Knowing God's Heart for Relationship

Communal not Compulsory

If you've ever given love or received love, you've had a first-hand encounter with God. That's a bold statement for anyone to make, and the fact of the matter is, if you struggle with or deny the existence of a Creator you may outright reject that claim. For now, that's okay. I won't try to convince you about the existence of God in this post (although, you can come to this conclusion purely by reason).

While it has been argued over and over again that belief in God is all about controlling the morals of people (and thereby their actions), Christianity is not primarily a moral system or philosophy. Christianity is a relationship. And like any relationship, there is a morality baked into it. Think of it this way: in exchanging marriage vows, you are not only promising to receive your spouse's love and fidelity and return it with your own love and fidelity every day for the rest of your lives together, you are also promising to reject the same expressions of love and fidelity from everyone else and to refrain from giving those expressions away to anyone other than your spouse for the rest of your lives together.

Relationships are an exchange of persons, not a contract.

Now, there's a lot going on there, but my point is, the promise has an intrinsic morality: it is wrong to break the trust of the other person, it is wrong to develop that type of relationship with a person other than your spouse (as long as your spouse is alive), it is right to plumb the depths of love with your spouse and so on. We can see in this example that in order for that relationship to flourish, a certain kind of cooperation and exchange has to exist. This exchange, however, isn't contractual or even compulsory --it's communal. Here we see the first glimpse into the mystery of God's idea of relationship: His first desire is not obedience and compliance to a set of rules. Rather, his first desire is communion with his people.

God, who created man out of love, also calls him to love --the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being.

Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), 1604

Revealed as Relational

In revealing himself as a Trinity --a three-fold unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit--God has revealed that his very essence is relational. God exists in an eternal and permanent exchange of love between the three Persons. This fact of his nature cannot be counteracted, undone, denied, or rejected. Love underscores and encompasses the entire being of the triune God. Why am I emphasizing this so much? Well, because if this is true, it illuminates a fact of our own human existence: If God is relational and founded entirely in Love (1 John 4:8), then so are we.

A depiction of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

Genesis 1:26

To bear the image and likeness of God the Creator means, in part, that we have been granted one of the greatest gifts of nature --we have the capacity to give love and to receive love. It also means that the reality of relationship is not a secular idea or social construct or even a byproduct of evolution to ensure that the species survives. Rather, it means that relationship flows directly from who God is. It is the fingerprint of the divine pressed right into the surface of our very lives, from conception to death.

Sought Through Salvation

God's desire for relationship is evident throughout salvation history. Even from the very first Bible story we see him connecting with Adam and Eve, walking in the Garden of Eden with them during the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8). Later on, after mankind falls to sin, God insists on winning back his people --which we see by way of the Covenants he makes with Noah, with Abraham, and with Moses. God seeks to bind himself to His people.

After delivering the sons of Israel from Egyptian captivity, God solemnly declares the desire of his heart plainly: "I will be your God, and you shall be my people." (Exodus 6:7). The prophets in subsequent books of Scripture also reveal a God who speaks lovingly to his people, grieves when they choose to depart from him, rejoices when they return, and longs for fidelity. All of this seeking and all of this longing by God culminates in his greatest expression of love: the Incarnation of the Son.

The Sacred Heart of God: The Son

Throughout salvation history, God would send messages through his prophets. Because of their relationship with God and by the power of the Holy Spirit, they were able to hear God's word and express God's heart to his people on his behalf. In Jesus, God does not merely send a message through a messenger as he had in centuries past. In Jesus, God comes Himself to walk among us, to live with us, to eat, weep, suffer, and dwell with humanity.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

John 1:14

Jesus Christ is the living, breathing, physically present expression of God's infinite love towards mankind. In Jesus, we see the full revelation of Divine nearness. Through Jesus' words and actions, he not only shows how deeply he longs for each human being to be with him, but he also establishes his everlasting Covenant with the human race --a final and eternal exchange of himself with humanity.

Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my Body, which will be given up for you...Take this, all of you, and Drink from it, for this is the chalice of my Blood, the Blood of the new and eternal Covenant...Do this in memory of me.

Words of Institution and Consecration, Roman Missal

Here, God himself establishes the union between himself and man. "Consume Me, and be consumed by Me," he says. So, the two shall become one flesh, and what God has united, let no one separate. When we consider this, can we continue to question or deny how deeply God cares about and desires relationship with us?

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