We
believe that before God created the universe and the human race God
was perfectly happy and content in every way; not in need of
anything. It makes you wonder why on earth did God bother to create
us at all, since we have proved to be so much trouble? And God
would have known about all the trouble that it was going to cause. So
why did God create us?
This
is how it makes some sense to me. Think for a moment of some time
when you were deeply happy about something. Usually our instinct is
to share it. We want someone else to be a part of that
happiness. That’s why most people have a big party at their
wedding, because they want others to share in their happiness and
that is one of the reasons why God created us, simply because in his
goodness He wanted others to share in his own happiness. So God
created the spirit world, which we understand as the angels and then
God created the human race in order that we could share in his own
happiness. The book of Genesis says that we were the last thing
that God created which is a biblical way of saying that we were the
most important thing; the masterpiece of God’s creation. God
also created us with the ability to love and reason.
However,
there was one ‘catch’ as it were. In order for us to be able
to love God we had to be free, so that we could freely choose
to love God, otherwise it wouldn’t be real love at all. Real
love has to be free, since you can never force someone to love
you. You can encourage them, but you certainly can’t force
them. Love has to be free. So God had to make us free, and
this meant that we would have the freedom to love God and gradually
find our way to happiness, or to reject God which would ultimately
mean we would lose the happiness that God had intended for us. It’s
a strange paradox, but in his goodness He created us and gave us
freedom, even though He knew that some of his own creatures would
reject him.
I
think the most beautiful image we are given of how God loves us is in
the story of the prodigal son. While the Son has gone away and
squandered everything, his father is constantly waiting and hoping
that he will return and when he does finally return the father just
celebrates. There is no condemnation, no warning that ‘This
must not happen again’; just celebration and rejoicing. The
story of the prodigal son is teaching us how God is with us: no
condemnation, only God’s desire for us to find happiness.
The
Lord knows how difficult it can be for us to make the right choices
and so He gives us people to guide us, the commandments, the teaching
of his Church, his own Word in the bible and many other things to
help us along the way, so that we won’t be short of the direction
and encouragement that we need. He also sends us holy people
every so often, like Francis of Assisi, Padre Pio, Therese of
Lisieux, Mother Theresa, and many others, because they radiate God
and they are a real sign to us of the Lord’s presence among
us. These people seem to radiate God and so many people are
drawn to them because they sense that presence. That is why God
sends us particular chosen souls every so often, to inspire us and
remind us that we are not alone. I know of several people who
worked with Mother Theresa and it completely changed their life,
because they met God through her.
The
feast of the Holy Trinity is a celebration of love; the Trinity is a
community of Persons who share total love and joy between themselves,
and this Holy Trinity reaches out to us with that same love and
invites us to join them. If we respond to the Father, the Son
and the Spirit, then we are gradually drawn more and more into that
love. It starts in this world and it will be fulfilled in the
next.
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