“In [Genesis 1]verses 26-27, there is a significant pause in the narrative as God reflects within Himself, i.e., among the three divine Persons. Up to this point God simply creates by saying, “Let there be” (vs. 14) or “Let the earth bring forth” (vs. 24). Whatever He names then comes into being. However, in these two verses God first proposes (“Let Us make man” - vs. 26) and then acts: “So God made man” (vs. 27). The use of the pronoun “Us” further reveals creation as the work of an interpersonal and relational Being. God proposes, deliberates, and communicates among the Persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three Persons, in a relationship of communion with one another, is an appropriate description of God the Creator…God discloses Himself as personal and in relationship to man, who is made in his Creator’s image. Man, therefore, is also a person capable of relationships – a being with whom God, the Ruler of all, shapes the dominion of what He has brought into being.” (Dynamis 3/16/2021)
“Since man is fashioned in the image of God, these facts concerning God’s nature have immense consequence for us as relational beings. When man is made in the image of God,… “he exists, he takes on God’s ‘way of being.’ God’s way of being is not a moral attainment, something that man ‘accomplishes.’ It is a way of ‘relationship’ with the world, with other people, and with God, an event of communion… Because God is both communion and diversity, we are complete only in relationship. We are made for communion…we do not find completion merely in physical union but in spiritual communion with God.” (Metropolitan John Zizoulas, Dynamis 3/16/2021)
“All of life is relational. Beginning in the womb, we receive all that we have, all that we are, and all that we are becoming from one another…We were created in love by God and for God. God reveals this to us at the beginning of the Bible in Genesis when He creates Eve so Adam would have both an equal and a helper as the Scripture states. Even with God by his side in paradise with the animals and nature, Adam felt alone without other human beings. God then created Eve. All humans came from the union of man and woman and depend on that relationship. God created all of us to both help each other and receive help in this life. He made us relational to live in loving community just as He is relational within Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” (Bishop John Michael Botean, Sacramental Living)
“The word “religion” literally means “relationship”, “binding relationship”, or “a relationship that binds us back to our Creator.” (Peter Kreeft)
“Broken, fractured, divisive, and hateful relationships are antithetical to our faith and to God Himself. We are all guilty of them at times and we are sacrilegious when doing so. God is relational within Himself. His relational holiness is embedded within in all of creation. This lofty theological truth is expressed in the common ordinary relationships we have with family, friends, and others. Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). This is why Christ tells us to love one another as He loves us (John 13:34, 15:12). When doing so, we are in communion with God and others and acting according to our true created nature.” (Sacramental Living Ministries)
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