A GOD OF TENDERNESS AND COMPASSION

HOLY TRINITY SUNDAY - John 3:16-18

The mystery of God pervades all revelation throughout salvation history. As a mystery, it is above and beyond our understanding. It does not mean that we understand nothing about it but that it always transcends whatever we may know and say about God. In the Scriptures, since the beginning, God is affirmed as being one, meaning that only Yahweh - the revealed name of God - is God. There are no other gods. Then, as God reveals himself and intervenes in human history, He is perceived as being a relationship, since he affirms himself through the relationships he establishes with human beings. It is in the Christian faith that this reality of God is acknowledged and affirmed clearly by speaking of the one and only God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit - that is the Holy Trinity. Since the beginning of the history of the Church, there appeared anti-trinitarian groups that denied the mystery of the Holy Trinity and, as a consequence, denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. Islam began as an offshoot of these anti-trinitarian groups. Even though they accepted Jesus as the Messiah, they refused to speak of him as the Son of God. For them, Jesus is no more than a Messenger of God. Then, Islam established itself as a strictly monotheist religion, professing a God that manifests himself by power, not by love. Allah is a lonely God, to whom everything has to submit and with whom the only possible relation is that of a slave. The Islamic god cannot be called father, since he has no children and he relates to everything else as the master.

For Jews and Christians, the Holy Scriptures present Yahweh, the Lord, as the only God who affirms himself by establishing a covenant with his people. He revealed himself as a God of love:

“Lord, Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness.” (Ex 34:6).

Indeed, 

“God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost

but may have eternal life.

For God sent his Son into the world

not to condemn the world,

but so that through him the world might be saved.”

And this salvation is carried out by Jesus Christ, through whom we become children of God.

In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul wrote:

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Co 13:13)