None of us likes to be left out.

For instance, a wedding is coming up which we expect to be invited to. However, when the invitations are sent out, we don’t receive one.This hurts, sometimes a great deal.

We feel excluded. We feel that we are not wanted.

Of course, we have to look at ourselves and see how generous we are when it comes to inviting other people in.
From time to time people come to our door.
Some we dismiss immediately, barely exchanging a word with them.
Others we have a brief but polite chat with them at the door, without inviting them into the house.
Others we may bring into the lounge where we talk business, and when the business is concluded we show them to the door.

But there are a select few whom we welcome, invite in immediately and offer them food and drink.

There is a beautiful Russian icon of the Blessed Trinity painted by a monk by the name of Rublev (pictured above).

It depicts the three Divine persons sitting at a table. A dish of food lies on the table. But the thing that immediately strikes you is the fact that at the front of the table there is a vacant place.

The vacant place is meant to convey openness, hospitality, and welcome towards the stranger and outsider.

That vacant place is meant for each one of us, and for all the human family.

It signifies God’s invitation to us to share in the life of the Trinity.
God does not exclude us. He does not talk to us at the doorstep. He invites us to come in and sit at His table. He wants to share His life with us.

In the words of the Gospel for this feast

God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son.

Many are intimidated by the great mystery of the Blessed Trinity.

This is a great pity.

We should see the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as friends to whom we can relate, and to whom we can talk to in prayer.

Because God’s Son, Jesus, befriended us ,we are no longer strangers and outsiders.
We are God’s children.
We are part of the family.

He has already given us a place at the banquet of earthly life.
But he wants us to have a place at the banquet of eternal life too.

Deacon John Cliffe – June 2020