The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity – Cycle C
Reflecting on Proverbs 8: 22-31
I particularly love this take on the Trinity that I got from my lifelong friend Fred, who got it from the great theologian Cynthia Bourgeault. imagine turning a kaleidoscope around and around, back and forth. You see thousands of images of the creation of the world. You see, in coalesced, kaleidoscopic prisms, all the animals, all the plants, all the rivers that came to birth because the Father called them into being.
You turn the kaleidoscope again, and hundreds of new images appear. There is the angel Gabriel, the Babe, the shepherds, and the angels. With each turn, you see, in glorious color, shards of the life of Jesus. There is the Woman at the Well, and Lazarus rising from the tomb. The last turn allows you to witness Jesus’ own resurrection. What wonders live in this kaleidoscope!
Your third twisting of the tube takes you all the way back, before the world’s creation. There are no depths, no hills, no fountains. No mountains, earth, fields, nor “first clods of the world.” But wait. Who is that playing—like a little child!—on the surface of the earth, delighting the Father day by day? That’s the Spirit, who animates all things, and gives the kaleidoscope its mysterious beauty.
Now, with each twist, you glimpse fragments of each of them in every frame, never individual, never alone, eternally changing, eternally THREE. And here’s the best part: as we gaze on them, they are gazing at us, seeing our sorrows and joys, our anxieties and hopes, and our futures, living in glory on high with Christ Jesus.
Can you SEE it? The Trinity is gazing at you, with eternal love, forever and ever, AMEN.
Can you imagine your life as it would be organized in a kaleidoscope?
Kathy McGovern ©2025