“I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth.”
“I BELIEVE IN GOD” – THE EXISTENCE OF GOD – HIS NATURE
There is a God
A belief in the existence of God is the very foundation of all religion. Hence it is that the Christian believer begins his profession of faith, in the Creed, with the words, “I believe in God,” that is to say, “I believe that God exists, and I believe all that He reveals or teaches.”
Of this fundamental truth of the existence of God we have many powerful evidences, great in number, and unquestionable. Those unbelievers who, in their folly, say, “There is no God,” have no such proofs or evidence to adduce.
The following are some of the chief evidences of the existence of God:
The very existence of the universe
There must be an almighty and eternal Creator since there is a visible material world. By the “world” we mean not only the earth which we inhabit, but also the sun, moon, stars, the whole vast array of the countless solar systems.
Whence has all this vast creation come? Has it made itself? That is impossible. For inanimate matter (such as stones), which is in itself dead, could not have made or created itself. No house, no watch could have made itself. He would very properly be called a fool who would assert that the smallest and simplest peasant’s hut had erected itself. On the contrary, from the mere existence of a house we conclude that there was an architect, or at least a builder. Why, then, from the fact that the world exists should we not draw a similar conclusion – that there must be an almighty, invisible Architect and Maker? That is a poor subterfuge to which the pretending unbeliever is driven when, notwithstanding the existence of the world, he tries to deny the existence of a Creator, saying, “All that exists on the earth has been produced by the forces of nature, which work according to fixed laws.” At once arise the questions, “Whence come these forces of nature? Whence comes this material earth with which and through which alone the forces of nature can work? Did the matter exist before the forces, or the forces before the matter?”
How plain it here appears that the theories of the unbeliever present to a thinking mind more endless difficulties than does the simple Catholic belief expressed in Holy Scriptures in the words, “In the beginning God made heaven and earth.” The world exists, therefore an almighty Creator must exist, who is God. There can be no effect without a cause.
Every blade of grass that we see, every flower, every tree, every animal, all created things are so many distinct evidences of God’s existence. Suppose we admire a fine oak-tree and ask ourselves whence it has come. The answer is, from the acorn. Where did the acorn come from? The answer is that that, too, came from a tree. Again, this tree came from an acorn which, in its turn, was produced by a tree. Hence, in the beginning, either an oak-tree or an acorn must have had a maker as primal cause of an effect. Now, the Creator who can make something out of nothing must be God.
The evidence arising from the order and beauty of creation
The most careless observer of the universe can not shut his eyes to the fact that there is a preconceived plan, aim, and purpose in all things, from the greatest to the smallest. Lifting our eyes aloft to the starry heavens we see a countless array of celestial bodies, almost every one of which is vaster than our earth. They all revolve about a near central body, and again together with this body all revolve about another more distant central body. Every star steadily pursues its regular course, never interfering with the path of its neighbor. All is law, order, and harmony. Then, looking upon our own earth, what beauty and symmetry meet our eyes in all directions 1 Constant and sure is the succession of day and night. Winter is followed by Spring, and the hot, dry Summer is followed by the Autumn rich in fruits. The rivers irrigate the earth and moisten the soil, the waters from the depths of the ocean rise up in vapor, sail gently toward the arid highlands and, dissolving into rain, again refresh the parched ground. Examine the structure of each blade of grass: What a display of wonders, all regulated by fixed laws, is found in the youngest, smallest blade! The rose-leaf is of a different make from the tree-leaf; each butterfly is dis- tinct from the other in beauty and variety of color. By the aid of the microscope the naturalist can descry in an insect, invisible to the naked eye, the most perfect organic system of life. Over and above all these stands the proud form of man who, king-like, lords it over all the rest.
Now, we are forced to the conclusion that where there is law there must be a law-maker, where there is order preexisting intellect only could create and establish such order. Where all tends regularly to a certain purpose there must have been a preexisting wisdom which appointed to each created thing its destiny, purpose, and functions. This first law, this first wisdom or knowledge, this first thought or intellect, must come from that Being whom we call the omnipotent and omniscient God.
The moral condition and nature of man
Each and every one of us feels within himself a law which tells us what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad, what we should do and what we should not do. We call this law conscience. It shows itself in the child and in the grown person, in the poor man and in the rich man, in the good man and in the bad man. Only long years of crime can dull the power of conscience, which wakes up later, usually on the death-bed, and ever with frightful power. Now, whence comes this moral law of nature? Man could not have given it to himself. It exists independent of his will, and only too often, alas I against the will and desire of the man. It can not be the result or the expression of the spirit of the age, inasmuch as it frequently condemns the principles of that spirit. And yet every law naturally presupposes a law-giver, whom, for human moral law, we can find only in God – for such law-giver can not be in man nor in the material world.
Again, as there exist positive fixed laws of morality, so, too, of justice. These fundamental laws remain always and everywhere the same. They show themselves even in the child. Whence do they come? Like the moral law they come not from men, nor from visible, tangible nature. They come only from an eternal justice which stands above man and the universe. To such a law-giver only can man submit, and only such a one is competent to direct the world.
The belief of all nations
“You may meet with States devoid of walls, houses, colleges, laws, and with no knowledge of finance or commerce, but no one ever saw a nation without God, without prayer, without the knowledge of an oath, without religious usages, without sacrifices.” Thus wrote the ancient pagan Plutarch one hundred years after Christ. Cicero, too, says, “There is no people so rude and wild as not to have a belief in a god, though they may not understand his nature.” Hence we find everywhere a seeking and longing after a knowledge of this God. Although the human intellect, when left to its own powers and without any aid from Heaven, never succeeded in acquiring a clear knowledge of the true God, men erected altars to the ” unknown god.” This belief of all peoples, in all ages, in a supreme Being can be explained only by its consonance with human nature.
The vain and foolish conceptions of the human brain never become universal, and die out in time, whereas truth endures forever unchanged. No belief, however, is so ancient, so universal, and so conformable to human nature, as the belief in one God. It must, therefore, be founded on truth, for it can not possibly be explained otherwise.
