Looking Into the Sun

In a friendly chat between a college professor and a Newman Society chaplain, the talk, as usual, turned to religion. Among other things the professor said, “You Catholics believe that your God is everywhere. You say He’s all around us. Show Him to me, will you?”

“God is everywhere,” replied the priest, “but we can’t see Him. The unprotected human eye can’t stand His splendor.”

But the professor persisted. He wanted to see, or he wouldn’t believe.

“Suppose we begin,” suggested the priest, “by looking at one of the things God’s made.”

The professor agreed. They went outside into the open air. The priest told the professor to look up at the sun, now in all of its midmorning brightness. The professor tried, but quickly turned away from the sun, and complained, “I can’t look directly at the sun; the light’s simply too dazzling.”

The priest smiled. “If you can’t look into the face of one of God’s creatures, how can you expect to be able to look at the undimmed glory of the Creator?”

In my last article we looked at proofs for God’s existence. This time we’re going to examine His characteristics, or His nature.

God is pure spirit, yet He’s just as really a person as you are. He’s supreme; that is, above all things, unlimited, independent, free, and perfect. He exists of and by Himself. He comes from no one, and He needs no one. God has all good things without limit.

Let’s look first at God being pure spirit. God has no body at all. He’s pure spirit, with intelligence and free will. When the Bible refers to “the hand of God” or other bodily attributes or actions, this is merely a method of teaching (called a hebraism) about God so the people could better understand Him. People are better able to understand God’s mercy and justice by attributing certain physical characteristics to Him. At least, that was certainly the case with the Jews of the Old Testament.

Because God’s self-existing, pure spirit, and above all things, He’s perfect in His nature. Because He’s perfect, God can’t change. If a thing is perfect, to add or subtract from the thing alters its perfection. This means that it would no longer be perfect. That something could be added to or subtracted from a thing means that it couldn’t have been perfect in the first place. God is all-perfect and can add nothing to His perfection.

Let’s say you were a building contractor with 25 years of experience. You decided to use your knowledge and experience to build the perfect house for yourself. After you built the house, you tell yourself it’s perfect: no mistakes anywhere, the proportions are just right, you used the latest building technologies and materials; by all appearances, the house is indeed perfect. But a few years later, for whatever reason, you decided to abandon the house, and it remains empty for many years. What will happen to that house? It will deteriorate, of course. The roof will begin to sag and eventually collapse, the windows will eventually be broken from neglect or vandalism, and the paint or wall paper will eventually grow ugly and begin to show signs of mold growth. Deterioration is indicative of imperfection. A perfect thing can't deteriorate. Even if you had stayed in the house you would’ve had to paint it, eventually repair or replace the roof, or make other changes as residential zoning laws change. The maintenance of a house indicates that it never was perfect, despite the builder's subjective opinion that it was. God can’t deteriorate, age or become imperfect in any way. He’s not merely perfect, He is perfection. He's the very definition of perfection!

Because God’s all-perfect and pure spirit, by implication He’s also all-powerful (omnipotent), everywhere (omnipresent), and all-knowing (omniscient). For me, the most fascinating of these three attributes is His omniscience.

God knows everything: past, present, and future, our most hidden thoughts, desires, words, actions, and (my personal favorite) omissions. We’re bound by the restraints of time and space; that is, we can’t relive what happened ten minutes ago, nor can we predict what will happen ten minutes from now. God, on the other hand, sees all things, events, and people at the same time. Because He’s eternal, and there’s no time for Him, everything takes place for Him in the present. This means He sees the creation of the world, the destruction of the world, and everything in between all at the same time. We call this God’s omniscience.

In my next article we’ll talk about God’s existence as a triune being, the things He created (most notably man), and why and how we have the Immaculate Conception. I think you’ll like it.

Questions? Comments? Reach out to me at Joe@CantankerousCatholic.com.