One

As I was reading the beginning of the letter of James the brother of God, I was touched by the tender care and intimate way of speaking that the apostle employs in writing his letter, and to people whom he didn’t even know face to face—to the twelve tribes of the diáspora—and even to us.

And I thought of how this letter, along with the others, is called the Word of God, is made to be the very words of God to us, even though in its language it is just the words of men. Yet we call the epistles, the writings of the apostles, the Word of God, scripture no less than the Gospels or the Tanakh.

It seems to me that even the holy and divine Scriptures demonstrate the One God who in Holy Triad loves as three, though He is One. The Tanakh, that is, the Old Testament, seems to be the message of the Heavenly Father, who speaks to us Himself, as His holy prophets fade into nothing as they speak.

The Gospels seem to be the message of the Only-Begotten Son who is also the Word of God, which He brought into our midst not by any writing of His own, but by His being: Now the Father whom no man has seen or can ever see becomes visible in the Son, no longer hidden in clouds, but revealing His face.

The Acts of the holy apostles and their Letters, these seem to be the message of the Holy and Life-Creating Spirit, who though invisible Himself, maintains the visible presence of Christ in our midst, as the brother who walks beside us. Invisible God becomes visible Christ becomes tangible brother man.

Like the water-gushing rock that followed Israel as they moved through the wilderness shielded from the heat of the sun by the cloud by day, illumined and warmed and protected in the dark nights by the pillar of flame, our God the Holy Triad has encircled us by the words of His holy and divine Scriptures.

Not satisfied to rule us with laws, He came among us to free us to righteousness by love, and now lives among us, in us, with us, upon us, even as us: we have the Message in its fullness, of the Father in unapproachable Light, in the Light of the Face of His Son, and by the Light of Tabor in the virgins’ lamps.

Where is the God of gods who summons the earth to His people’s trial, who alone does wonders, of whom we sing, ‘Who is so great a god as our God?’ Does He dwell in the misty mountain tops and thunder in the storm clouds? The glory of the Triad has made His home among us then, now, and ever.

Holy apostles, lovingly plant in us the seed that the Master planted in you, that you write to us who live at the end of time, that the Spirit, Lord and Giver of Life causes to sprout and grow in us, that we too may enter into the mystery of life in the Holy Triad with you, one mind, one will, one heart, one love. [*]