Alright, but I don’t think you answered the question really. God is love, and God is three persons. For what reason do the persons love one another? If you say there is no reason, that is fine, I believe in unconditional love, but not all loves are equal. I love my brother more than some cute bunny rabbit. Why? Well, I have more in common with him. Qualities. THINGS. Me and him have a similar sense of humor, a similar way of looking at the world, similar tastes, etc. Sure, I can have a universal love towards everything, but that love would not be special.
What, specifically, makes the love between the members of the Trinity special?
Kismet:
Since God is Omnipotent, it follows that He is All Loving. Why? Just imagine if He weren’t! (This is a bit of a
thought exercise.) Also, He is The Creator. Can that which is maximally Creator stop creating? So, God must, from always, create. Now, since God must always create, and has always created, before He created anything else, He created the Son and the Holy Spirit. Why? Well, what would be the two primary activities of a being such as God?
If you answered: “thought” and “will,” you’d be correct. These are the principal activities of an infinite being and they can be perpetual, assuming that being’s total knowledge of everything (which follows as well). Now, what would God think of? Would a perfect being think of the imperfect? No, he would be drawn to think of the perfect. But, what’s the perfect? If you answered that “He is,” that would be correct again. Can a perfect being take his
eyes off the perfect, as they might say, even for a moment? So therefore, He is not altruistic.
What’s the next activity of a perfect being? Willing? He is All Fecund and All Creative. So, what would a maximally fecund, maximally creational being do? Well, if you answered, He would virtually have to create whatever He thought, you’d be correct again.
Now, what would a maximally loving being love? How could a maximally loving being maximally love anything but himself and what he conceives, that is, thinks and wills? Consider how a craftsman, or craftswoman, feels upon the successful manufacturing of that which he or she sought to make. Though we’re different in degree, we’re made in His image, so we can get some idea of that sense of achievement He receives from the processions of the Son and the Holy Spirit. His expression of maximal Love, creativity, fecundity, power, and so forth, can best be expressed through the acts of “thinking” and “willing,” which necessarily produce.
When a parent takes his/her child to the doctor, there is often the expectation that the child may get a shot. The parent permits the “pain” of the shot because s/he knows that it is for the betterment of the child. By it, the child is protected from disease. Nevertheless, the parent “feels” the child’s pain. So, in like manner, God
feels our “pains.” Like the one-year old, we have no real idea as to why we received that pain, only that we did. Fortunately, in time, the child forgets just as we tend forget. But, our betterment is assured and we are strengthened. Now, does the child love his/her parent(s) any less? Probably not. More than likely the child intensely dislikes the doctor! But, it was not the parent that gave him/her the shot. The child properly projects its anger where it belongs - away from its parent(s).
My apologies for speaking in such a way as to sound arrogant. Arrogance was not my intention. What I intended was to have any readers “think it through” with me. This is how the Catholic should think it through. And, of course, it was brief. Since we are on a forum that virtually requires sound-bite explanations. Again, if you will forgive the sound of arrogance, I think this explanation will answer most of your questions.
God bless,
jd
