Today is Easter Sunday. Everything’s new! Last evening we celebrated the Holy Eucharist around the dining table with two lovely friends. We had no organ, only our reedy aging voices. Is this a newly minted “church” perhaps? A sacrament without a proper sanctuary?
Easter felt intimate. God’s presence felt near, in our words, smiles, shared prayers, the flesh of our hands held. And yet, we worshiped a risen God. Far? Close? Near? Far?
I needed a new word for my two-faced spiritual experience. A new word popped into my head as I wondered. Did we experience divine transcendence immanently—or maybe divine immanence transcendently? Or both?
TransImmanent.
TRANS? In contemporary lingo, “trans” is short for transexual or transgender, someone whose sexual identity does not correspond with their birth sex. Deep inner truth prevailed. Is that just for individual human beings? Trans is from a Latin root, meaning across. I envision God crossing, even dancing, back and forth, over and around two traditional theological definitions for the image of God: Divinity is transcendent—above and beyond physical human experience. Divinity is Immanent—remaining within, inherent.
TransImmanent?
The God I first met under the large table when I was a toddler chatting away about whatever popped into my small inquisitive mind, was a loving/listening presence, yes, on a cloud with a long white beard. That cloudy image faded, but the experience of God being intimate never did. Over many years I’ve studied and prayed and done all sorts of academic, sacramental, and spiritual calisthenics, trying to contain, or explain, or even shake off this inner God, thinking it was my own illusion.
I can hear the echo of my wonderful late Spiritual Director the Rev. Pierre Wolff’s voice in my ear: Doucement cherie. Yes, but . . .
Through all my wordiness and wonderment over years, I’m struck with a sudden heart-thumping elation—a new idea I can’t suppress, a new emotion, even though it is attached to, yes, a word and my childhood experience! Without warning, a very old traditional childhood hymn popped into my mind:
For the beauty of the earth,
for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth,
over and around us lies.
Lord of all to Thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.
TransImmanence. Over and around us. . .
HAPPY EASTER.
