07/06/2026
A Pattern of Relationship by Richard Rohr
Father Richard Rohr reflects on how understanding the Trinity as relationship encourages us to live in greater communion with God and life:
The genius of the Trinitarian doctrine has the power to rearrange our universe. We know nothing about this being called God, except that this God is perfect giving and perfect receiving. The very nature of God is communion, receptivity, and generosity, one hundred percent unhindered dialogue between three. It all begins with three! This isn’t just an abstraction; it’s the foundational template of reality. Reality is total, continual givenness and perfect, humble receptivity; that is the very form and shape of being as we know it. It is the very source, pattern, and goal of reality.
The wonderful thing about living in our time is how many scientists, such as physicists and astronomers, are confirming that this interconnected nature of reality is true. Looking through microscopes or telescopes, they see this same pattern of utter relationship. They are discovering that if reality is anything, it’s absolutely relational. It’s something we used to know, something our ancestors knew on an intuitive, spiritual level. But since the Enlightenment, at least in the West, many people basically dismissed the possibility of interconnection or interbeing. We’ve primarily produced individualists who try to save themselves by believing things intellectually. This view of religion is not a mystery of participation. It’s not a mystery of surrendering; no surrender is even necessary. Instead, it’s a quest to get the right information, which only makes us more proud and self-centered. It makes community less possible, which is clearly evident from our politics and our international relations. Everyone is put back upon themselves, where the only question Christians seem to ask is “How can I get to heaven?” That’s not even a gospel question! It’s a question of the ego. It’s not the question of the Trinity within us.
A conversion to this foundational definition of God as relationship is needed right now. Only people who undergo that conversion can possibly be converted to Jesus and not have their faith distorted. When there isn’t a primary understanding of who Jesus is as part of the Trinity, Jesus will be used for our own nationalistic and egocentric purposes, as a means of power and a ticket to heaven. Can we all be converted, not to Jesus (as strange as that must sound) but to the Trinity, where Jesus Christ actually exists? Only inside the mystery of the Trinity can we begin to understand what Jesus is saying, the mystery he is inviting us into, and the meaning of salvation.
