Intended AudienceTrade
SynopsisIt is evident that the mysterious nature of God may contribute in no small measure to the complexities we seem to encounter in our search for Him. The mystery of the God's head, that is to say, of the Blessed Trinity or three persons in one God, may intrinsically imply the idea of union or community of life and also of communion. Thus we may infer that the idea of union or communitarian life is natural and intrinsic to the Blessed Trinity. At the dawn of creation, the communitarian nature of God was noticed when "God said, 'Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that creep along the ground."' Gen. 1:26] The plural form used for God in this text agrees with the popular Hebrew tradition wherein the common name for God in Hebrew is Elohim, a plural form. If God is presented in the plural form, it is, therefore, logical to experience differences in the manner of expressing the nature and manifestations of God. Jesus, being an essential part of this Trinitarian mystery, logically manifests himself to individuals in different ways. It could be better said that people may have and manifest complementary experiences of Jesus. We know that God is so infinite in his nature and it is therefore impossible for any individual or group of people to exhaust the treatise on the manifestation of God. These differences or peculiarities in the approach to the mystery of God could metamorphose into forms or types of spirituality which are complementary to each other. Thus we have complementary patterns of spirituality as it is reflected in the myriads of existing religious orders or congregations which parade peculiar spiritual patterns. An analogy from the experiences of each of the three blind people on what the elephant looks like could throw some brighter light on this topic. The story has it that when the first blind person touched the body of the elephant, the expression was: "The elephant is like a wall ."The second touched the leg of the elephant and reported that: "The elephant is like a tree." The third blind person touched the tail of the elephant and the report was: "The elephant is like a snake." The good news is that each of the three blind people gave a true but complementary report based on their individual and personal experiences of the nature of the elephant. Now it is clear that different experiences and approaches to the infinite mystery of God could provoke the birth of assorted spiritual currents or spiritual tributaries that empty into the main course of the central mystery of the Blessed Trinity., It is evident that the mysterious nature of God may contribute in no small measure to the complexities we seem to encounter in our search for Him. The mystery of the God's head, that is to say, of the Blessed Trinity or three persons in one God, may intrinsically imply the idea of union or community of life and also of communion. Thus we may infer that the idea of union or communitarian life is natural and intrinsic to the Blessed Trinity. At the dawn of creation, the communitarian nature of God was noticed when "God said, 'Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that creep along the ground."'[Gen. 1:26] The plural form used for God in this text agrees with the popular Hebrew tradition wherein the common name for God in Hebrew is Elohim, a plural form. If God is presented in the plural form, it is, therefore, logical to experience differences in the manner of expressing the nature and manifestations of God. Jesus, being an essential part of this Trinitarian mystery, logically manifests himself to individuals in different ways. It could be better said that people may have and manifest complementary experiences of Jesus. We know that God is so infinite in his nature and it is therefore impossible for any individual or group of people to exhaust the treatise on the manifestation of God. These differences or peculiarities in the approach to themystery of God could metamorphose into forms or types of spirituality which are complementary to each other. Thus we have complementary patterns of spirituality as it is reflected in the myriads of existing religious orders or congregations which parade peculiar spiritual patterns. An analogy from the experiences of each of the three blind people on what the elephant looks like could throw some brighter light on this topic. The story has it that when the first blind person touched the body of the elephant, the expression was:"The elephant is like a wall ."The second touched the leg of the elephant and reported that: "The elephant is like a tree." The third blind person touched the tail of the elephant and the report was: "The elephant is like a snake." The good news is that each of the three blind people gave a true but complementary report based on their individual and personal experiences of the nature of the elephant. Now it is clear that different experiences and approaches to the infinite mystery of God could provoke the birth of assorted spiritual currents or spiritual tributaries that empty into the main course of the central mystery of the Blessed Trinity.