"There is only One God."

There is a great mystery in God. We may get close to Him in war via patrons like St. Joan of Arc, or in peace via patrons like St. Francis of Assisi, yet He is one. We may talk of Him as Father, as Son, as Holy Spirit, yet He is one. We may read Scripture such as “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26), yet “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone!”(Deuteronomy 6:4)

God is one. He is not a set of principles, or a union of pieces, He is whole. However, we as people are many and varied, so God in His infinite mercy, lets us come to Him as we are. When we talk about God in a variety of ways, partly what we are expressing is how we as people are varied and different – that each of us is unique, and that God values us for who we are.

Because we are unique, there is some variation in that narrow path (Matthew 7:13-14) which we must take to get to God. The path is narrow, because we must be holy, but it is not necessarily the same path for each person. Some, like the Blessed Chesterton or Saint Thomas, strove to become near God through feasting. Others, like Saint Francis or any number of the hermits strove to become near God through fasting. That variety, the feast and the fast, does not imply a duplicity of principles or a duplicity of gods, such that one is a god of plenty and one of poverty.

No, God is one, and there is no close challenger for His throne. He lets us come to Him in our plenty or our poverty, as long as we come to Him in love and with holiness. All the law and the prophets hang upon loving God (Mark 12:28-31) and keeping his commandments (John 14:15), yet in how we draw near to Him in love and obedience there is some variety.

When we speak in a variety of terms, then, it is a sign of Emmanuel, of God coming to be with us as we are. He loves you for who you are, He made you the way you are with a purpose, and He calls you to be who you are, but in holiness and love. God does not want to change you, but to purify you. He does not want to get rid of the variety among people, but to bring all people to love and holiness while still keeping their unique personality.

Further Reading: God is one (like a husband), not many like the Canaanite gods (Hosea 2).