it was while walking among plants that I stumbled upon an ONION, rooted firmly in the earth. The vision of another learner supplied a fuller meaning: the seed at the Center is the creative core of the ONE substance, which “fathers forth” the FLESHY part, expanding and encircling its growth with bands of love. This LOVE breathes in us and upon us – embodying us with life, form, firmness and fruit. Its pungent odor (aroma) has powers to cleanse, to bring us to tears, to flavor and feed us in food.
Thus, my onion shows me how distinctly different each of three Persons acts in particularizing God’s personal communing in Love with me, one of His stumbling creatures.
Praised be to the Holy Trinity!
© SSND, 2020