Living in the love of the Holy Trinity. The Divine Dance Class- Perichoresis

    Perfect love is the desire of every heart. To paraphrase a blessed teacher of the Church Augustine, “God has created a God shaped void in every heart.” The Church  has understood this emptiness as God’s invitation  for a man  to enter into  a divine relationship with Him. This is where the teaching of the Trinity is so  important to our faith.

     The Father has eternally loved His only begotten Son. The Son in return  loves the Father unconditionally.  After all, the Son is the perfect reflection of Him.

By the grace of baptism and our struggle against the passions,  we enter into this divine relationship.

“As many as received Him  to them  He gave the power to become the sons of God.” (John 1:12)

This same love the Father has for the Son is experienced by us when  we surrender to Christ. Since we are in the Son it is communicated to us.

Jesus said in John 15:21,“Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

The  Father pours then His love into  our heart.

“For the love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us.”(Romans 5:5)

Then  the Son  in us reciprocates that love.  As the Apostle Paul explained:
“Because we are sons,  God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son  into our hearts crying, Abba, Father.”(Galatians 4:7)

This is what eternal  life truly is.  It is not just living forever,  but living forever in the light of God’s countenance, in the light of His uncreated love and light.
Eternal life is truly knowing the Father  experiencing that relationship.  Christ in His intercession  at Gethsemane said:

“This is eternal life,  that they might know you the only true God and Jesus Christ your Son whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)

This Pascha  we proclaim, “Come receive the light!”  It is an open  invitation from  God  to  experience the light  of the resurrection  glory-  the light of His uncreated love and relationship  that we are called to embrace.

Two  Fathers of the Church, St Cyril of Alexandria  John of Damascus,   liked the word perixorhsij and applied it to our relationship with God.  Life with God is a wonderful  divine dance.  Dancing  can be difficult.  The steps  take time to learn, we are awkward at first.  The same is true  of walking with God-  it will be awkward and we will fall as we learn  this dance. But let’s not give up, the love of God the Father is worth  it.