If, then, we ask the heavens, the earth, man and his history, the towering mountains about us, the blade of grass beneath our feet, the still voice within us, the beauty and harmony of the firmament above us, all and each cry out to us, with voices clear, strong, and unmistakable, “There is an eternal, almighty God, who created all things and who governs all things. Only the fool saith in his heart, ‘There is no God.'”
God Exists. Who is He?
God, as His name implies, is good. He is a being who has no fault, no deficiency. But human understanding can never comprehend how good He is. Hence we can only say, “God is infinitely perfect, He is the Lord of heaven and earth, and all good comes from Him; and, as He is the source of all good, He contains all good within Himself. He alone is good, and, indeed, so good that all the attributes He possesses exist in Him in the highest perfection. He has not only one good attribute, He has all. Hence God is, in truth, the sublimest and most lovable Good that can lay claim to the veneration of man; for Him the soul of man should long, for he who has God has all things.”
Concerning God we know that He is
(a) a spirit,
(b) eternal and unchangeable,
(c) omnipresent,
(d) all-knowing,
(e) all-wise,
(f) almighty,
(g) infinitely holy and just,
(h) infinitely good,
(k) all-merciful and all-patient, and
(j) infinitely true and sincere.
God is a Spirit
Whatever is, or exists, is called being. There are two kinds of being: spirit and body. The spirit is a being which thinks and wills, but which we can neither see nor feel; and it can not be divided or dissolved, for it has no component parts – it is simple. Body is a being which does not feel, does not think, does not will, but which is visible and palpable and easily appreciable to the senses and is composed of several concurring elements. Hence body and spirit are essentially different from each other. A stone is a body entirely without spirit. Man consists of a body and a spirit united; hence, we say that man has a spirit, but that God is a spirit, because He has no body. God is a being that thinks and wills and has no body.
It is true that in the Holy Scriptures may be found passages which speak of God as if He had a body, as, for instance, in 2 Paralipomenon 16:9, where it is told us that “The eyes of the Lord behold all the earth;” in Psalms 16:1, “O Lord, give ear unto my prayer; ” and in Psalms 144:16, “Thou openest Thy hand and fillest with Thy blessing every living creature.” But these are simply modes of expression adapted to our too material ideas; they are the only terms in which Scripture could make itself intelligible to our understandings. For, although we know and believe that God has no body, we can not portray His image, even in our minds, without the qualities of a body. Hence the foregoing extracts from Scripture, as well as similar ones throughout the whole book, are but figures of language made use of to describe to us God’s omniscience and goodness, His love and fatherly solicitude for all men. Similarly we are compelled to make for ourselves actual pictures of God, more especially as God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Thus God the Father, as a rule, is depicted as a venerable patriarch holding and balancing the world in His hand. It was in this form that God appeared to Daniel the prophet (Daniel 7:9) and was by him described as “the Ancient of days”. The representations of Christ are usually some of those forms in which He appeared in the flesh. The Holy Ghost is usually represented under the form of a dove, such as He really appeared at the baptism of Christ in the Jordan. Deity itself can not be represented. To it belongs what Isaias writes in 40:25, “To whom have ye likened Me, or made Me equal, saith the holy One?”
But, Christian reader, although God is a pure spirit you can have Him before your eyes. Represent Him to yourself simply as your Maker, without whom you could not exist, and whose grace and mercy created you. Place Him before your eyes as your Father, without whom you would have nothing, for from Him all good comes. Represent Him to yourself as your helper, for when you find yourself in need He is always with you, never wanting. Keep Him before your mind as the judge before whom you will one day have to render an account of your stewardship. It is related of Saint Simon Salus that when walking through a field he would strike the flowers and plants with his staff, and say, “Be silent, be quiet, do not reproach me with ingratitude to God.” Do not live so forgetful of God’s being that His creatures, while proclaiming His power and glory, rebuke you for not thinking of the Lord that made you. The best way, however, is to be mindful in your heart of God, for does not Saint Paul say in 1st Corinthians 3:16, “Know you not that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you?”
God being a spirit, and, indeed, an infinitely perfect spirit, then the cultivation of our spirit, or the ennobling of our better spirit-nature, should be our supremest duty here below. “Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect,” say Holy Scriptures. For the same reason we must serve God not only with our bodies, with our lips, eyes, and other senses, but also with our soul, or spirit-nature; for, as the Gospel says (John 4:23), “The true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth.” It is only the worship of the spirit, a good, pure soul, and an honest, sincere intention of heart that please God. As Christ of old rebuked and condemned the false and pretended sanctity of the Pharisees, so does true Christian religion abhor a mere lip-service. It demands the soul and the heart
God is Eternal and Unchangeable
As God has no body He must be essentially, and by nature, unchangeable. Spirit dies not. God does not cease to exist, He remains and endures as He is. But as He does not cease to be, does not change, so He could never have begun. This incomprehensible mystery we express by means of the words, “God is eternal.” He has no beginning and no end. God was before the world was, for He has created it.
“Before the mountains were made, or the earth and the world was formed: from eternity and to eternity Thou art God,” exclaims the Royal Psalmist (Psalms 89:2)
And when the world and, with the world, time shall cease to exist, when hours, days, weeks, months, years, and centuries shall have passed away forever, God will be the same as He is to-day. For not only God Himself is immutable, all His attributes are immutable also. Eternal is the will of God; hence His commandments endure to-day as when He gave them forth on Mount Sinai. Eternal are the decrees of God; hence for men, throughout all eternity, there can be no other destiny than to love God and to be happy in His service. Eternal is God’s goodness, but only for them who love and fear Him. Eternal is God’s mercy; hence no human soul can say that it was never received by God unto grace and pardon. But eternal, too, is the anger of God, if not softened by a penitential conversion on the part of man. Eternal are the judgments of God, and eternally they crush the sinner if he do not prevent God’s anger by penance. For with God it is not yea and nay, but only yea. He is to-day as yesterday, and before a thousand years. Hence Saint James calls God “the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration” (James 1:17); that is to say, God is immutable.
