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| Abbess Catherine ~ Dame Phillipa ~ Dame Agnes |
Holy Trinity is the Christian doctrine that there is one God, and within God's inner life there is a community of persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God exists in fellowship, relationship, family, friendship. And in Baptism we are flooded and immersed in that divine related-ness. Chrisitianiy is not a trip for isolators.
Trinity celebrates God's unity. It is a unity born of love. We could do with a good bit of that in our hyper-divided country these days. And this unity born-of-love doesn't happen because we take a course in it, or join a religious order with rules, or even practice good deeds. It happens in us when we realize that the Father's love for the Son, and the Son's love for the Father, dwells in us - it is God's gift to us and exists outside of institutions.
Love is surrendering self-interest for the good of the other. Love actively makes good happen for others. Love is tenderness which word comes from the Latin tendere which means to stretch. To love others is to have our hearts stretched. It is the work put before us. It's bigger than just being nice, kind, helpful or sweet. Dostoyevski writes that love in action is a dreadful thing. We needn't be discouraged, only steady.
Rumor Godden wrote the novel In this House of Brede in 1969. In 1975 the story was adapted for television staring Diana Rigg. In the adaptation, Philippa Talbot is a war widow and a sophisticated London business woman. After suffering a terrible family tragedy, she enters Brede Abbey, an English Benedictine convent of enclosed nuns.
The abbess, who was a loving and encouraging friend to Philippa, dies the first night Philippa arrives as a postulant. Dame Catherine comes to Philippa's room to tell her of the news and to summon her to the Abbess' bedside. Dame Agnes is in the room. She is Phillipa's nemesis - a bitter, suspicious, jealous nun who doesn't think Phillipa should have ever been accepted into the convent and who subsequently makes life difficult for her.
Dame Catherine is elected the new abbess. After her installation, Philipa goes to Catherines' office for a private conversation. Here's the most important part of that conversation.
Philippa: I can't tell you how pleased I was when I heard it was you and not Dame Agnes. It's good to know I have a special friend in these rooms again.
Catherine: There's only one special friend here in this house, or any other. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind." This is the first and great commandment.
Philippa: This is my commandment: "That ye love one another as I have loved you."
Catherine: "As I have loved you." That says it all, doesn't it? Because he loves us equally, all in the same degree.
Philippa: Can you do that - care for all of us equally without any sort of natural preference?
Catherine: I must. It is my duty.
Philippa: And must I be as fond of Dame Agnes as I am of you -Dame Agnes, and all those chattering girls in the novitiate?
Catherine: If only you could.
Philippa: (long pause) I can't.
Catherine: I said, "If only you could." It would be quite something wouldn't it?
