C.S. Lewis once observed: “Human history [is] The long, terrible story of Man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.” How fortunate for us, then, to celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity this weekend. God, in revealing to us His inner nature, shows us that He is love; that relationship is fundamental. Being in a loving relationship with God and out fellow man will bring us happiness.
Because we are made in the image of the Trinity, love, family, friendship, society and the Church are essential to us, at the very core of human existence. God is a family, a conversation, a play of speaker, spoken and speech. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God (John 1:1). By insisting that the Word is God, John implies that the Divine Persons are not together as “ball bearings in a bucket,” but rather as interacting and overlapping fields of force.
As John’s Gospel unfolds, we see how this influences our approach to creation. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being (John 1:3). This is a radical statement. In the creation accounts prior to the Judeo-Christian, the cosmos and humanity were said to be brought about through violence between the gods and the manipulation of pre-existing matter. In Genesis and the Gospel of John we see something entirely different - creation from nothing. The true God doesn’t manipulate, dominate, or wrestle into submission anything outside of Himself, but rather through an entirely generous and nonviolent act of love gives rise to all of finite reality. God is the one who wills to love in freedom. God is free to be gracious. The cosmos is nestled nonviolently in the community of the Trinity.
This in turn influences how all creatures relate to each other. Since the cosmos is centered in God, all finite things, no matter their tremendous differences, are ultimately linked. All creatures are like islands in an archipelago: separate on the surface yet connected at the depths. This is the basis for the Church’s interest in social matters. Brought into relationship with the Trinity through Baptism, we have the duty to transform the various aspects of this world into a Christian vision of creation. The Trinity is a gathering force; the Persons of the Trinity are not closed in on themselves; there is an openness; we are invited to enter into relationship with them! Catholic social teaching emerges from the truth of what God has revealed to us about Himself. God’s very nature is communal and social. God the Father sends His only Son and shares the Holy Spirit as His gift of love. God reveals Himself to us as one who is not alone, one who is relational. Therefore, we who are made in God's image share this communal, social nature. We are called to reach out and build relationships of love and justice.
David J. Conrad
Because we are made in the image of the Trinity, love, family, friendship, society and the Church are essential to us, at the very core of human existence. God is a family, a conversation, a play of speaker, spoken and speech. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God (John 1:1). By insisting that the Word is God, John implies that the Divine Persons are not together as “ball bearings in a bucket,” but rather as interacting and overlapping fields of force.
As John’s Gospel unfolds, we see how this influences our approach to creation. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being (John 1:3). This is a radical statement. In the creation accounts prior to the Judeo-Christian, the cosmos and humanity were said to be brought about through violence between the gods and the manipulation of pre-existing matter. In Genesis and the Gospel of John we see something entirely different - creation from nothing. The true God doesn’t manipulate, dominate, or wrestle into submission anything outside of Himself, but rather through an entirely generous and nonviolent act of love gives rise to all of finite reality. God is the one who wills to love in freedom. God is free to be gracious. The cosmos is nestled nonviolently in the community of the Trinity.
This in turn influences how all creatures relate to each other. Since the cosmos is centered in God, all finite things, no matter their tremendous differences, are ultimately linked. All creatures are like islands in an archipelago: separate on the surface yet connected at the depths. This is the basis for the Church’s interest in social matters. Brought into relationship with the Trinity through Baptism, we have the duty to transform the various aspects of this world into a Christian vision of creation. The Trinity is a gathering force; the Persons of the Trinity are not closed in on themselves; there is an openness; we are invited to enter into relationship with them! Catholic social teaching emerges from the truth of what God has revealed to us about Himself. God’s very nature is communal and social. God the Father sends His only Son and shares the Holy Spirit as His gift of love. God reveals Himself to us as one who is not alone, one who is relational. Therefore, we who are made in God's image share this communal, social nature. We are called to reach out and build relationships of love and justice.
David J. Conrad
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