By RAYMOND DE SOUZA
Part 8
“I love thee, Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” (Psalm 18:1-2). The enthusiasm with which the psalmist praises God our Lord comes from his knowledge of God’s perfection and attributes. He knew whom he loved.
As we are called to love God in the same way, let us learn a little more about those attributes. We will take a brief look at His power, holiness, majesty, wisdom, goodness, justice, righteousness, Providence, kindness, bounty, truth, fidelity, and mercy. That should do for one single lesson!
First of all, His power. There is no limit to the power of God. He is Omnipotent, i.e., all-powerful. He can do all things possible, and has manifested the infinity of His power in the act of creation and in the splendors of the cosmos, which is as nothing when compared to its Maker.
And yet there is one thing God cannot do, and has never done: to please everybody . . . because that would imply His removal of our free will, and He does not want that. He wants to be loved and served freely, that is, knowingly and willingly, so that He may reward us infinitely. But to please everybody, that He cannot do. Jesus Himself, who was meek and humble of heart, the most perfect man who walked the Earth, did not manage to please everybody at all.
Quite to the contrary, the more truth He taught and the more He did good, the more He attracted the hatred of His enemies. Now, a servant cannot be greater than his Master. If He was hated, we shall also be. If we are not, especially in our days, we are not following Him as we ought to. There is something wrong with us.
God’s holiness: Man has a God-given religious sense, that is, the ability to distinguish between the sacred and the profane. We find this sense pretty much in all religions, when we see the respect they have for their places of worship and sacred things reserved for the cult. It is a special sensibility, arising from man’s God-given religious sense, to distinguish between what is sacred and what is profane. The notion of “sacred” or “holy” expresses that which is segregated, set apart, reserved for God.
We naturally feel that something holy belongs to God by nature, or by consecration to Him, and so cannot be treated with the familiarity of worldly use.
That is the way that Catholics used to be in the past, before the liturgical revolution broke the distinction between the sacred and the profane. Loss of faith and of reverence to God was the result. No wonder Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger spoke often about rediscovering the sense of the sacred, especially in liturgy. But I digress. . . .
In Sacred Scripture, we learn that God is the All-Holy One. Holiness is the very identity, the very essence and being of God. “I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst” (Hosea 11:9) and when that Holy One came from Heaven to be with us, “The angel answered, the Holy Spirit will come on thee, and the power of the Most High will overshadow thee. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).
God’s awesome majesty: The majesty of God is His holiness revealed, and, when revealed, makes known to us our own un-holiness and littleness, thus arousing fear and admiration, trembling and wonderment, respect and immense love. St. John (1 John 1:5) wrote: “God is light and in him is no darkness at all.”
Before even a small revelation of God’s infinite majesty, Moses, Elias, Isaias, Ezekiel, and the whole community of Israel trembled with awe and covered themselves, daring not even to look upon God. At the Transfiguration of the Lord, and the voice of the eternal Father, the apostles “fell on their faces and were filled with awe.” In the city of Heaven, “the glory of God is its light” (Apoc. 21:11).
God’s wisdom: When he considers how God is all-wise and all good, St. Paul exclaims, “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” (Romans 1:33).
In His loving wisdom, God mysteriously disposes all things to our good and our salvation: “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love Him” (Romans 8:28).
God’s justice is the virtue of giving to each one what is his due. No egalitarianism here. If you deserve more, you get more; if you deserve less, you get less; if you deserve all, you get all; if you deserve nothing, you get nothing. As simple as that. This is strict justice.
God’s righteousness is His perfect moral perfection. God is just, and utterly pure and upright. He judges each person impartially and acts in favor of those oppressed by injustice. Yet God goes beyond strict justice; He lavishes His gifts upon us. The fact that we can merit at all is itself a gift from Him.
God’s Providence: Our Savior speaks eloquently of our heavenly Father’s Providence and generosity: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life….Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matt. 6:25ff.) His Providence manifests His kindness and bounty toward us.
God’s truth: God is Truth itself, and He is true to His word and His promises. He cannot lie or deceive. Of His fidelity, St. Paul says, “if we are faithless, He remains faithful — for He cannot deny Himself.”
Finally, God’s mercy: Mercy is compassion for the weak and needy. That means us, you and me. God is mercy itself toward us. He is “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3-4). He is “rich in mercy.” Our Lord recounts parables to convey to us the delight that God has in forgiving the sinner. There is no sin too great for God to forgive.
In our days of modernism infecting the bosom of the Church, to the extent that Paul VI spoke of the smoke of Satan in the sanctuary, there has been a loss of the sense of sin among Catholics, taking for granted that God will forgive us even if we do not repent, as Luther thought. But that is not the case. To be able to make good use of God’s mercy, we must also rediscover why we need mercy, that is, because of our sins. When we pray the “Hail Mary” we do not say, “pray for us, saints,” but “pray for us, sinners.”
It is by knowing more about God’s attributes that we get to love Him more, for no one can love what he does not know.
Next article: Answering the objection of God’s foreknowledge and our freedom.
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(Raymond de Souza is an EWTN program host; regional coordinator for Portuguese-speaking countries for Human Life International [HLI]; president of the Sacred Heart Institute, and a member of the Sovereign, Military, and Hospitaller Order of the Knights of Malta. His website is: www.RaymonddeSouza.com.)
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