Afterthought, after discussing this with a friend:
The Body of Christ relationship is backwards, I think. The thing Christ does is submit, and when He came to Earth he came "Not to be served, but to serve"--He submit to *us*, and it's incredible because *who are we?* Why should God condescend to *us*???
Our job as mere mortals is to reciprocate that submission. We must reciprocate to participate--if we do not submit to Christ as he submits to us, then we cannot participate in the divinity we receive as heirs by adoption into the Body of Christ.
I don't know if there is a way to disaggregate the body of Christ too, because the cliche goes that Christ would have died for us--would have submit to us--if Brother Alexander were the only person in the world. So Christ submits to: God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and *Brother Alexander*.
It's deeply unsettling to think of it that way, but it is resolved if we reciprocate the submission. Christ condescends to humanity and submits to us. We submit to him and are accepted into his body. Then we turn around and accept Him into our body through the Eucharist.
Lots of synapses firing, I hope this comment makes sense.
This model of the trinity is blowing my mind right now. Thank you for this. I’ve been trying to grok the Trinity more and really struggling yo do so since it’s very easy to get the wrong idea under our own powers. This dynamic of approval, submission, cooperation os both additive and illuminating. Thank you!
It really makes it more intelligible as a family dynamic. Why did Christ use the language of Father? Because we must submit, as to our own fathers. The cooperation of the spirit is intelligible as mutual love and respect--“do that and let me help you”.
Yet to be clear--God is entirely present in each aspect of the trinity, but i can see now how these aspects relate to each other--someone said, i think, that the trinity is like Gods understanding of Himself
Yes. You get this idea in Orthodoxy where the relationship between two Persons in the Trinity is seen by the third Person. Thus a witness to the existence of the relationship.
Afterthought, after discussing this with a friend:
The Body of Christ relationship is backwards, I think. The thing Christ does is submit, and when He came to Earth he came "Not to be served, but to serve"--He submit to *us*, and it's incredible because *who are we?* Why should God condescend to *us*???
Our job as mere mortals is to reciprocate that submission. We must reciprocate to participate--if we do not submit to Christ as he submits to us, then we cannot participate in the divinity we receive as heirs by adoption into the Body of Christ.
I don't know if there is a way to disaggregate the body of Christ too, because the cliche goes that Christ would have died for us--would have submit to us--if Brother Alexander were the only person in the world. So Christ submits to: God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and *Brother Alexander*.
It's deeply unsettling to think of it that way, but it is resolved if we reciprocate the submission. Christ condescends to humanity and submits to us. We submit to him and are accepted into his body. Then we turn around and accept Him into our body through the Eucharist.
Lots of synapses firing, I hope this comment makes sense.
Nice 👍🏽
This model of the trinity is blowing my mind right now. Thank you for this. I’ve been trying to grok the Trinity more and really struggling yo do so since it’s very easy to get the wrong idea under our own powers. This dynamic of approval, submission, cooperation os both additive and illuminating. Thank you!
Thanks.
When I stumbled across this in the writings of Maximus, I stopped in my tracks.
Then a thought dropped into my head about submission. The rest just fell into place.
For me, this makes the Trinity more than just an abstract idea.
It really makes it more intelligible as a family dynamic. Why did Christ use the language of Father? Because we must submit, as to our own fathers. The cooperation of the spirit is intelligible as mutual love and respect--“do that and let me help you”.
Yet to be clear--God is entirely present in each aspect of the trinity, but i can see now how these aspects relate to each other--someone said, i think, that the trinity is like Gods understanding of Himself
Yes. You get this idea in Orthodoxy where the relationship between two Persons in the Trinity is seen by the third Person. Thus a witness to the existence of the relationship.