Deuteronomy 4:32-34,39-40; Romans 8:14-17; Matthew 28:16-20
Before we can look at the question of the Blessed Trinity we have to decide for ourselves whether we believe there is a God. Most people believe in one, even if that God is themselves.
The Jews, of course, believe in a God. He is the God of the Old Testament. The Arabs, who are mostly Moslem, believe in a God too. They call him Allah, which is simply the Arabic word for God.
Both Arabs and Jews
claim Abraham as their father. The Arabs come from Ishmael, the first son of
Abraham and Hagar, his slave girl – while the Jews come from Isaac, Abraham’s
second son born of his wife Sarah. Ishmael and Isaac were at loggerheads from
an early age and some say that we can still see their animosity in the
situation in the Middle East today between Arabs and Jews.
But what is interesting is how the Arabs and Jews see themselves before their God. Their conceptions are vastly different. Mohammed saw God as one who demands his service as a master would of a slave. Moslems see their relationship to Allah in terms of doing things which please Allah, as would a slave trying to please his master. Feeding the hungry and clothing the naked poor and so on. Services to Allah comes in hierarchies, that is, some things please Allah more than others. The highest level of service to Allah is jihad.
The Jewish conception of God is described in the Old Testament and in many ways is like the Moslem beliefs, for example, their continuing belief in the law of ‘an eye for an eye.’ But the God of Israel is also profoundly patient, loving, merciful, kind, tender-hearted, forgiving and just. Jews see themselves as children of God whereas Moslems would see themselves more as slaves. So what about Christians? How do they see God?
The Christian concept of God is inherited from the inspired texts of the Old Testament and which is completed in the New Testament. And so the Trinity in God which is ‘embedded’ throughout the Old Testament is made clear and explicit in the revelation of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Confining ourselves to just one dimension of this revelation we can say with Scripture, with Tradition, with the Church – that God is a Trinity of Persons in one God, a communion of love.
This, then, is our God: a loving Father who has sent his Son to save us from our evil and who draws us to himself by the power of his own Holy Spirit.
Given that we gradually become like the God we worship, to ‘immerse’ ourselves in the Holy Trinity is a vastly different project from those who worship other gods. This is not to boast but to give thanks. Through no merit of our own the Lord has chosen to make himself known to us and we know that to follow him is to ennoble every single human quality and potential we possess, and at the same time to offer us a destiny immeasurably greater than any other god could dream of.
But what is interesting is how the Arabs and Jews see themselves before their God. Their conceptions are vastly different. Mohammed saw God as one who demands his service as a master would of a slave. Moslems see their relationship to Allah in terms of doing things which please Allah, as would a slave trying to please his master. Feeding the hungry and clothing the naked poor and so on. Services to Allah comes in hierarchies, that is, some things please Allah more than others. The highest level of service to Allah is jihad.
The Jewish conception of God is described in the Old Testament and in many ways is like the Moslem beliefs, for example, their continuing belief in the law of ‘an eye for an eye.’ But the God of Israel is also profoundly patient, loving, merciful, kind, tender-hearted, forgiving and just. Jews see themselves as children of God whereas Moslems would see themselves more as slaves. So what about Christians? How do they see God?
The Christian concept of God is inherited from the inspired texts of the Old Testament and which is completed in the New Testament. And so the Trinity in God which is ‘embedded’ throughout the Old Testament is made clear and explicit in the revelation of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Confining ourselves to just one dimension of this revelation we can say with Scripture, with Tradition, with the Church – that God is a Trinity of Persons in one God, a communion of love.
This, then, is our God: a loving Father who has sent his Son to save us from our evil and who draws us to himself by the power of his own Holy Spirit.
Given that we gradually become like the God we worship, to ‘immerse’ ourselves in the Holy Trinity is a vastly different project from those who worship other gods. This is not to boast but to give thanks. Through no merit of our own the Lord has chosen to make himself known to us and we know that to follow him is to ennoble every single human quality and potential we possess, and at the same time to offer us a destiny immeasurably greater than any other god could dream of.
