In search of harmony

Below is the Thinking Anew column in today's Irish Times.

Michael Commane
I was born into a Catholic family, went to Catholic schools, joined the Dominican Order, learned something about the tradition of the Catholic Church.

I have spent most of my working life either as a school teacher or working in the newspaper trade.

As a child I heard about God, the Incarnation, Easter, Ascension, the Trinity. They were in many ways ‘givens’ that were accepted by most of the population of Ireland. And yet would it be true to say that we accepted all those words not exactly sure what any of them meant? Because each of those words involves extraordinary mystery. Scratch the surface and surely you are into a mystery that is almost incomprehensible.

Tomorrow is the feast of the Blessed Trinity - a belief that allows us say that there are three persons in the one God.
If I were to ask past pupils of mine or colleagues in the print media what the Trinity means for them what at all would they say?

As children we learned that St Patrick used the Shamrock to explain the mystery of the Trinity - each of the leaves representing one of the persons in the one God.

What at all is the Trinity about? Wise people and theologians have discussed the mystery down the centuries.

It would be enormously pretentious of me to enter into any sort of meaningful theological discussion on aspects of Trinitarian theology. But there is an aspect of the Trinity that has often caught my attention and that is the idea of communion and harmony.

How people of different opinions, ideas, beliefs can work together in harmony and unity is something really extraordinary and indeed, something amazingly wonderful to see.

It is a central tenet of the European Union, the idea that nations with separate cultures, philosophical backgrounds and different industrial ways can somehow or other, while retaining their differences, work in harmony and unity. It’s fair to say that it is an ideal well worth aspiring to.

The horror of 50 million dead forced Europe to think of a better way. Right now the Union is experiencing a great battering but surely harmony and union make far more sense than division and disharmony.

Another spectacular example of harmony at work is the International Space Station. On May 14 in the central steppes of Kazakhstan astronauts and cosmonaut came back to earth. Canadian born Chris Hadfield and his team had been in space since before Christmas. Russians, Canadians and Americans working side-by-side for the good of humanity.

Surely if the mysteries of God are to have a resonance on the society of the day then they must tempt us to ask serious questions. There has to be some sort of sense about them. Otherwise, is it not nonsense? If people of genuine goodwill shrug their shoulders when they hear wise theologians talk about the Trinity, then there is something amiss and it’s simply not good enough to say that people have lost their faith or that secularisation has dumbed down our sense to all things to do with God.

In the context of talking about his Father, the disciples said to Jesus: "Now you are speaking plainly and not in veiled language.” (John 16: 29) If words don’t communicate ideas or don’t make any sense to us, surely we have a problem.

Every generation tries to make sense to the world as it sees it. And theology too, if it is to be living and vibrant must be in process.

We get glimpses of God in myriad ways and that is all the time coloured and nuanced by our environment and the times in which we live. God is always being made manifest in the world.

The Trinity gives great hope in assuring us that God is all about unity and communion, friendship and bonds of solidarity.

God can have nothing to do with disharmony and fractured relationships.
In spite of our differences we can aspire to harmonious living.

We are children of the Blessed Trinity.