Trinity Sunday
Happy Trinity Sunday!
Botticelli’s Holy Trinity
There has always been something I love about this painting by Botticelli. The pictures shows the Holy Trinity with Mary Magdalene and St. John the Baptist, and also Tobias and the Angel (from the apocrypha).
Mary Magdalene worships the Trinity in penitent garb and John the Baptist, always dressed in penitent garb, motions to the Trinity but looks at you - inviting you to worship with Magdalene as well.
What I like about the image is how well Botticelli does of holding the unity and separation of the Trinity at the same time. This is a hard enough image to convey in theology, but Botticelli seems to do it well enough with art.
The Father, Son, and Spirit are three and they are one at the same time. The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Father. Neither the Son or the Father are the Spirit. And so, in this picture, the Father, Son, and Spirit are all three separate entities: old man in the sky with royal robes, a poor younger man in a white cloth, and a dove.
At the same time, the Father, Son, and Spirit are one: one God. The Son is God. The Father is God. The Spirit is God. But they are not three gods. They are one God. Here, Botticelli shows you the Son being held up on his cross by the hands of the Father, while the dove of the Spirit is lightly, almost breathed between the two of them. And the Spirit crosses over both Father and Son. All three together are surrounded by a halo of cherubim, the angels that surround the throne of God. So, the throne of God is all three persons at once- the Father in Heaven, the Son on His Cross, and the Spirit between them.
They are three and one at the same time.
But notice on last thing: their gaze. Jesus Christ without a doubt looks down toward the small penitent beneath Him. His gaze is always upon the people whom He calls to Himself. But notice also how it is a little hard to tell where the Father is looking. He looks down, but he seems to be bothing looking at the Son, but also maybe passed Him to the barren earth below.
So it is with God. Not only is God focued on enjoying his own perfection and divintiy (as Aquinas and Augustine taught us), but God is also always focused on those who are called to live the penitent life of a Christian, and the barren earth which needs to be redeemed.
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