GOD IS A COMMUNITY OF LOVE

THE FEAST OF THE HOLY TRINITY - Ex 34:4-6,8-9

God is relationship

The Holy Trinity means that our God is a God of relationships, because in his own self he is relationship, a relationship established in love. And because himself is relationship, he desired to establish a relationship with human beings.

The ups and downs of that relationship

In the Bible, we can go through the ups and downs of this relationship. The interesting about the Bible is that it approaches the relationship between God and man from both sides; and that is the reason why the Holy Scriptures are so appealing to many people. If on one side, we find so much of divine, on the other side we can find a real people living a true human life, full of contradictions, of achievements and failures, in a constant quest and search for God and at the same in a continuous attitude of betrayal and rebellion. And we can discover a God who never gets tired of walking alongside people, even if ignored or unnoticed.

In the Bible, God speaks the human language

When we read the Bible, we should remember that in it we hear God speaking the human language, making himself present in people’s life, history and culture. His face remains obscure, but as he moves along, finding always news ways of interacting with people, his countenance becomes clearer and more defined.

In the letter to the Hebrews, we are reminded that “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds.” (Hb 1:1-2).

A progressive revelation

Full of patience, in his wisdom, God revealed himself little by little according to the human capacity of understanding his message. If we pay attention to this progressive caracter of God’s revelation, then we will not be surprised that in the Old Testament we find things which are considered strange by today’s mentality. Many times, as we read books such as Joshua, Judges and Kings, we may be faced with a god that seems to be a bloody god, ready to order the massacre of the enemies. However, in old times and in many different cultures, the slaughter of whole towns and villages of the vanquished nations was quite common. Reading Joshua, we are told that Joshua killed everybody in Jericho and in most of the towns conquered by him. However, all that reveals more the literary style of the epic singing of the founding hero than the reality of what happened, because as soon as we read the book of Judges, we discover that all those peoples that had been massacred are still there, living side by side with the people of Israel, and being for them a constant source of trouble.

God’s steadfast love and faithfulness

Reading the Bible, we learn to read how God intervenes in human history and how he makes a constant effort to touch our hearts, leading us to accept his offer of a relationship of love. In the first reading, revealing himself to Moses, God proclaims:

“The Lord, the Lord,

a God merciful and gracious,

slow to anger,

and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” 

(Ex 34:6)

As we celebrate the Holy Trinity, we are celebrating this God who revealed himself as “merciful and gracious”, “abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness”. The Holy Trinity means that God is a community of love, and we are called to be part of that community. Being love, God is an outpouring of love, because true love is never self-centred, but rejoices in sharing, establishing bonds of love and being a community. God is the source of all communities which are built up and kept together in love.