God is Omnipresent
The omnipresence of God is that attribute of His, by virtue of which He is at the same time everywhere present and undivided. Hence, in regard to God, there can be no question of far and near. This is only for material bodies, whereas God is a pure Spirit and in this spirit-nature of God rest the power and possibility of His omnipresence. God is omnipresent, not in the sense that all things lie open before His spirit, in the way in which a wide landscape lies open to our view when we stand on a high mountain. His omnipresence is actual. Go, therefore, where you will, God is with you and beside you. If you are sad He is present to comfort you; if you do evil He is present to punish you. If you are good and pious He is present to reward you. If you are in need He is present to help you. Wherever you are, you are with God and remain with Him.
You can not flee the presence of God by going to the uttermost bounds of the earth, nor need you go one step to find Him. Whenever you incur the anger of God He is with you, and will find you even if you travel to another continent. You will find Him in the deepest recesses of barbarism and heathenism, however benighted these may be. In the wilds of Africa you can pray to Him, as if you were in your own parish church.
God is Omniscient
God is everywhere, therefore He knows all things. He is omniscient. And, as He is eternal, He knows the past, for He was there; and the present, for He is now with us; and the future, for it is foreseen and foreknown in His decrees and is effected by Him. He knows our most secret thoughts, for “the eyes of the Lord are far brighter than the sun, beholding round about all the ways of men…and looking into the hearts of men, into the most secret parts.” (Ecclesiasticus, 23:28)
In the heart of man nothing good, nothing bad, can even slumber that God does not know. And, as the Father knows it, so know it likewise the Son and the Holy Ghost. God reads our hearts as we would read a book, and neither falsehood nor concealment can deceive Him nor save us.
God is All-Wise
God knows not only all that is, was, and will be, but He knows also how all things ought to be in order to be right; and, indeed, so right that they can not be made better, nor even conceived to be better. This knowledge-power of God we call wisdom: therefore we say that God is all-wise and that He knows how to direct all things to the most perfect degree.
This wisdom we can discover in the smallest insect as well as in the sun, in the dewdrop no less than in the ocean. Let the reader but consider his own body. How wonderfully artistic it is in all its parts! Man stands erect and looks toward heaven, whither his soul is tending, while the animal, coming as it does exclu- sively from the earth, to which it is soon to return, looks toward the ground. This upright figure of man consists of a harmonious collection of bones, sinews, tendons, nerves, and veins, all lending their aid to the maintenance of animal life, and so necessary, one to another, that the loss or injury to any one part brings suffering to the body. In the interior of the system are the wonderful vital organs. All the limbs ate flexible and work together in perfect harmony. Indeed, each limb is a work of art. The human eye forms a piece of mechanical ingenuity that could come from no other hand than that of an all-wise Creator.
As God, in His wisdom, knows thus how to direct all material things wisely, He knows also how to guide the destinies of men. He directs them in accordance with His own wisdom, and not with regard to our whims and notions. Hence we are often dissatisfied, because, in our imperfect knowledge and limited understanding, we would have things otherwise to please ourselves. For instance, when we are sick we fancy that if we were only once more restored to health we would never again yield to temptations, that we would even do great works for the honor and glory of God. But God knows that if we were strong and vigorous we would become forgetful of Him and run the risk of losing our souls. Hence, in His wisdom, He sometimes leaves us in bodily suffering in order that we may remember our dependence on Him and be restrained from evil-doing.
Knowing that if we were rich we would become slothful, He leaves us poor, so that we have to work and thus preserve our health and strength. He sends us want that we may be provident Happiness makes us proud and thoughtless and leads us away from salvation. Where would God’s wisdom be if all were wealthy, or if all were equally poor? In the first instance, everybody having enough, who would, work to make our clothes, to prepare our food, or to discharge other duties of life toward their fellow-men? Yes, we all have need of one another’s services. If all were equally poor who could give employment, or help of any kind, to another?
Sickness makes us humble, privation makes us inventive, poverty makes us patient, necessity compels us to use our hands and heads, and thus arises in the world that wonderful multiplicity and variety in trade and manufactures, arts and sciences, in all which we can not but discern the guidance of divine wisdom. Again, this difference between rich and poor fosters and brings into play the fairest virtues of neighborly love and of charity, all of which will one day meet with a suitable reward. Sometimes it is made quite apparent how God directs the destinies of individuals to a wise purpose. Who has not often pitied Joseph, the Egyptian, when sold into bondage by his unnatural brethren? But had it not been for this he would never have come into Egypt to be, as he afterward was, the saviour of his people.
Who has not felt compassion for Moses when he was placed, a mere infant, in a basket among the bulrushes on the banks of the Nile? Yet such abandonment prepared the way for him to become a famous liberator of his people. Aman, who would fain destroy the Jewish people, contributed largely to their prosperity. At the proper time Mardochai was raised to Aman’s forfeited position, while the latter was condemned to die on the scaffold intended for Mardochai. True, we seldom discover at first sight the wisdom of God in things happening around us. But that is not necessary, for the faith and confidence with which we throw ourselves into the arms of God are of far greater benefit to us than if we saw and understood all things.
God is Omnipotent
The power of God is no less than His wisdom. He can do all things whatsoever He will. And when He wills to do something He needs no time for it, He needs no tools or instruments, He needs no help, He needs no material to make it from. He can create out of nothing, as He has made the world out of nothing.
But out of what would God make the world? Out of something? But from what would that something come? The first something that would be created would certainly come from nothing.
That to God all things are possible was affirnied by the angel Gabriel to the Mother of God when she wondered how she was to become a mother, since she knew not man. “No word shall be impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37) But we ourselves see this from His countless wonderful works. If He could make all these things, what is there that He can not make? What is there that He can not make, who created the sun, moon, and stars, who holds the earth in its place in the universe, and who marks out to the heavenly bodies their paths and directs their movements over them? What is there impossible to Him who rules the waters of the mighty deep, who controls the elements, who stores the depths of the earth with precious metals, and who peoples the earth, air, and waters with myriads of living beings?
What He can do we may learn from the history of the people of Israel, who had countless proofs that the hand of the Lord was not shortened or weakened after the creation of the universe. Consider, for example, the miracles wrought by Moses in God’s name through His power, at the time of the departure from Egyptian bondage.
