In their last General Chapter, the Missionary Servants of the Holy Spirit approved a new Congregational Direction that will guide the Sisters and their mission for the next six years. The SSpS Congregational Leadership Team chose the main topics and established one theme for each year. 2022 was dedicated to the Holy Trinity, especially the aspect of the “perichoresis” that can be translated as the “dance of the Trinity”. In this article, Sr. María Virginia Gette will help us to understand this expression from a biblical point of view.

The painting by a Belgian artist is what we use to express a Christian reality: the joyful presence of the Holy Trinity in our universe and in each person. It is an image full of color, movement, integration, harmony, dance, relationship, joy, transparency, and intimacy.

We can apply to the Trinity the following text:

“I knew all that is seen and all that is hidden, because wisdom made it all and taught it to me. In her there is an intelligent spirit, holy, unique, manifold, delicate, mobile, distinct, clear, pure and undefiled, a lover of humans, firm, sure, serene, who can do all things and observes all things” (Wisdom 7, 21-23).

And the ecstatic human being says: “I will rest by the side of wisdom, for her company does not cause bitterness, nor sorrow in her dealings, but pleasure and joy” (Wisdom 8:16,17) – “All things live and abide forever” (Sirach 42:18, 24). 

The green color we identify as the Father, the red as the Son and the blue as the Spirit. The figure starts as one from below and unfolds into three. In the center of the movement, the Spirit raises his arms and in an embrace with the Father and the Son forms a heart. In the center of which the three look at each other – they are one, they are three in dialogue. 

“He who sent me is with me and never leaves me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him” (Jn 8:29). “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will bring you into the whole truth. He will not come with a message of his own, but will tell you what he has heard. He will glorify me because he will receive from me in order to reveal it to you. All that the Father has is also mine. That is why I told you that he will receive what is mine to declare to you” (Jn 16:13-15).

The heart that is formed in the center is seen as a window open to infinity, it is the universe that fits in the heart of the Trinity (light blue color – the infinite mystery of the Trinity. “For your plans are not mine and my ways are not the same as yours. As heaven is high above the earth, so my ways are high above your ways, and my plans are higher than yours” (Is 55:8-9).

From below there is an upward movement of small colored particles. Human beings enter the Trinitarian circle because, “God wants both humans to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2,4) “In him we move and exist…” (Acts 17:28).

The color red is Jesus and outside the circle, it is the joy of which St. Ignatius of Antioch speaks.  Those close to Christ do not avoid martyrdom because it means to be like the Lord since, “we do not aspire to material reality but to a living water that murmurs within me and says to me: Come to the Father”.

And so begins the great Trinitarian dance that sets the whole universe in motion.  In Christ, God chose us before the creation of the world to be in his presence” (Eph 1:4).

From the Old Testament to the Apocalypse, God’s joy covers humans and creation, with the promise of joy without name. There is a river of full joy that runs through the entire Bible, with the final victory that orders everything, anticipating at every moment the reasons for hope. “This is the dwelling of God among people…he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there shall be no more death, nor mourning, nor groaning, nor sorrow for all that has gone before has passed away…I am the Alpha and the Omega, Beginning and the end. To him who thirsts I will give freely of the spring of the water of life” (Rev 21:3-6).

 God’s rejoicing for his work is a God who is moved by it because he sees that it is good and beautiful. The rabbis said that God’s eyes, before the beauty of the world and especially of human creatures dilated, until a tear of extreme joy of divine pleasure for creation flowed.

Outside the Three Persons there are brushstrokes of dark color. In the world there is darkness, but the light (yellow) is the inner strength and energy of the Trinity that dissipates it. Joy, communion, and dynamism, are not things external to the Trinity, but are part of it.

Finally, “May you be able to comprehend the breadth, the length, the height and the depth, in a word, may you know this beyond knowledge which is the love of Christ (Eph 3:18).

This symbol of the Trinity, an expression of joy, dance and integration, invites us to be joyful, and to celebrate. The Trinity and its loving presence in us are the ultimate happiness for a believer. It is precisely the Gospel that shows us joy as an integral part of the divine identity as the truth of his being and the revealed aspect of his face. The Christian God cannot be understood, nor can we enter into a relationship with him, if we do not perceive his joy, and we do so by experiencing it (Mt 25:23). But the most infinitely surprising thing is the revelation of the “motive” of joy: And the human being is that motive for God!   And the dance of the Trinity will follow: “Have no fear, God is in your midst as a hero who saves, he will leap for joy at the sight of you and will renew his love for you. He will shout for joy for you as on feast days (Zeph. 3:17).

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María Virginia Gette, SSpS, is from the Northern Province of Argentina.  She has worked in Formation and participated for some years in the Arnold Janssen Spirituality Center in Steyl. She is currently a member of the Provincial Leadership Team, accompanier of the junior sisters and legal representative of the Colegio Espiritu Santo.