Richard Rohr compares the flow of love within the Trinity to the rise and fall of tides on a shore — the outflow of love generates an eternal infolding. I like that. In fact, the German word for Trinity, Dreifaltigkeit, literally means “the three infoldings.” I also like a term that Gregory of Nyssa used to describe this enfolding because it connects with the idea of kinship. The word is oikeiosis.
Oikeiosis is a complex Greek term tied to the ethics within Stoic philosophy. It’s the process of becoming familiar, or familial, with someone — the process of bringing something or someone into one’s own “household” (oikos) and treating them as belonging to oneself, drawing them into kinship.
This Stoic concept was adapted by early Christian thinkers like Gregory of Nyssa to describe the intimate, familial kinship within the Trinity. The three persons of the Trinity share a natural sense of belonging — a loving, affectionate bond that is intimate and familiar, perpetually flowing between them because they share the same essence.
This, Gregory wrote, is also the affection and desire God has for us. God desires to enfold all of humanity back into the familiar and familial kinship of the Godhead so that we are held by, and share in, that loving, affectionate bond.
We are all invited in. Our Triune God, with lavish love, opens the circle and shares the Trinitarian life with us. There is kinship at the heart of everything.
Jesus came to Earth, died, was raised to life, and released the Spirit to enfold us back into this conviviality within the Godhead. Our grief gives way to belonging as we come home. This is God’s desire for all creation — that all creation would be brought back home into the loving life force of God, to be enfolded in love, by love, into kinship.
Love flows. There is mutuality and reciprocity of love and care within the Trinity. As we are enfolded into the familial bonds of the Trinity, we participate in this welcoming and enfolding energy of God. As we open ourselves to love, stand in the flow of love, align ourselves with love, and obey the commands of love, we participate in the enfolding of others — we become the enfolding heart of Christ in the world.
We are enfolded into love, by love, for love — for the purpose of love. Love is at the heart of all things.
Blessings, Anne