Pharao was unwilling to let the Israelites go. Then Moses showed him the credentials and proofs of his mission. Throwing his staff on the ground, it turned into a serpent. With the same staff he strikes the waters of the Nile and they are changed into blood, and all the fishes die. He stretches forth his hand over the rivers, brooks, and swamps, and the frogs come forth and cover all the land. He strikes the ground, and all the dust of the earth is changed into insects that beset men and cattle. He calls forth swarms of flies over the country, and the land of Goshen, where the Israelites dwelt, was spared. Pestilence came upon the horses, horned cattle, sheep, and camels of the Egyptians, while the live-stock of the Israelites was spared. Moses threw ashes up toward the heavens and running ulcers came upon the beasts of the field and men. He lifted his hand toward heaven and a heavy shower of hail fell upon the men and cattle of Egypt, but not on the cattle of the Hebrews. At the order of Moses locusts swarmed throughout the land, and all over Egypt a darkness was spread like a pall for three days, so that no one dared go abroad, while the children of Israel dwelt in light. Finally, God struck with the hand of death the first-born of the Egyptians. Moses wrought all these miracles at the instigation of God.
Again, when the chosen people left the land of Egypt a series of miracles were performed at frequent intervals all through the forty years that they spent on their way to the Promised Land. In a miraculous manner they were guided through the wilderness by a pillar of cloud in the daytime and by a pillar of fire at night. By a miracle they crossed the Red Sea, they were fed on miraculous manna, and were supplied with water from a rock also by miracle. By a miracle they were punished with fiery serpents, by a miracle the strong walls of Jericho fell down. All these things took place before the eyes of thousands of people, who narrated them to their children, just as Moses wrote them.
But the God of Pharao and the Israelites is even today Our God, equally terrible in His punishments, equally powerful to protect and to save. Hence, devout reader, learn to rejoice and to fear at the same time. Beware of provoking His mighty wrath and endeavor at all times to deserve His love and help.
God is Holy and Just
To the perfections of the divine nature belong, above all else, the unbounded abhorrence that God has for evil, and the infinite love with which He is devoted to good. This is what we call the holiness of God. God is indeed holy. He loves good and hates evil, and for that reason He loves only those who do good and rejects those who do evil. Hence Holy Writ says, “Thou hast loved justice and hated iniquity.” (Psalms 44:8) Of course there are holy men who love the good and hate iniquity, but their hatred for evil is not to be compared with God’s hatred for the same.
There have been saints on earth, such, for instance, as Saint Joseph of Cupertino, who were troubled and disgusted whenever a sinner was near them. But the saints must contend against evil till the last breath of their lives. Even Saint Paul, who was lifted up to the third heaven, assures us that he felt in his members a twofold law, namely, the love of God which attracted him to good, and the natural wickedness of his inclinations which all men have. And yet Saint Paul resisted evil even to the shedding of his blood. But God is the origin of all holiness. He is holiness itself. He is so pure that “the heavens are not pure in His sight” (Job 15:15) and that “in His angels He found wickedness” (Job 4:18). How deeply averse God is to sin we may see clearly from the deliverance to the Jews of His laws on Mount Sinai. The Lord proclaimed to them these laws amid so much solemnity that terror and awe must have taken possession of the people, especially when they heard the clash of trumpets, the rolling of the thunder, and saw the mountains smoking and felt the earth shaking under their feet.
They had previously received orders to prepare for the publication of the laws, and had even to wash their garments. Consider how dreadful God will be when man stands before Him charged with the transgression of His commandments!
Since God hates evil so intensely, some may think that He ought not to allow any evil to exist in the world. But evil exists in the world, not because God wills it, but rather because He permits it God permits evil because in many ways it is the cause of good, and because it is necessary that man should choose the good according to his free will, in order to merit reward. For instance, you love your enemy and, as the Gospel tells you to do, you bless those who curse you: how could you exercise such virtue if the evil of enmity did not exist? Why should God reward a man who can not be bad, who can not help being good? Consider the saints in heaven 1 See their joy, happiness and glory. Many of them owe much of their present happiness to the presence on earth of evil which they resisted and overcame. Evil indirectly contributes much to the honor that is given to God even on earth. This holiness of God is manifested in the lives of men. For He rewards the good and punishes the bad, not according to His whim, but just to the degree that they merit, according to the amount of good or bad that they have practised.
In this respect the great ones of the earth are of no importance before God if they break His commandments, as we see in the case of Saul, whom He had placed over His people as king, and whom He afterward deprived of his crown and his life when he violated the divine precepts. On the other hand, God rewarded the poor widow of Sarephta, who in her benevolence fed the prophet Elias, although she was among the lowliest of Israel’s people. God does not look at the greatness of the work, but at the good will, and He rewards as abundantly the simple offering of the poor widow as the handsome gift of the rich man.
He rewards not alone the zeal of Solomon, who built a temple in His honor, but also the drink of cold water given to the thirsty by a charity that can do no more. And in proportion as God’s rewards are grand and magnificent, in the same degree are His chastisements dreadful and severe. In His wrath He has destroyed whole cities, as Sodom and Gomorrha. He has prepared destruction for whole nations, as we see in the fate of Pharao and his Egyptians. Yes, at the time of Noe He destroyed the whole human race, when their sins cried to heaven! Thus God manifests His holiness through the exercise of His justice.
Let us therefore not be disturbed when we inquire why the world often goes prosperously with the bad, and adversely with the good. The evil man has no more chance of escaping his punishment than the good man has of losing his reward. David said long ago, “I have seen the wicked highly exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Libanus: and I passed by, and lo he was not, and I sought him, and his place was not found.” (Psalms 36:35,36) All in due time good fortune vanishes, and the misfortunes of the poor come to an end, as it stands written, “The poor man shall not be forgotten to the end, the patience of the poor shall not perish forever.” (Psalms 9:19)
In order to explain why God does not at once punish us we may observe two things:
1. God gives to the sinner abundance of time, that he may improve.
He kept Noe building the ark in the presence of all men during a period of a hundred and twenty years. When chastisement overtook them how could they justify their tardy blindness and wilful perseverance in sin? Many sinners have profited by God’s delay, to become better Christians. Saint Mary of Egypt lived in sin for many years. If God in His anger had destroyed her at the beginning, a saint would have been lost to the Church.
