It's June and we're already half way through the year, and hopefully we're enjoying the season of long daylight hours because, from June onwards, the days will get shorter. There are two important liturgical festivals for us to celebrate during June: Pentecost (5 June) and Trinity Sunday (12 June).
The first is Pentecost, when we commemorate God's Holy Spirit descending upon the disciples in fulfilment of Jesus' promise that they would not be alone after his ascension into heaven. Jesus had told them: "The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you". (John 14:26). The whole of John Chapter 14 is a wonderful narrative of Jesus' promise, as are Paul's words to the Galatians on the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22-26): "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control ........ Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another". Words for us to ponder indeed!
The second festival in June, Trinity Sunday, is on the first Sunday after Pentecost. Perhaps because belief in the Holy Trinity is something we accept as so fundamental to our faith, we might not normally think of the Holy Trinity as being an example to us in our daily lives, but the Holy Trinity does indeed set us an amazing example.
The Holy Trinity comprises three persons in one and one in three, existing in love and perfect harmony with one another, without hierarchy: God the Father (the creator and sustainer of all things); God the Son (God in Jesus, who became incarnate here on earth); and God the Holy Spirit (God's power, active in the world, with us all and working through us).
The word "perichoresis", which theologians use synonymously with the Holy Trinity, comes from two Greek words "peri" (which means "around") and "chorein" (which means "to give way" or "to make room"). Perichoresis describes perfectly what we refer to as the "divine dance" between the three members of the Holy Trinity - with each giving way and making room for the others.
And so we have the Holy Trinity as our example of the perfect harmony which is achievable in our society if we live humbly without hierarchy, and self-sacrificingly give way, or make room, for others to flourish.
I pray that we may all contemplate the love and harmony of the Holy Trinity, as an inspirational example to us all.
With every blessing,
Annie