Ways that bring us to the knowledge of God.

In the audience of November 14, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI meditated briefly on different ways for men and women to arrive at the knowledge of God.  As we search for God, however, we have to remember that this is not one-sided.  God’s initiative always precedes our own questioning: He illuminates, guides, and at the same time respects our freedom.

There are ways that open the heart of man to the knowledge of God, and there are signs that lead us to God.  There are also difficulties and obstacles to faith.  Let’s look at the those first.  The Holy Father mentioned three:

1. atheism
2. skepticism
3. indifference to the vertical or transcendent dimension of man

The first, atheism, isn’t so much a scientific theory of reality that denies God, although that does exist.  The Holy Father is talking about “pratical atheism”, in which the truths of faith or religious rites are not negated, but simply considered irrelevant for daily life.  In other words, faith in God is pretty much useless.  In this mindset, we can live our faith in a superficial way, as if God did not really exist.

The second obstacle, skepticism, considers God as a “projection” of the human spirit, an illusion, or the product of a society that is alienated from itself.  Coupled with a strong secularism, the result is an understanding of man as absolutely autonomous, the measure and maker of reality. 

The third obstacle is particularly insidious, and is a result of the processes of the first two.  Humans, separated from God, are reduced to “one dimension”, the horizontal one.  What exactly does reducing man to “one dimension” mean?  By throwing out God, man’s ethical horizon also becomes obscure, fostering relativism and an ambiguous idea of freedom.  The reducing of man and the subsequent ethical meltdown that occurs is one of the fundamental causes of the totalitarian regimes that led to such tragic consequences in the last century.

And yet, this is what we believe:

The root reason for human dignity lies in man’s call to communion with God. From the very circumstance of his origin man is already invited to converse with God. For man would not exist were he not created by God’s love and constantly preserved by it; and he cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and devotes himself to His Creator.  –Gaudium et Spes, 19

Out of the truth of our faith we respond to the obstacles we face.  “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope… (1 Peter 3:15)”

The reasons, or ways, that Pope Benedict suggests are: the world, man, and faith.  He is taking the three obstacles we encountered above and turning them into opportunities.

1.  The world

Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air, amply spread around everywhere, question the beauty of the sky, question the serried ranks of the stars, question the sun making the day glorious with its bright beams, question the moon tempering the darkness of the following night with its shining rays, question the animals that move in the waters, that amble about on dry land, that fly in the air; their souls hidden, their bodies evident; the visible bodies needing to be controlled, the invisible souls controlling them; question all these things. They all answer you, 'Here we are, look; we're beautiful.'  Their beauty is their confession. Who made these beautiful changeable things, if not one who is beautiful and unchangeable?  - Saint Augustine, Sermon 241

2.  The human person

“Do not go abroad, but return within yourself: truth dwells in the inner man.”  - Saint Augustine, De vera religione, 39, 72

We have the capacity, because we are created in the image and likeness of God, to look profoundly within ourselves and read there the thirst for the infinite that we carry within, that pushes us to go beyond and directs us to the only One who can satiate it.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 33: The human person: with his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God's existence.

3.  Faith

The person who believes is united to God, and his or her very existence becomes a witness of the Risen Lord.  Through faith, God converts us and transforms our daily life: mindsets, judgments, and concrete choices and actions.  Faith is not an escape, an illusion, a cozy blanket, a sentiment, no—none of those things.  It is the involvement of my whole life in the Gospel, the Good News that is capable of setting me free.  It requires that I purify my own life so that I may be conformed to Christ, Who is the true Way that leads to God.