2. Complete reward and complete punishment will come only in the next world.
The most wicked sinner has something good in him, which God rewards in this life, since He can not reward it in the next. The best man has his faults, which God punishes in this world in order not to be compelled to punish them hereafter. Thus the justice of God is the same to all men. Of this thought, dear Christian, avail yourself and be so encouraged by it that you may never be found cold and indifferent in the service of God, ever remembering that, come weal or woe, you are always in the hand of God. Misfortune did not condemn Job, neither will good fortune justify you. With Saint Augustine pray, “Here, O Lord, cut, here burn; only spare me in eternity.”
God is Infinitely Good
God is the source not only of all power, wisdom, knowledge and holiness, but also of all love. “God is charity,” as the holy apostle, John, says. This love is plainly manifested by His benevolence toward all creatures.
“Thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which Thou hast made.” (Wisdom 11:25)
He bestows upon us, and indeed upon all creatures, untold benefits. This love or charity we call goodness. This goodness of God has given us life and an immortal soul; it maintains and supports us, and provides us each day with whatever we need. And how manifold are the gifts of God I He might have given to us the merest necessaries of life, for man can live easily on water, bread, milk, and meat. But He gave us an abundance of gifts, which nourish us, strengthen us, and enliven us; which not only sustain life, but make it pleasant and even luxurious. We are compelled in our astonishment to ask, “Whence comes this unlimited love of Our God?” Then to temporal benefits He adds eternal blessings. When, in the ingratitude of his heart, man abandoned God and committed sins upon sins He did not spare His only Son. That was, as Saint John says, the greatest proof of His love. “By this hath the charity of God appeared towards us, because God hath sent His only-begotten Son into the world that we may live by Him.” (1st John 4:9) After all this God can not withhold anything from us. After having given us the greater will He keep from us what is infinitely less? What could He deny to us after having sacrificed for bur salvation the life of His well-beloved Son? Where is the heart that is not deeply touched at the sight of such love? The very heathens have wept on hearing from their missionaries an account of what God has done out of His love for men. Should Christians, because they hear the story often, be less grateful than the heathens? Let us then love this good God, giving Him our hearts with all our love. The Lord has said, “I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49) We, too, should desire to see this fire kindled and burning brightly, for what is it but the fire of love that ought to ascend to God from the altar of our heart?
God is Merciful and Patient
The love of God is manifested not merely in His goodness, but also in His mercy and patience toward sinners. God is merciful. He willingly pardons all repentant sinners. He is patient, for He waits long before chastising the sinner, in order to give him time to do penance. No sooner had Adam and Eve sinned than He showed His mercy. He punished them, it is true, but He would not abandon them to the hopeless and endless misery in which they would have been plunged if deprived totally of His grace. He did not wish to leave them a prey to the devil, nor to close against them the gates of heaven for which He had originally intended them. Hence, He promised them a Redeemer, the thought and expectation of whom, and the hope in whose coming, consoled our first parents in the grief for their lost happiness and led them on to sorrow and penance. And as He dealt with Adam and Eve so did He deal with all sinners who, after their sinning, came to Him with humble and contrite hearts. He washed away even the remembrance of their transgressions.
But in order that God may be merciful the sinner must be converted truly and really, and not merely apparently. Words are not sufficient, deeds are necessary; not useless tears, but avoidance of evil and doing of good are required. The sinner’s conversion must be like that of the Ninivites. Among the innumerable examples of God’s mercy contained in the Sacred Scriptures there is none more striking than this case of the Ninivites whom God, through His prophet, Jonas, threatened with destruction. “And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least” and the king caused it to be proclaimed that men and cattle should fast and that the people should cry to the Lord with all their strength. Nor did he proclaim to his subjects a mere outward fast, as of the body; he said “let them turn, every one of them, from their evil ways and from the iniquity that is in their hands.” The Ninivites did this, “And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which He had said that He would do them, and He did it not.” (Jonas 3) If the sinner’s conversion be only as thorough as was that of the Ninivites he need not doubt of obtaining God’s mercy. God Himself promised it solemnly when He said through another of His prophets, Ezechiel, “As I live … I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” (Ezechiel 33:11) What God thus solemnly promised, His Son, Our Saviour, who Himself came to redeem sinners, has taught us in the beautiful parable of the prodigal son. Can a father’s heart know any pain more acute than that caused by the son who leaves his home and squanders his substance? Yet the father receives him back with joy and even prepares a banquet to celebrate the return. But first the son must make the advance, throw himself at his father’s feet, remain at home and by humility and obedience repair the wrong he has done. The same truth is taught by Jesus in the parables of the lost goat and the stray sheep. There can be no more tender figure than that of the anxious shepherd seek- ing the lost sheep, extricating it from the thorns and thistles, placing it upon his shoulders and carrying it home. This good shepherd is Our Saviour, whom the eternal Father has sent in search of sinners. Let us listen, then, to His gentle voice as He speaks to our hearts, “Behold, I stand at the gate, and knock.” (Apocalypse 3:20) Is not that mercy for sinners?
And how long Our Saviour continues to knock before He is tired! He does not at once hurl His thunderbolts on the godless. He waits, as in the days of Noe, to see whether men will become better. “Thou hast mercy upon all, and winkest at the sins of men for the sake of repentance” (Wisdom 11:24). Like the gardener with the unfruitful tree, God gives the sinner a chance. For three years the lord came seeking fruit on the fig-tree and found none. Then he let it be another year, until it was digged about and manured. It is thus God deals with sinners. When He sees the sinner persisting in his wickedness He not only gives him more time for repentance, but He re-doubles the proofs of His love, that the man, touched by the mercy of his Maker, may enter into his own heart. He sends him instructors and confessors. He seeks to bring him by crosses and afflictions. He bestows upon him grace after grace before He withdraws His hand from him and leaves him to his fate. While all this is very consoling, it is, on the other hand, dreadful when the sinner rejects the mercy of God. For, although God is merciful, He is also just. The vessel of divine grace, although capacious, is not inexhaustible. When it is emptied then is the vessel of divine wrath filled. Let us fear this last misfortune, and daily pray that God’s excess of mercy may not make our guilt greater.
