It would always make me laugh when I would walk into Church, sit down, and, without hesitation, take a deep sigh because I’d quickly get embarrassed realizing how loud I was and I’d turn around to make sure no one else heard.
Then, I started hearing others sighing too.
The more I hear it, the more I think of how beautiful it is that this is the expression we make when we come before Jesus, truly present in the Eucharist. It points to the truth that we are tired and the Giver of Life is before us, wanting to take our heavy burdens, and so we feel at peace. We are able to relax in the gaze of Christ.
Well, our expression may be pointing to an even deeper reality that we might not be aware of!
The other day, some of my sisters and I had to watch Bishop Barron’s series The Mystery of God: Who God Is and Why He Matters for our Trinity class. In Bishop Barron’s explanation of the Trinity, he makes reference to the look that the Father and Son give to each other. The sigh of perfect love resulting from that gaze is the Holy Spirit. Then, as I was reading Bishop Barron’s Letter to a Suffering Church (if you can’t tell, yes, I love Bishop Barron), he once again mentions the ‘holy breath.’
“From all eternity, the Father speaks the Son, who is a perfect image of the Father; the Son and the Father look at one another and they fall in love. The love that they breathe back and forth is the Spiritus Sanctus, literally “the holy breath.” Therefore, as G.K. Chesterton observed, the Trinitarian doctrine is simply a technically precise way of saying that God is love.” – p.77
Can it be that this expression we give unintentionally when sitting before the Trinity, is a reflection of the love within the Trinity? Can it then be a reminder to us of the love with which the Trinity bestows upon us and calls us into? Can it also be an irruption of the Trinity in us, who are temples of the Holy Spirit, fulfilling our desire for the life of the Trinity to take hold of us? Can every time we sigh before the Trinity be a way of entering into the divine mysteries, contemplating our One God in three persons who is love, and calling upon the Holy Spirit to unite us in Love?
I will be praying that every time you sigh before Jesus, it may be a window into the deeper sigh of love within the Trinity and the sigh that the Trinity takes when looking at you who are made in the image and likeness of God.
In Christ,
Sr. Tonia Borsellino
Oh my goodness that is beautiful.