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“It is not good for the man to be alone,” God said of Adam in the garden, before the creation of Eve (Gen 2:18). But it is fair to ask, “Why was it not good?” After all, everything God created up to that point was called “good.” Adam was in paradise. He was surrounded by beautiful trees, good for food. He had plenty to do to occupy himself, sharing in God’s dominion over creation through the great and dignified work of cultivating and caring for the garden. Why was it not good for him to be alone?

That question becomes more acute in the context of our society, which has been said in recent years to suffer from an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation.” Friendship has been in decline, and the technologies that may have seemed to enhance our connections with others only ended up making us feel more isolated when used to replace real human interaction. Our discontent with a lack of human connection suggests something about human nature.

Man is not meant to be a solitary person, for he is made in the image and likeness of God, and God is not one solitary person. The one God is a Triune God, a communion of three persons who exist eternally in a perfect communion of love. Thus, man, being made in God’s image, is made for communion with other persons. The catechism teaches, “Being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons” (CCC 357).

We can see this naturally. Human beings throughout history have lived in societies, with the family being the fundamental building block of those societies. In other words, human relationships and dependence on one another are an integral part of what it means to be human.

And what is true on the natural level is only deepened in the life of grace. Jesus offers us a deeper interpersonal communion, both with God and with one another. Jesus prayed to the Father, “that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you” (Jn 17:20–21). Commenting on this passage, the fathers of the Second Vatican Council wrote that when Jesus prayed this, “He implied a certain likeness between the union of divine Persons and the unity of God’s sons in truth and charity. This likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself” (“Gaudium et spes,” no. 24).

That is something to keep in mind. And we can examine our own lives in light of this truth: that there is a connection between interpersonal communion and a sincere gift of self. Am I unhappy? Lonely? Isolated? If so, I should examine: How do I give of myself? How do I pour myself out to serve God and others? Precisely through a sincere gift of myself, I will find greater communion with other people, both divine and human. “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it” (Lk 17:33).

Speaking of sincere gifts of self, let’s consider God Most High.

The first line of today’s Gospel is one of the most well-known verses in all of Scripture: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (Jn 3:16). It boils down to this: a gift given out of profound and unimaginable love. And not just any gift. A person is given.

In Christ, the persons of the Holy Trinity are not only revealed to us. They are given to us.

The Father gave us His Son. The Son, taking on our nature, gave himself fully — even pouring out his blood for our salvation. And rising and ascending back to his Father, he and the Father poured out the Holy Spirit into our hearts. All of this is so that we “might not perish but might have eternal life,” that we can be led by the Son and the Holy Spirit to come to know and love the Father who sent them. The persons of the Holy Trinity invite us to share eternally in that perfect communion of love. That’s a gift of self if you’ve ever seen one. And since we are made in the image and likeness of the Triune God, we will only find ourselves by imitating this sincere gift of self.