The three realities:
1. God
2. Man
3. Creation
The six relationships:
1.
God created all of creation out of love for us. His purpose for creation is to serve mankind by providing mankind with all that we need to survive e.g. food, medicine, clothing, etc.
2.
God created mankind in His image and likeness, also out of love. From once a thought and idea in His mind, He decided to create each one of us and breathe life into us.
3.
Creation, in providing for man all that man needs, fulfils God's purpose for it and in this fulfilment, it is in union with God its Creator.
4.
Creation serves mankind in the provision of all things for mankind's survival. This relationship fulfils God's purpose for it and thus, brings about relationship 3. Creation is God's love for us; in that God knows our every need (not want) and provides for these needs free of charge (until man made money). He gives to us all that is good and needed.
5.
Because mankind depends on creation for all that we need, it is our duty and responsibility to take good care of creation, failing which, we will only suffer the consequences e.g. global warming, diseases, etc. All of God's creation is to be respected and taken care of.
6.
God first loved us and so created us in order that we may come to know Him and His infinite love for us. We cannot possibly do that if we only existed as a thought and idea in God's mind (without Him transferring that thought into a creation of us). When we fulfil the purpose He has set out for us, when we come to know Him, love Him and walk in His ways, we create this relationship #6 and be in union with Him. Failing to do so, we distant ourselves from God in a rejection of Him in our lives. When we fulfil His will for us, we, in turn, receive fulfilment in our lives.
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The bible that consists of the accounts and stories various authors wrote, inspired by God through the Holy Spirit, is a tool and gift God has given to us. It shows us the way to live our lives by God's commandments depicted in His direct instructions (as in the 10 commandments, etc) and in parables and other stories. It gives us the direction to take in life, the values we need to adopt as our own, and above all, helps us to come to know God better and experience Him more deeply even though we do not live in the same time as Him. There is no way we can ever know our Creator if He had not revealed Himself to anyone which then eliminates all possibility of oral traditions and thereafter written traditions. There would, inevitably, be no bible to record the non-existent spiritual experiences and certainly, 2000 years after His death, we would never have come to read about Him, let alone know Him and love Him.
The bible is God's gift to us to help us discover God's plan and will for us so that we may know what purpose to fulfil. It is the very aid to help us create relationship #6, without which, we will be without God in the greatest abyss of emptiness and despair. This, perhaps, is God's intention of creating the bible, to be passed on from one generation to the next, that we who are gifted with the opportunity to read it may choose to follow in His ways and teachings and be, in our own lives, filled. If we read the bible with the attitude that this bible is God's channel of communicating to us, we will certainly open our hearts more fully to its Truths and search more deeply and actively the message God is trying to communicate to us. The only result of this is that we grow more connected to God and His ways in His love. When God reveals more and more of Himself to us, and we come to experience this all loving and eternal God personally and intimately, we would naturally say "yes" to reciprocating His love by loving Him in return faithfully and willingly.
Many thanks to Fr. Ponnudurai,S.J. for teaching me about the 3 realities and 6 relationships during my retreat
Reflection on the bible and its purpose inspired by the Holy Spirit during RCIA group sharing
29 September 2010
12.33am
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