Editor’s Note: This series on Apologetics is based on the book Catholicism & Reason. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. You can send them either to the postal mailing address or to the email address below, and we will interrupt this series to answer them.
Special Course On Catholicism And Reason (Chapter 15)
God is the key to true happiness and peace. But in order to gain this happiness and peace, we must know, love, and serve God. As we have seen in the first lesson in this series, we can know that God exists from the historical evidence about belief in Him, from the realization that He is the Uncaused Cause of everything that comes into existence, and from seeing that He is the Intelligent Designer who planned and created everything in the world. So, we know that there is a God, but what do we know about Him, about His characteristics?
By looking at the truths found in the Bible and in sacred Tradition, we can get some idea of God’s qualities. We know, for example, that He is infinite, which means He has no limits. Think of the vast power of the wind, of lightning, of the oceans, of the planets traveling through space at unfathomable speeds. Then realize that God created all these things. Think of all the power, wisdom, beauty, and love in the world. These are only a shadow of the infinite Creator of the universe.
God is eternal. He told Moses that His name is “I am,” which means that God had no beginning and will have no end. There was never a time when He did not exist, and He will never cease to exist. If someone were to carry away a grain of sand from the seashore every thousand years, the time would come when there would be no more sand. But even that tremendous and incalculable period of time is hardly a moment in the eternal existence of God.
God is present everywhere. There is no place where He is not present, as He reminds us in the Bible: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good” (Prov. 15:3). When a person gets caught committing an evil or immoral act, he is ashamed that others might know what he has done. But God knows everything we think, say, and do because He is everywhere. Do you think people might lead holier lives if they realized that “the eyes of the Lord” are watching them?
God is unchangeable. We change all the time, from sadness to joy, from anger to love, but God never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
God is all-knowing. We come to know things slowly, one after another, from childhood to adulthood. But God knows everything all at once. He sees all persons who ever lived, every tree and plant and bird, and every thought that we have. He knows what we need better than we do. Remember Jesus’ words that we should stop worrying about what to eat or drink or wear, that God knows all these things before we even ask for them? He may not always give us what we want, because what we want may not be good for us, but He will always give us what we need.
God is good and merciful. Jesus told the story of the ungrateful son who demanded all his inheritance from his father and then went far away and spent it all on wine and women. When he had reached rock bottom, and could only find work taking care of pigs, he decided to come home, express sorrow for his sins, and beg his father for forgiveness. The father in the story represents God, who will always grant us mercy and forgiveness if we are truly sorry for our sins and ask for His mercy.
God is all just. This means that while He will always forgive those who repent of their sins and give them their reward in Heaven, God is also just, which means that He will punish those who practice evil and do not repent before they die. Think of the thieves on the cross next to Jesus. One cursed Jesus and refused to repent and wound up in Hell. The other thief begged Jesus for forgiveness and wound up in Heaven. It would make no sense for God to treat the two thieves equally because that would not be just. So, too, it would make no sense to give the same reward to holy Mother Teresa and to evil Hitler.
While we can figure out some things about God using our reason, only His Revelation can tell us that there is one God in three divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We call this doctrine the Blessed Trinity, which Jesus revealed to us when He told the apostles to baptize persons “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Our human minds cannot grasp this mystery of the Trinity, but we believe it because Jesus told us it is true.
Now that we know who God is, and all the wonderful things He has done for us, we will find it easier to love Him, and if we love Him, we will want to serve Him.
List of Words:
ALL-KNOWING
ETERNAL
FATHER
GOD
HOLY SPIRIT
INFINITE
JUST
LOVE
MERCIFUL
PRESENT
SERVE
SON
TRINITY
UNCHANGEABLE
Quiz:
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