Last Updated on June 30, 2023 by GMC
7th Week of Easter, Tuesday
“…everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them.”
John 17:10
Wrestling With Scripture
Contemplation of divine truths requires deep silence and listening. One does not come before these mysteries expecting to “settle” conundrums or untie knots once and for all. Wonder and awe progressively grow as we allow the Holy Spirit to work on our hearts, more often blank and speechless than filled with insight. Much is accomplished by simply admitting, “I have no idea what you are talking about, Lord.” He likes our honesty and will help us, for we are like Jacob wrestling with the angel when we read Scripture.
What Does the Trinity Do All Day?
In John’s Gospel, we are given the exceptional privilege of listening in on a divine dialogue as Jesus prays aloud to the Father. What do Divine Persons talk about? What do they do all day? Since they do not live in a world of means and ends, their action is not directed toward anything outside of themselves. They glorify one another, take delight in one another, and overflow with superabundant Love, Light, Energy, Goodness, Joy, etc. And since there was never a time when they were not, their Triple Glory is Ultimate Reality.
All Mine Are Thine, and Thine Are Mine
If nothing exists outside of the Divine Persons, what does Jesus mean when he says, “All mine are thine, and thine are mine?”
He does not say, “I am Thou” and “Thou art Me,” because the Father and the Son are distinct Persons. But he uses the possessive pronouns “mine” and “thine.” Since divinity has no parts, what is possessed must be nothing other than what they are (“having” = “being”). What the Father is, the Son also is, yet the Father is not the Son.
The mystery exceeds our concepts. Recognizing the oneness of the Divine Persons does not reveal the content of their oneness. It is like seeing the surface of the ocean but not the thousands of feet beneath with all of its wild, wonderful, and colorful life forms.
If an ocean is so full of life and variety, what must life in the Trinity be like?