{"id":1215,"date":"2013-05-26T14:45:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-26T19:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2010\/05\/for-thoughts-like-these-on-trinity-sunday\/"},"modified":"2017-01-24T17:19:24","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T22:19:24","slug":"for-thoughts-on-the-trinity-by-way-of-chin-circa-1700","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/yimcatholic\/2013\/05\/for-thoughts-on-the-trinity-by-way-of-chin-circa-1700.html","title":{"rendered":"For Thoughts on the Trinity By Way of China, Circa 1700…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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\u2026with a little help from a few other sources.<\/p>\n

Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. I have no doubt that my friend Wu Li, SJ<\/a> was exposed to the Athanasian Creed.<\/a> Why? Because Wu could not have written the orthodox poems below without having believed in the Mystery of the Triune God. Wu wasn\u2019t just parroting something he had heard from his Jesuit catechists either, you see. It is obvious that he pondered this mystery in his heart.<\/p>\n

Like all great poets, Wu parsed the words of the creed and reduced them down in a manner that leaves us better able to have faith in the mystery of God in three Persons.\u00a0 \"\" I know it helps me anyway. If through the many posts I have shared on Wu I still haven\u2019t yet convinced you that he is a master poet<\/a>, then let me step up to the plate one more time and share\u00a0with you two more poems from his series Singing of the Source and Course of Holy Church. <\/em>Be prepared for a couple of grand-slam home runs.<\/p>\n

A quick note before I share the poems with you. The last time<\/a> I posted verse penned by Wu, I used a stock portrait of a wise-looking, elderly Chinese man.\u00a0Jonathan Chaves, the translator of these beautiful lines, sent me the portrait here noting, \u201cthere appears to be one authentic portrait of Wu Li, anonymous and probably going back to his lifetime.\u201d The image you see here is what Professor Chaves sent me, and is the actual likeness of Wu Li, my favorite Jesuit priest.<\/p>\n

One more bit on the difficulty of using metaphor and analogy to explain the reality of the Trinitarian God. Words often fail. St. Patrick gets grilled here for a humorous example.<\/p>\n