God is True and Faithful
As God is infinite charity so also is He infinite truth, and as such He is the source of our faith. God is truthful, that is to say, He can neither deceive nor be deceived. It is man’s peculiar trait to err; to err is human. A man with the best intentions is liable to err, for his knowledge is uncertain and defective. Thus it was that the ancient philosophers erred. Although they made the most strenuous efforts and wasted their very lives in the study of God and things divine, they could not answer their own questions on these subjects and fell into the grossest errors concerning the Deity. Some taught that the sun was God, others the air, and others, again, worshiped fire. Many made images out of stone or metal or wood, and Worshiped them, while others, again, adored the plants and beasts of the field. We can know God only through His own revelation. Man, when left to himself, is liable to err from youth to his old age, and he must acknowledge that he errs every day of his life. Even with the best intentions he can not always know the truth, nor utter it. On the other hand, it often happens that a man has never any disposition to discover the truth. Thus many of our separated brethren, by reason of their intelligence and education, and because of the opportunities offered to them every day, might easily learn the truth taught by the Church. But, although the Lord has said, “He that is not with Me is against Me: and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth” (Luke 11:23), they will not embrace the truth. It is to them a matter of indifference what religion they live in. They can not discern Catholic truth, for they have no good will. Nay, more, men often have bad will and distort the truth. Such are they who, from pride or any other cause, fall away from the truth and seduce others to imitate them; such are they who lie, and their number is legion. But God can not do this. He can not err, for He is all-knowing. He cannot deceive, for He is eternal and infallible truth.
“It is impossible for God to lie,” says the Apostle Paul, in Hebrews 6:18. Yes, it is impossible for God to deceive, for by so doing He would contradict His divine nature – just as it would be contradicting God’s nature and essence to love evil and to dislike goodness, which would be essentially contradictory to His holiness. We may, therefore, believe with perfect security whatever He reveals – nay, we are bound to believe it under pain of damnation, for have we not heard that “he that believeth not shall be condemned”? (Mark 16:16) To distort the word of God, or to doubt it, is the greatest sin of which a man can be guilty, as we see in the case of Adam and Eve, who fell because they did not believe firmly.
This faith in God’s truthfulness the Catholic Christian should often awaken in his heart, as he arouses his faith in general when he says, “I believe firmly that all which Thou hast revealed is true, and I believe it because Thou art eternal truth and can neither deceive nor be deceived.”
But God is not only truthful in His assertions, He is likewise true in His promises. He is true, that is to say, He holds surely to what He promises, and fulfills what He threatens. To the good He has promised heaven, to the wicked He has threatened hell, and these promises and threats He fulfils as surely as He is God. No matter, therefore, how the pious man fares in this world, he is sure of the Lord’s inheritance. Though he may die, like Lazarus of old, in sorrow and misery at the rich man’s doorstep, Abraham’s bosom is ready to receive him, as hell will receive the impious man, though to the end of his life he may live undisturbed in his luxury and crime, like the rich man Dives. Heaven is firm and solid, the earth likewise. Both are borne on invisible shoulders. But God’s word is firmer than either. For, as the Lord Himself says, “Heaven and earth shall pass, but My word shall not pass” (Matthew 24:35). What God has promised will not fail, just because that can not fail which He promises. God is eternal and His word is everlasting; God is immutable and His kingdom is unchangeable. His Church and her teachings are unchanged and unchangeable; immovable, too, stand the decrees of the Lord and, therefore, all is unchangeable that He has promised or threatened.
How To Know God
We have now seen that God is a spirit, and that we therefore can not see Him with corporal eyes. But we can know something about a person without seeing him, as in our every-day life we know many things, things that we learn not from ourselves but from others. Thus we know of God that He exists, who He is, and what He is, without being able to see Him, but rather because He has been pleased to make Himself known.
God has been pleased to reveal Himself supernaturally. In order that man’s knowledge of Him might be the more safe and sure He has made Himself known, not in one way only, but in several ways, so that these several distinct ways of revelation, when taken together as a whole, form the most complete and most harmonious system. Deception is impossible, for one revelation is a proof of the other, and a revelation that would contradict another earlier and admitted revelation would most necessarily carry in and with itself the mark of falsity.
1. First of all, God has manifested Himself through the visible world which He made and which He governs. We can see His omnipotence, goodness, and wisdom displayed in the creation of the world, as we can also discover these same attributes of His in the manner with which He cares for created things. When we hear music at a distance we conclude that there must be performers, although we can not see them. A building that we may never have seen before gives us to understand at the first sight that an architect has drawn the plan which his workmen have reduced to practical form. In passing through a city at night, though we may not meet a soul, we know that it is the dwelling-place of many of our fellow-beings. When a ship has been wrecked on an unknown coast and the rescued crew, on reaching land, perceive smoke rising at a distance, they rejoice and say, “There are fellow-beings dwelling here.” The traveler, who, losing his way, wanders about bewildered through tewamp and moor, heather and woods, when he discovers a distant light shining through the gloom, quickens his steps toward that quarter, for he says to himself, “There must be a house there, where I may obtain food and shelter.” All these conclude from what they see to the existence of what they do not see, and so do we all, every one of us, in countless occurrences of every-day life.
