Our Image of God

Recently  European theologians met for a Conference in Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.  The theme was “ The Task of the Theologian in Europe Today”.  Sister Veronika, an Infant Jésus Sister from Czech Republic, gave a presentation on the work of a renowned Czech theologian, Ctirad Václav Pospíšil (1958–2025).  One of his books dealt with the influence of our image of God on society and spirituality. His theory was that “  as it is in Heaven, so it is on earth”. If our image of God is of a one-Person God, solitary, distant monarch,  a dictator ruling over everything,

it justifies power and decision- making being centered in one person and ideologies that do not value the human person or creation .  It effects our politics, theology and  spirituality.   If however, our image of God is the God revealed to us by Jesus, we believe in a God Who Is relational, a Trinity of Persons, where Life and Love are shared both inside the Holy Trinity, and with the created Universe.  It encourages relationships, sharing of life and love,  giving and receiving.  Trinitarian relationships are mirrored through the Son in the Spirit , in creation and in human relationships, in families, communities, societies and the Church.  We value nature as a  web of interconnected relationships.   At Vat II, the Church  rediscovered  its reality as a Body, a People, a Family.  That awareness is being raised again as we  rediscover that the Church is synodal, where each individual has something to contribute and no-one is a “nobody”.

The Institute has its origin in the Heart of God Who so loved the world that He gave His Only Son to instruct all people. { BI.  3}

Christ calls us to follow Him in the ways of the Incarnation and to recognise Him today in the poor and the “little ones” with whom He identified. {BI:4}