When we agree to enter into a relationship with someone we’re best to do so with wide-eyed, generous, optimism grounded in the reality that the other person has some very serious problems.

After all, they’re just like us – human. And we humans, for some reason, are desperately flawed - the Church often calls this ‘original sin’ – so much so that we really don’t know what we don’t know about ourselves, much less about the situations around us and the future into which we have no choice but to be dragged – fearfully and pitifully unprepared. It’s no wonder we behave erratically, becoming angry and frustrated with big, though usually small things, inflicting the greatest amount of pain upon the people we claim to cherish most.

It is given this reality that we seek trajectories we hope will take us upward, into becoming the best versions of ourselves. And we know, instinctively, because we humans are a communal breed, that we do this better when we are in relationship with others.

And those relationships work best when we take into account our shared imperfections and act generously, kindly, and forgiving toward others.

Relationships come to mind this time of year because this weekend we celebrate something called Trinity Sunday. This is the only feast day on the calendar not dedicated to a person or an event, but a theology – as the Church wants us not only to worship God, but to spend at least one day a year trying to figure out who s/he is.

Centuries of analysis by the best minds in the tradition have concluded that the idea of a ‘trinity’ – of a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is the best way to conceptualize this - which, of course, bespeaks relationship. The famous icon by the Russian iconographer Rublev depicts this so wonderfully in the illustration above.

The image suggests a civil, respectful conversation around a shared table. No one is throwing a fit. Dialog is occurring. There is peace, if not joy and hope, in the shared work being undertaken.

And we humans are at our best when we enter relationships with the crazy people around us not only recognizing our own craziness, but with a polite and optimistic outlook toward the abundance of shortcomings we’re bound to encounter.

It is in this way that we emulate the Trinity – becoming like God by showing respect, calm, and even hope for the potential of relationships around us. How do we encounter others as well meaning, though mutually flawed? How are we working to be more generous, forgiving, and accepting of those who are most likely doing their very best?