Thus from the world we infer there must be a Creator, and from the manner of its creation and maintenance we conclude to the power of goodness and wisdom of the Ruler. Though God’s existence is not of itself visible to our eyes it is visible in the created world. Hence Saint Paul says, “The invisible things of Him are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made: His eternal power and divinity also” (Romans 1:20). We may say simply, as there is not anything that has made itself, neither could the world make itself. As it is impossible for anything that has been decomposed by the action of blind forces (such, for instance, as a ruined temple, which an earthquake, a flood, or a fire has destroyed), to present a regular form or plan and have order and cohesion, so would it be absurd to look for order and harmony in the universe, if it had been brought about by the blind forces of nature or called into existence by any other agency than the will and power of an intelligent Being. Most positively and clearly do the purpose, design, and wonderful construction of the uni- verse point to Him who, as the Holy Scripture saith, has “ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight.” (Wisdom 11:21)
2. Beside those evidences of God’s revelation which come to us through the senses from outward nature, each one among us has an inward intuition of God, within himself. This intuition, which is wanting to no one, comes to us through the voice of conscience, and ever speaks plainly and positively to each individual the will of God. While God’s power, wisdom, and goodness are made known by the visible world, His holiness and justice are revealed rather through conscience. This voice warns us that we ought to fear the presence of an invisible judge of evil, for it fills the heart of the man who breaks the commandments with fear and trembling. Why does a man ieel so much afraid when he commits a sin altogether secret and unknown to anybody but himself? Why is he so timid, why does he, by his trembling, betray outwardly the inward anxiety of his heart? Why does the blush come to his face, even when no one suspects or blames him, why is he so restless, so dissatisfied with himself? Because his conscience bears testimony against him that he has done wrong, that he dare not face God, and that although he may escape human censure he shall not escape tMe judgment of God. On the other hand, when he has done right and good, even though no one knows it and he has no reward, that same voice of conscience fills his heart with peace and satisfaction and bids him hope in a just rewarder of good, in God Himself, who can and will reward all things. Thus conscience is a guide for all men, and hence we can understand how it is that men who are without the influence of Christianity have some notion of the difference between good and bad and act accordingly. Hence Saint Paul says, “When the Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature those things that are of the law, these having not the law are a law to themselves; . who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them, and their , thoughts between themselves accusing, or also defend- ing, one another.” (Romans 2:14,15) In vain and falsely do men pretend to say that this interior voice of conscience is a mere prejudice. A man may be able to overcome prejudices when he once knows the truth. Fear and hesitancy disappear when one has become habituated to a thing. But conscience will not suffer itself to be overcome. Although a man, by a false reasoning with himself, and by plunging into the distractions and pleasures of the world, may succeed in stifling and silencing its voice for a time, it will awake and speak in loud tones during the silent hours of the night. While on his death-bed it will insist on sending its sharp and penetrating tones to the very depths of his troubled heart. Nor is this any prejudice in man, it belongs to his nature, for it is the internal revelation and manifestation of his Creator.
3. Moreover, in order that there might be no room left for the slightest doubt, God was pleased to confirm by His own powerful and explicit word all that the visible world proclaims and teaches, and also the promptings of our conscience. Hence He taught us to know Himself chiefly by a revelation which He hath sent to us, first by His own prophets and afterwards by His own divine Son. Prom Adam, to whom God first revealed Himself, down to the time of Christ, was a succession of supernaturally enlightened men to whose souls God was pleased to speak either personally or by means of His Holy Spirit. Thus the knowledge of the true God could never be extinguished among men as long as it was preserved by one single nation, the Jews.
But these prophets were merely signals, all pointing to Christ, the Son of the living God, to the Messias who alone knows God, because He is from Him for all eternity and is God Himself. Although God spoke to Moses He appeared to him under a form that could be seen by his corporal eyes, so that it is ever true “no man hath ever seen God” as He really is, but “the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father hath revealed it to us.” Thus the revelation through Christ is the revelation of all revelations, the revelation from God and through God Himself.
There is but one God
We believe in God, and only in one God. Before Christ, Our Lord, the Redeemer of the world, all men, with the exception of the Jews to whom truth had been revealed by the prophets, believed in many gods. They worshiped not only the sun, moon, and stars, but also their fellow-beings, animals, plants, and lifeless figures of gold, silver, brass, wood, and stone. Men feared these gods and brought offerings to them. The whole earth was filled with an idolatry at once horrible and ridiculous.
There is but one God, for He Himself so taught the Israelites by the mouth of His prophet, Isaias, “I am the first, and I am the last, and beside Me there is no God; who is like to Me?” (Isaias 44:6-7) Our own intuition teaches us the same truth. For if God created all things, who could have created Him? Of course it would have to be some still greater God. Thus we ever arrive at the same conclusion that there is some one who, though giving existence to everything else, must himself have been ever uncreated.
Again, from the purposes, order, and harmony in the world we can infer that there is but one God. If there were two rulers one would run counter to the other. Each would have his own individual will, and there would be disorder, for there would be difference of purpose. If it is not true that there is but one God then there is no God, for in all creation we see the working of but one God. Hence, also, we do not say, “I believe God,” but “I believe in God,” for we believe no other being as we believe in this one only God. In the expression, “I believe in God,” there is implied, beside belief, a surrender to Him of our feelings. Having already contemplated the infinite perfections of the Deity we have learned not only to believe, but also to give ourselves up to Him with unlimited love and confidence. Without this confidence our belief would not be the belief of the children of God. Even the devils believe, but they tremble. Not so with the children of God; they believe, but they also love Him and hope in Him.
To you, dear Christian, this God now says, “Son, give Me thy heart.” (Proverbs 23:26) Even if God did not ask your heart, to whom else would you give it but to Him? What would you love more than God? Cry out with Saint Augustine, “O my God, grant me the grace to know and to love Thee.”
“I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER” – THE THREE DIVINE PERSONS
In the first article of the Apostles’ Creed the Catholic Christian professes his faith in the Deity as God the Father. We style God, our Father because we hold the same relation to Him that the child does to its earthly father. Yes, He is indeed our Father; parents are only His representatives. From God comes all that we possess, from Him comes “every perfect gift” (James 1:17), although conferred apparently by human hands. To Him do we pray confidingly, “Abba, Father.” (Mark 14:36). But there is still another mysterious divine fatherhood. For God is not only one person, but three persons, the first of whom we call Father, the second the Son, and the third the Holy Ghost. Nor are these three names chosen without design and meaning, for they signify the relations the three persons bear toward one another, and in which, too, they have been revealed to us; for did not Our Saviour tell His apostles to baptize all in the name of the triune God, using the words, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost”? (Matthew 28:19) There is no contradiction here, for we do not say that the three persons are three Gods, or one person is three persons, but we say that “three persons are one God,” and they are one God for the reason that they have one and the same being and one and the same nature.
