Triadic Reality

 

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.

Romans 11:36 

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In this single phrase, St Paul speaks of God's activity in sustaining the existence of creation, a threefold statement that is wholly encompassing of past, present and future. This isn't limited to the starting point of existence, but the fact that the universe continues to exist at all is due to God's constant activity, for He 'fills all in all' and it is in Him that 'all things hold together.' The Invisible God is the fount of existence, pouring out life into the cosmos so that it too can exist. Reality, as we experience it, is itself drawn from the Reality of God.

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This threefold refrain from Paul also tells us that the Divine Reality is Trinitarian in kind- existence itself is forever flowing from the Father, forever sustained through the Son and forever perfected by the Spirit, the fulfilled existence then offered back to the Father in glory. This is why Christ can say 'whosoever believes in Him shall have eternal life', for when we join ourselves to Christ, we participate in the life of the Trinity, being joined to Life Himself. However, if we turn away from God, we detach ourselves from the source of life. We turn away from light and stumble into the outer darkness. The image of God is marred in us, and being no longer able to reflect the life giving radiance of God, He becomes to us as a burning fire. We cut ourselves off from existence and disintegrate in death.

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As the Prophet said, 'I set before you today life and death, good and evil,' for these two paths are before us each day. We can move toward God and continue in life, or move away from Him and dissolve. St Philaret describes the severity of our state: 'All creatures are balanced upon the creative word of God, as if upon a bridge of diamond; above them is the abyss of the divine infinitude, below them that of their own nothingness.' Our movement toward God is movement toward existence itself; it is the ascent toward Life, toward the natural state of man as image bearers of God, toward union with the One true God, the Personal Absolute, the Triadic Reality.