Transforming Touch
There are few images of sacred art more widely known and treasured than the “Hospitality of Abraham” by Andrei Rublev . The icon depicts the three heavenly visitors described in today’s first reading . The icon and the story that inspired it celebrate the unique and transformative relationship with God enjoyed by Abraham and Sarah. This very human story—with its elements of hospitality, a shared meal, laughter, and promise—reminds us that in those graced moments when the Divine breaks into our daily life, everything changes. This same truth is explored in the Gospel, as we hear about those whose lives were transformed by their encounters with Jesus. It can be easy to lose sight of the humanity and intimacy in these stories if we spend too much time analyzing and theologizing them. Doctrines such as the Trinity and the Incarnation can seem remote and abstract when weighed against the demands of daily life. After all, as St. Augustine said, the Kingdom of Heaven is “not...