GOD IS RELATIONSHIP AND LOVE

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

In the Feast of the Holy Trinity, we give ourselves a day to celebrate what is always present, every single day and every single moment of our lives. Speaking of the Trinity, se speak of God as relationship and love, and we speak of him in this manner, because that is the way he has revealed himself to us. We do not believe in three gods. The Christians are monotheists, being part of the Abrahamic religions, together with the Jews and the Muslims. However, we understand God in different manners. Believing that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Christians affirm God to be communion in diversity. God in himself and within himself is communion and love, which implies relationship. That’s why love and relationships are so important for us, human beings because we are created in the image of God. The faith in the Trinity is an essential feature of our understanding of God and of the understanding of human beings, who are called not only to live in relationships but to enter into a relationship with God.

God in Islam

For the Muslims, the Trinity is an absurd and it is blasphemy, the sin that cannot be forgiven. For them, Allah is supremely alone - a cold and lonely god, who cannot dream of entering into a relationship of love with human beings. For them, the only relationship possible between man and Allah is the relationship of the slave to the master, and the only attitude possible on our side is submission, knowing that he can decide as he pleases, following the whims of his heart. For the Muslims, the central belief of their religion is called tawhid, that is the unicity of God and the worst sin shirk or to give partners to God. The Muslims think that the Christians believe in three gods, being the Father, the Son and Mary (the mother of Jesus). They reject the thought that Allah may be called Father because he never had a wife and he cannot bear children. We mere human beings can never think of ourselves as children of God. God has no children, and we are simply slaves.

“God will never be a God without man”

Even though Muslims and Christians worship only one God, we see ourselves in his presence in a different manner: the Muslims as slaves, and the Christians as children. We are children, not because we are born of the flesh of God (his goodness), but because God, who is love, has decided to adopt us as children and give us the rights of children. That was his plan since the beginning, even before the creation of the world.

Pope Francis tells us that, in Jesus Christ, God revealed himself as the one who cannot live without us. He is relationship and love and his love is so great that is in a continuous outpouring that reaches us.

“Dear brothers and sisters, we are never alone. We can be distant, hostile, we could even profess to be "without God". But the Gospel of Jesus Christ reveals to us that God cannot stand without us: He will never be a God "without man"; It is He who can not stand without us, and this is a great mystery! God can not be God without man: great mystery is this! And this certainty is the source of our hope, which is preserved in all the invocations of our Father.” (Pope Francis, General Audience, 07-06-2017)