Father Bob's Reflections

This coming Sunday is Trinity Sunday when we give praise to God as we Christians understand and know God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  For me, it’s all about being caught up in /getting lost in / finding my true self in the awesome dynamic relationship with our God as we come to know that God is love.  Here is a story I love to tell when I have preached on Trinity Sunday.  Enjoy.

My first assignment as  a priest was to Holy Name of Jesus Parish across the street from the Atlantic Ocean.  I have fond memories of that place, not only of  the whole parish but also of its geographical and ecological setting.   Today I see it as one of the finest parishes in the continental United States in the wonderful ways in which hundreds of parishioners are involved in 85 ministries.
And so, I have a story to tell.  I have told it on Trinity Sunday (this year –May 30) almost every year of my priesthood.  It’s about some sea turtles.  You will probably be wondering as you read what turtles have to do with the Trinity.  But I’ll save that for the end.  It is a powerful connection.

Indialantic, Florida, the summer of ’69.  I had just arrived in the parish and was meeting my new parishioners.  Several asked, “Have you seen the turtles yet?”  I assumed they were talking about turtles who came to our beach but I couldn’t figure out what the big deal was.  So I accepted Tony’s invitation:  “Meet me on the beach at 9:00 tonight; bring a small flashlight.”
I was a little early, so I sat on the steps watching the 2-foot waves lap the shore.  It was awesome to live across the street from the ocean!  I lived there the first three years of my priesthood.  It was a quiet night, a dark night; there was no moon.  I took off my shoes and put them beside a small-sized dune.  I could see the light of flashlights bouncing across the sand towards the south  but the beach  was dark to the north.  Apparently, prize turtle-watching happened on the south stretch of beach.  Indeed, the most active area for loggerhead turtle nesting is south of Cape Kennedy.
Tony and I walked south as the waves gently lapped the shore.  He quietly explained that loggerhead turtles grew to about 38 inches and had huge heads with short necks and a powerful beak that can break open mollusk shells.  They weigh from 200 – 350 pounds, he explained.
We were silent for awhile.  I noticed that the flashlights were all turned off; apparently the sea creatures are spooked by light.  A dark night is best.
“What will we see?” I asked.
“The huge creature will lumber very slowly up the beach to reach an area  above the high water line. The tracks she makes resembled caterpillar or tank tracks.  She will then turn around facing the ocean and use her rear flippers to dig a hole. Sometimes she will not leave any eggs and fill in the hole again to fool us turtle-watchers.  But if she does lay eggs there will be about 100-126 white-colored eggs about 2 inches in diameter.  There are sometimes egg poachers around.”
We soon saw some turtle tracks, leading out of the surf up the beach.  None of us used our flashlights, keeping some distance and, interestingly, even the children kept silent,  as if there were a spell over us.

That was my first experience of turtle watching.  I had many more.  But there was one night I will long remember.  It is that night that I have told in my Trinity Sunday homilies all these years.
I was alone that night — no companion, no other turtle-watchers. The moment opened up for me to be a profound mystical awareness, a moment I still vividly remember.  I watched the giant turtle lay her eggs and slowly make her way back toward the surf.    I moved  a little closer as she came to the edge of the water.  It was really dark.   I felt drawn to her by some compelling or impelling force.  I wanted to follow the turtle! As it disappeared beneath the waves, I was drawn to follow her, to enter  the unknown world beneath the sea.  But I hesitated.  I pulled back.
I was on the edge of mystery. The turtle has its own mystery; the turtle is at home in two worlds — land and sea.  We also live in two worlds — the physical and the spiritual, the seen and the unseen.  For a brief  moment, I was drawn to follow the turtle down beneath the waves. But actually  I was drawn into the mystery of the life of God which the feast of the Holy Trinity celebrates for us.  And there, too, I hesitate.  I pull  back.  I prefer to get close, but not too close.  I prefer to stand upon the shore, to walk along with my toes only in the water, not to plunge in.
The shoreline is  highly symbolic.  It is the liminal space (the margin) between land and sea.  As such, it is a powerful space, a place of mystery in its own right,  as any liminal space can be.  I have stood on several of the shores of the world and it’s always a powerful experience.  Perhaps the shoreline runs down the middle of my soul.
So, what do we make of this feast of the Holy Trinity?  In having this feast the church is telling us we live on the edge of mystery.  We live on the edge of God’s wonderful life — Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
This is not to be solved like a Perry Mason or Agatha Christie mystery.  In religious experience, a mystery is to be lived and to be unfolded as we uncover its multifaceted dimensions, as we allow it to envelop  and sometimes enrapture us.
The immensity of God’s love is a mystery for us, for sure.  But we should not be afraid of mystery.  We should not be afraid to immerse ourselves in the mystery of God as the turtle immersed herself in the mystery of the ocean.
The day will come, sooner or later, for me and for you to let go of our hesitancy and fear and to fall into the ocean of God’s love.  To no longer live on the edge of mystery but to be immersed fully in  the mystery of God’s love — Father,  Son and Holy Spirit.

C’mon!  Follow a turtle!

Before we quit, let us ask, what of the baby turtles?
They hatch in sixty days and are completely on their own.  The hundreds of condominiums on the Florida shoreline are in themselves a threat to the newborn because the little ones are drawn to the light and away from the ocean where they should be.  There is a law that only a few lights are to be on the sea side and these are to be covered.  Like so many other little babies they are endangered.  May we protect them all!

All the best,

Bob Traupman

priest / writer

You’re currently reading “Follow a Turtle! (on the edge of mystery),” an entry on Father Bob’s Reflections

Published:

June 6, 2009 / 11:57 am

Category:

An unconventional priestly journey, My life, Ordinary moments of Ordinary Time

Tags:

Follow the turtle, Holy Name of Jesus Parish – Indialantic FL, The shoreline running down the center of our souls, Trinty Sunday

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