Knowing Our God

Faith is man’s response to God, who reveals himself and gives himself to man, at the same time bringing man a superabundant light as he searches for the ultimate meaning of his life (CCC, 26).

When we join in the Profession of Faith each Sunday, we unite with our Church community in saying, “We believe.” We respond to God’s love for us and acknowledge that He is the source of all truth and happiness.

This act of faith is vital, for in believing we are living out what it means to be human. By believing in God, we become truly ourselves, for we come from God and we are made to move towards Him. God created us out of pure love, and He made us for Himself and in His image. This is why we are always searching for Him and seeking Him in everything that we do:

The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself (CCC, 27).  

God gave us the gift of free will, so we can reject His love or choose to forget Him. But our good and gracious God will not cease calling us. He will chase after us and shout, reminding each of us that we will not be at peace until we find our rest in Him (30). For “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

This may seem abstract, but the Catechism tells us that God is more than just this feeling of peace in our souls. Because we are made in His Image, we have the capacity to know Him through human reason.

 One way we come to know God is through the physical world. When we contemplate the works of creation that surround us, we begin to wonder at its perfect order and beauty.

There is also proof of His existence in the way our souls work. Just think of our “openness to truth and beauty,” our “sense of moral goodness,” our freedom of conscience and “longings for the infinite and for happiness” (CCC, 33).

The movements of creation and these movements of our soul can only come from God:

When he listens to the message of creation and to the voice of conscience, man can arrive at certainty about the existence of God, the cause and the end of everything (46).

It is difficult to speak of this God who is Everything, because we ourselves are imperfect and limited creatures. But drawing from human reason, we can begin to name Him through the perfection of His creation and His creatures.

“Without the Creator, the creature vanishes” (Gaudium et Spes, 36). Therefore it is vital that we do our best to name our God, bringing light to His existence in the world.

This is second Year of Faith reflection on the Catechism of the Catholic Church here on Open Wide the Doors. See our first post here.