“I am with you always – to the close of the age”
John 17:1-11
Background:
Some Catholic theologians are now arguing that only because God is triune is it possible for Her to relate to us.
A God who was one person, they say, would not be capable of relationships. But precisely because He has internal relationships is God able to have external relationships too. It’s kind of a neat idea, but I must leave it to others how it stands up to theological analysis.
It does make the revelation of the Trinity seem reasonable. Why else would God stun us with this baffling, if dazzling, notion other then to show us that God could love all beings, even as He loves His Self.
Our God is not an isolated entity. Rather She is a network of relationships and hence all human networks are actually or potentially grace-full.
Story:
A group of three young mothers who lived on the same street agreed to pool their time and resources so that they could help each other take care of their kids and at the same time provide one another with a little free time. It worked fine, the kids liked it, the fathers liked it (anything to escape from the demands of child-rearing), and, most important, the women like it.
They discovered in practice what they had heard so often in theory: it’s easier to do things as members of a community than as isolated individuals. They bragged to their friends in other streets about how well their little community worked and how everyone should try to imitate them. But then one of the women began to tally up the hours she gave the community effort and concluded that she was giving more time than the other two.
They added up their own times and concluded just the opposite. Indeed they accused the first woman of making up numbers so she could escape her fair share. Since they had all studied economics in college, they began to shout “free rider” at one another. Soon they were not speaking to one another.
Their community collapsed under the pressures of success, resentment, and envy – in that order. See, we told you so, said the neighbors on other streets. Later none of the three could figure out what went wrong.