First Comes Love

Scott Hahn, in First Comes Love, uses the idea of family to explain Catholic thought about the Trinity. Hahn believes that the relations among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are a model for the relations among every nuclear unit composed of father, mother, and child. And he believes that the family of the Church helps people emulate the Trinitarian family and can heal them when they fall short of such holiness. Hahn moves easily from personal anecdote to Scriptural analysis, making his case that Jesus understood all of humanity as part of one family when he called his followers brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers. First Comes Love makes the salutary point that neither romance nor parenthood alone can give us a sufficient sense of belonging. "God built us all to live in a much larger family, to experience a much larger love ... a love that extends infinitely.