Let’s Talk About God

Our Image of God – CCC 39-43

Question:

When you think of God – How do picture God?

I – How can we speak about God? CCC 39

1. The Church teaches us that with our own ability to reason we can speak to people about God.

a. We can share our faith with different people of different religions: Orthodox Christians, Protestant Christians, Islam, Judaism, Eastern Religions and much more. We must be cautious not to consider these faith or their teachings to better or greater then Christianity in Catholicism. We must also be careful not to consider all religions to be the same. Their teachings might sound the sound or point towards he same direction, but their beliefs are not quite the same.

b. We can use a simple philosophical ideas as well as using science to speak about God’s existence. We must remember not consider philosophy or science as the only way to prove God’s existence.

c. Even with unbelievers & atheists we can share with them the existence of God.

We can find a good example from St. Paul talk with the Philosophers of Athens

Acts of the Apostles 17:22-34

II –It’s so hard to talk about God – I’m limited in words. CCC 40

1. The reason we are limited in describing God in words is because our knowledge of God is limited.
a. We began to name or describe God according to created things… That’s our starting point.

Here some examples from Sacred Scripture:

- Gospel of St. Matthew 23:37-39
- Psalm 90:1
- Psalm 62:2-3
- Psalm 23:1

III – Everything around us resembles God. That includes me! CCC 41

1. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states “All creatures bear a certain resemblance of God, most especially man, created in the image and likeness of God” CCC 41

a. Everything that is good, beautiful and true about me, though limited because I am mortal, shows the perfections in God.

b. We can take the perfections of God’s creation and express how God is in comparison to the subject (The object or person in question)

An example of this can be taken from the Book of Wisdom 11:5

IV – Don’t get God confused with something else - cause he isn’t that CCC 42

1. God is above all creation – nothing is equal to Him. If God creates, God is therefore Creator, and we are His creation.

2. We must be careful in describing God as the exact image we believe God to be. First of all God is Spirit, an Spirit does not have male or female characteristics, because Spirit is Being that cannot be touched, tasted, smelled, heard or felt. This is makes it hard for us to understand that God exists – how do you explain to yourself or to anyone? It is in faith that we can understand and prayer we can describe, and in studying our faith we can explain.

3. Now we begin by referring to God starting from God’s creation (human beings, their beauty, nature and so much more.) Starting from this point creation reflects on the perfection of God. When we reflect out loud what God is to us, we use metaphors to describe God. Metaphors do not equate themselves with God they only describe likeness, example: God is as strong a Tree, or God is my Rock, my Refuge, my foundation, my light that guides me, my shepherd, even my mother (Be careful of confusing God with the title “Mother”, He specifically described Himself to be Father – that is for another topic of discussion, right now we discuss our image of God). It is easy to see these images of God and compare their likeness. If we have a good prayer life, a hunger for knowing God through study and if we are willing to learn about God through our surroundings we can tell understand that God is not a Tree, a Rock, or Mother, but that these created beings or objects point to God’s perfection.

A Rock is hard to destroy, but it can be crushed when pressure is applied. The strength seen in a rock can be compared to God’s strength, but we all know that God is Infinitely stronger then a rock. The image and reasoning out of the rock can help us to see how can is Strong, but the Rock is not Him.

4. But it becomes harder to understand who God is when we make the likeness of that image and equate with God.

5. We must try our best to discern the differences because our understanding is limited, and imperfect. “Our human word’s fall short of the mystery of God” CCC 42

V – God, I’m having a hard time understanding who you are ?

1. Don’t worry – that’s what makes it beautiful. God continues to invite us to search Him out. “Mystery” is not a negative word, it just simply means God is endless in knowing and that’s awesome.

2. We use human words to describe God and although our image of God is imperfect, we understand they still reflect in what God is for us.

a. We just can’t express the infinite meaning of who God is, only finite meanings that point to Him as infinite.

b. When I express myself in reference to God or in comparison to Him, I fall short of the meaning of the words simply because I am limited, I am a creature and He is Creator.

c. In the ancient liturgy of St. John Chrysostom it mentions that God is “the inexpressible, the incomprehensible, the invisible, the ungraspable.”

3. St. Thomas Aquinas puts it best, when it’s “concerning God, we cannot grasp what He is, but only what He is not, and how other beings stand in relation to Him.