![]() ![]() To get to the Father, we are lifted up by the Son and the Spirit working together. Irenaeus suggests, the Son and the Spirit can be said to be the two revealing hands of the Father in creation. Here, we can find that the representation of the Trinity in Genesis is more complex and incarnational than in the heavenly vision of Abraham at Mamre. When exploring the trinitarian nature of the story, the fact that it was two angels who came to rescue Lot as well as to judge the city is key. Abraham’s pleading was effective, and so Lot was saved but Lot was also saved because of his imitation of the hospitality of Abraham, how he welcomed and desired to protect the angels from harm within the city. Two of the angels went to Lot and saved him even as they finalized their judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot, we know, was saved, but it is interesting to note how he was saved. But his heart went beyond family concerns and he wanted the people of Sodom and Gomorrah to have a chance to escape perdition. In part, he knew his nephew was there, and he desired his nephew’s salvation. If charitable hospitality reveals the Kingdom of God, rejection of charity, rejection of love, reveals its inversion-that is, hell.Ībraham, upon hearing the judgment to come, pleaded for the salvation of those in Sodom and Gomorrah. The wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah according to Ezekiel was found in their lack of charity: “Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, surfeit of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy” (Ez 16:49). Our God is a consuming fire, and He comes to judge and purify with His love. They also came to explain to Abraham what was about to occur in Sodom and Gomorrah. We see the fruit of his mystical encounter in Rublev’s icon, but it does not show all that they came to reveal to Abraham. ![]() Abraham, with his holiness, was elevated to great heights. Whether or not we take the angels as the trinitarian Persons themselves (as some commentators do), or as angels sent to represent the three Persons, they came to Abraham to reveal the truth of God to him. While Rublev’s icon represents the mystical height of Abraham’s experience of God, an experience which he received because of his hospitality (showing us how love opens our awareness and elevates us to understand better the unitive dimensions of communion), it can be said that this is only a part of the greater revelation of the Trinity contained in the Old Testament story of Abraham. Nonetheless, the circle is not closed it is welcoming, as the first angel holding his hand out over the chalice can be seen to be welcoming us in to partake with him and share with him the communion of love which the divine Persons have with each other. The circle which can be observed being formed by the way that the angels interact with each other demonstrates the loving communion found between the Persons of the Trinity, where they are distinct and yet work together and are united as one. We experience the glory of the Trinity through Rublev’s depiction of the three angels: the first, holding his hand over a chalice, his face looking upon the second the second, looking upon the third and the third, facing the first. ![]() This is why Rublev’s icon, representing an important symbol of God in Scripture, directs us to an encounter with God. In the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius, he explains to us how symbols of God in Scripture point to and reveal God to us, so that through symbols we can meditate upon and experience the Kingdom of God. Just as Tradition suggests that the three angels who visited Abraham are understood to represent the Trinity, so that Abraham is said to have met with God at Mamre, Rublev’s icon allows us to having a meeting with God. ![]() Andrew Rublev’s icon of the Hospitality of Abraham. One of the most important, if not the most important, artistic representations of the Holy Trinity is St. ![]()
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