These three persons are all from eternity, all three are equally powerful, equally good, equally perfect. They all three possess the same attributes in the same degree, distinct only in the fact that there are three persons, each of them subsisting in and of Himself, three persons in one Being. True, we call them the first, second, and third, but we do not call them such because one existed before another, or one is mightier than another, but because in sacred history they appear in that order, and because the work begun by them, namely, the creation, redemption, and sanctification, was begun, continued, and completed in this order of succession.
Yet, in order to distinguish the difference of persons, we say that the Father is from all eternity, the Son proceeds from the Father, the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son. But on this account no one is older than another, but all three persons are equally eternal. Yet we are not to believe that the Father does anything without the Son and the Holy Ghost. All that is done by God is done by the Father through the Son and the Holy Ghost. Hence, when we say, Who made you? God the Father. Who redeemed you? God the Son. Who sanctified you? God the Holy Ghost – we must understand that all three of the divine persons began and accomplished this work together. It is only in point of time that these three persons have come to us in revelation. Of course we can not comprehend this, for in order to comprehend “God we would have to be more than God. As one circle can be encompassed and encircled only by a circle greater than itself, so God’s nature or being could be comprehended only by a nature exceeding the divine nature. Hence the prophet Jeremias says, “Great art Thou, O Lord, and incomprehensible in thought.” It is no disgrace for the human intellect to bow down in faith before Him who, though He made that intellect, has set limits to it – “Thus far shalt thou go and no farther.”
Let us not forget that we are indebted to the three divine persons for all that we have, but more especially for the fact that in our baptism we were all dedicated to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Let us ever remember what we promised to them through bur sponsors at baptism. There are two special days in the year on which we should more particularly honor, adore, and thank the adorable and blessed Trinity, namely, the anniversary of our baptism, when we ought to renew our baptismal promises, and on Trinity Sunday, which occurs each year eight days after Pentecost. For after having contemplated and admired in Advent-time the work of the Father, and at Christmas and Easter the work of the Son, and at Whitsuntide the work of the Holy Ghost, the festival of the Blessed Trinity is admirably adapted to bring back to our memories once more all the blessings for which we are indebted to the three divine persons, and so, by the remembrance of these graces received, to renew and strengthen our gratitude and love. Not only on special festivals, but on each day of our lives, we ought to pay to the three divine persons the tribute of our praise and reverence. It is for this purpose that the Church teaches us to begin and end so many of our prayers and other devotions with that beautiful doxology, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.”
“CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH.” – THE CREATION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD
In the words, “I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth,” our holy Church teaches us that all which exists beside God, the visible and the invisible, is His work; that is to say that God has brought all these things into existence out of nothing. This truth is also taught by the Holy Scripture when it says, “In the beginning God made heaven and earth.”
From this teaching of the Church it follows:
1. That the world was made by God in time, and therefore it does not exist from eternity. This teaching is also conformable to our reason. In nature we see nothing but progressive action, and when we fancy that we have discovered a cause or a motive-power of certain effects, closer observation discovers over and over again one series of causes and effects. What nature is in its individual parts, the whole world is in general, namely, one vast process or action, that is to say, something brought forth or developed. But it is only God that can have brought it forth, that is, created it, for He alone, as the Omnipotent, can produce something out of nothing. All further attempts at illustration are unsatisfactory. “In the beginning God created heaven and earth” are the words of Holy Scripture, simple, plain, intelligible to all.
2. God made the world out of nothing. The meaning of this is (a) that God did not form the earth out of preexisting matter, and (b) that it has not emanated out of the divine Being. This thought is very beautifully expressed by Saint Augustine in the words, “The works have proceeded out of nothing through Thee, but not out of Thee, not out of matter that is not Thine, or that was already brought into existence.” (Confessions 13:13) That God created the world out of nothing is a doctrine frequently and emphatically taught in Holy Scripture. The opinion that the world is an emanation from the being or nature of God is equally opposed to Scripture and to human reason. This heresy, or so-called pantheism, had its rise among the ancient pagan philosophers, and recently it has been revived by modern anti-Christian teachers. The fallacy that there exists no supreme being distinct from nature, and that God is identical with nature, so that everything is God and the same being as God, was expressly condemned by Pius IX in his learned encyclical, and most emphatically and unanimously rejected by the bishops at the Vatican Council. And very naturally. For every man carries within him a certain consciousness that he is essentially something beside the inanimate and irrational world surrounding him. Now, if, according to the teachings of the pantheists, everything that exists bears within itself a portion of the divine Being, such a consciousness of essential individual being could not exist in any man. Moreover, the theory is in full contradiction of God’s freedom; and it is in fact a subversion of His freedom to believe God to exist in every created thing. For God, who is essentially and absolutely free, could not be, even as to a portion of His being, restrained to or confined in the stone which the small boy can throw whithersoever he will. Nor could He, although living, be restrained and unconscious in the animal, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, free and self-conscious in man. For the same reason, good and bad, true and false, right and wrong, which all exist in the world, could not be equally emanations from the same God-head. These and similar absurd contradictions human reason is powerless to understand, much less to explain. They are directly repugnant to reason, and hence pantheism is an unreasonable doctrine.
3. God created the world through His omnipotent will. When contemplating this truth we are confronted with a mystery whose depths we are unable to fathom. Yet it is not contradictory to or against our reason. A man’s will moves his whole body, and all the separate members of it. It commands the hand, for instance, to perform the most skilled works of art, or to procure nourishment for the body; and yet this wonderful connection between mind and matter, the influence of the will over the body, has never been seen or explained by anybody. Nevertheless, we can not deny the existence of the connection. Thus there are, even in natural life, truths which we must admit and recognize, although they are involved in mystery. How unreasonable, then, it would be for us to wish to deny the creation of the world by God, for the bare reason that we can not understand it! Yet what better grounds can be alleged for the existence of the world? Therefore, when the Sacred Scripture teaches that the universe was made purely