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| Source: legacyicons.com |
Dear Parish Faithful,
"Our social program is the dogma of the Trinity."
- Nikolai Fyodorov
In preparation for tomorrow evening's Inquirers Class, I have been re-reading a classic essay by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, "The Trinity: Heart of Our Life." It is found in the newly-published Volume 2 of his Collected Works. An amazingly clear presentation of the Orthodox understanding of the Trinity from one of our greatest recent theologians. The doctrine of the Trinity has very powerful practical implications that extend into the wide world around us, so as not remain in the often closed world of theological speculation or academic journals. Metropolitan Kallistos brings that out with great urgency in this very concise, but impassioned defense of responding to the needs of the world:
When as Christians we fight for justice and for human rights, for a compassionate and caring society, we are acting specifically in the name of the Trinity. Faith in the Trinitarian God, in the God of personal inter-relationship and shared love, commits us to struggle with all of our strength against poverty, exploitation, oppression, and disease. Our combat against these things is undertaken not merely on philanthropic and humanitarian grounds but because of our belief in God the Trinity. Precisely because we know that God is three-in-one, we cannot remain indifferent to any suffering, by any member of the human race, in any part of the world. Love after the image and likeness of the Trinity signifies that, in the words of Dostoevsky's Starets Zosima, "We are responsible for everyone and everything.
Such is the compelling relevance of the doctrine of the Trinity for the life and action of every one of us. Without the Trinity none of us can be fully a person. Because we believe in the Trinity, each of us is a man or woman for others; every human being is our sister or brother, and we are called to bear their burdens, making their joys and sorrows our own. If only we had the courage truly to be transcripts of the Trinity, we could turn the world upside down.
From our Orthodox Christian perspective, our defense of social programs that "feed the poor, and clothe the naked," have a theological foundation in their support. In this way, the Church contends on behalf of the Gospel of light, goodness and love, in opposition to the forces of indifference and self-centeredness, whether personal or collective.