Readers may recognize this phrase from O Salutaris Hostia, the eucharistic prayer composed by St. Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century. It translates as immortal Godhead, one in three. Isn’t it astounding how the one word, unitrinoque, enshrines one of the greatest mysteries of our existence, that mystery, as John Donne wrote, that ‘No man is an island entire to itself’?
Consider the implications of this trinitarian reality. God, who is absolute reality, is three Persons in one irreducible, immutable Being. Therefore, God is an irreducible community, a community of relationship. Because God is absolute Truth, the essence of Truth is relationship. Truth must relate. To be authentic a being has to relate to someone outside of himself or itself. Furthermore, because God is the irreducible unity of three distinct Persons in one, true unity necessitates diversity.
The Judeo-Christian heritage underscores the indispensable reality of relationship. It confirms that our authentic selves are realized only in our relationship with ‘the other’. We are ‘our brother’s keeper’. Everyone – stranger and friend alike – is our neighbor. And, as per St. Paul, we are each a member of one Body.
The paradigmatic human example of relationship is that of family. The Israelites are God’s Chosen People, not his Chosen Individuals. The Lord’s Prayer starts with “Our Father”, not “My father”. The basic unit of our society is the family, not autonomous men, women and children. Just as nuclear families reflect the trinitarian role of relationship, so too do they mirror the role diversity plays in unity. The family is one unit to which each of its members brings unique gifts. Reality is relational; unity is diverse. No wonder the family is the basic unit of society. Its erosion bodes ill for civilization.
Hackneyed but true is the claim that we are all brothers and sisters. We share in a ‘confraternity of spirit’. Not only are we physically related, we share the gift and responsibility of the imago dei ‘breathed into” our common first parent by the Trinitarian God. This shared spirit binds us mysteriously in a non-physical but nevertheless real unity, one in and with which – with our diverse gifts – we can fruitfully and more fully relate with one another. This is the mystery of our being: we are made in the image of the Trintiy. Relationship and diversity are quintessential to the fulness of our humanity.
For NCCF’s donors the role and responsibility of relationship are paramount. Many contend that the most significant word in our title is the third one, i.e. ‘community’. Certainly, the ‘call’ of community underscores much of Catholic philanthropy.
Relationship is not to be confused with relativism. Before becoming pope, Cardinal Ratzinger warned us about the ‘dictatorship of relativism’. In such an environment authentic relationship is not possible for the power of relativism diminishes our unique identities and therefore our ability to relate. Rather than succumb to this insidious dictatorship, we should celebrate the ‘dominion of relationship’ where, instead of being vitiated, our individuality is vivified and authenticated by the bonds we establish and maintain with others.
Unitrinoque Domino. Three distinct Persons in one God. Relationship, unity and diversity. The Kingdom advances as this mystery unfolds.