It's Time You Get to know Him

Seeing God in yourself and the World
TO KNOW GOD CCC 31-35

By: Alvin Peña - LA NUEVA ALIANZA

Check out this Video on YouTube called "The Obsolete Man - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3"

I. Discussion on an episode of The Twilight Zone titled, “The Obsolete Man.”

A. A. Pena: “What were your reactions or impressions of the film?”
(Group members' reactions)

1. “The biggest reaction that I was left with was how I would have reacted to being locked up in that room [getting ready to die]. I thought about when Mr. Wordsworth was in front of the Chancellor [being sentenced], and how I could be like Mr. Wordsworth standing up for the Lord. [However] when he was locked in that room, I realized that I would have probably tried to open that door really quickly.”

2. “My biggest surprised was the way he responded to [being told that he was sentenced to die within the next 48 hours]. He had the courage to say how he wanted to die, and was [firm in his decision].”

3. “My biggest reaction was when Mr. Wordsworth let the Chancellor out of the room. I guess he forgave him.”

4. “When Mr. Wordsworth made the Chancellor [admit] that there was a God, when he said, 'In the name of God, let me out.'”


5. “To me, one of the most greatest scene was that, in the beginning, you see the Chancellor as the State, saying that there is no God, but in the end, when he was faced with his own mortality and humanness, the first thing out of his mouth was, 'For the love of God, let me out.'”

6. “I am thinking about the smile on Wordsworth's face, after he let the Chancellor out, [who acknowledged God]. It makes me think of the fact that God wants us to come to the realization that He exists. No matter how much Wordsworth said, 'there is a God,' and read the Psalms, [the Chancellor] had to come to that realization by his own accord, by the situation that happens to [him]. No matter how much Wordsworth would have thought, “let me flip through another Psalm, or let me tell you about this,” or talk about his own experiences of God in that little room, the Chancellor had to realize that there is a God.”

B. A. Pena: The Chancellor also said, “The state has proven that there is no God.” Then Mr. Wordsworth said, “You cannot erase God with an edict!” We seem to be facing the same situation today, when we hear: “Let's remove the ten commandments from public places. Let's remove the words, 'In God we trust,' from our U.S. coins. There should be no prayers in state buildings.” It seems as if we're hearing the same message today, that 'God does not exist.'

C. A. Pena: When the Chancellor said, “You have no function, Mr. Wordsworth, you're an anachronism, like a ghost from another time,” Mr. Wordsworth responded, “I am nothing more than a reminder to you that you cannot destroy truth by burning pages!” Wordsworth was considered obsolete because the state had burned all the books, and since he was a librarian, he, according to the state, was no longer useful. However, Wordsworth makes it clear when he says, “No man is obsolete!” How often do we hear today the message that certain people are obsolete, especially the unborn. This is all about discovering the truth: that every individual has a purpose, has a function, is important and is extremely useful. Why? Because the One who created them has given them that meaning and purpose by having the desire to give life to them. Why were we created? We have a purpose. We know that we were created to know, to love and to serve the Lord.

II. Today we are going to talk about “To Know God.”

A. A. Pena: “Let me ask you: If God did not desire that we know Him, how would He accomplish this?”
(Group members' responses)

1. “I think it's impossible, because of all the proofs of His existence.”

2. “We wouldn't be able to receive His Sacred Body [in the Eucharist].”

3. “We wouldn't have that great Gift of hope.”

4. “There would be no Church.”

5. “We wouldn't have free will.”

6. “He would have had to create a whole other world [that does not reveal His existence.] Nature reveals His existence.”

7. “We wouldn't have the need to be with other people, (note: we have this need because we find Him in our midst, according to His promise, “Where two or three are gathered in My Name, there I am, in the midst of them.” -Matthew 18:20)

8. “He would have to deny His very nature, [which is communicating Himself to us, love, mercy, goodness, etc...]”

9. “I would not exist.”

B. A. Pena: “Let's just say that, a long eternity ago, before the creations of heaven and earth, there IS GOD, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and even before then, there is God, and even eternities before then, there is God. And at some point, He Thought, and when He thought, creation was made. If God did not desire for us to know Him, God would not have made creation, He would not have made us The moment God thought our existence, we came into being. And the moment He thought that, at the very same time, His desire was to reveal Himself completely to us. His desire was to love us completely and eternally, and to be loved completely and eternally by us. And at the same time, all of this happening at the same time, His desire was for us to be one with Him. So, the simple fact that we exist, and that everything that is IS, God's desire and election has been for us to have knowledge of Him, and for us to love Him, and for us to follow Him, serve Him, and to be with Him, now and forever. That is God. And for that very same reason, the moment that someone comes into existence, from the very moment of conception, that person has the potential to know, love and serve God, and to desire for Him. Actually, that person has that potential even before Baptism. Why? Because the human person is not only a corporal being, but also a spiritual being. The difference between us and animals is that we have a soul, and we have that soul from the very first moment of conception, and so from that very first moment we have that potential to desire, to know, to love, and to want to serve and follow God. And this is without talking about the wonders, the beauty, the necessity and the excellence of Baptism, [because if we begin to talk about the Sacrament of Baptism, we would spend days just speaking about its necessity and excellence.] We are a loving thought of God that has come into existence.”

C. “Last week we spoke about the desire for God. Every human person has an innate desire for God. You know, if someone has an innate desire for something, (for i.e. food, sleep, drink, sex), it is a desire of something that exists. We cannot have an innate desire for something that does not exist. If there is an innate desire for something, that thing that's desire exists. The human person, from the moment of conception, has an innate desire for God, because our soul was created by God, for God. St. Augustine says very beautifully, “our hearts were made for You, o Lord, and they are restless until they rest in You.” We are corporal and spiritual beings. This explains why people could deny the existence of God, but you will find that they are trying to find their purpose, something beyond themselves, something that will fill them. Some might say that they will be happy if they had this or that (i.e. winning the lottery, all the women they want), but once they obtain it, soon after they find that they are not completely satisfied in their lives. We have a desire for God. God would be cruel to give us that desire but not give us the possibility to know Him. However, as we mentioned, it is the nature of God to reveal Himself to us, and to want us to know Him.”

III. Read: Catechism of the Catholic Church(CCC): 31-35

A. CCC#31

1. There are many different ways of coming to know God.

2. “A young person was once cursing God in front of me and defended himself by saying that he could do that because he does not believe in God. So he continued cursing God, and speaking negatively about Him, and I then told him, “You know, someone does not cease to exist, just because you don't believe in him.” After the young person heard this, he remained curiously quiet and thoughtful for the next 35 minutes, staring straight at a wall.”

3. According to the Catechism, the ways of approaching God from creation have a twofold point of departure: the physical world and the human person.

B. CCC#32

1. The beauty & order of the world makes it possible for us to come to a knowledge of God the Creator.

a. Wisdom 13: 1-5.

i. “If they were struck by their might and energy, let them from these things realize how much more powerful is He who made them. For from the greatness and the beauty of created things their original Author, by analogy, is seen.” (vs. 4-5)

ii. “There was once a scientist who had a child, and he decided to educate his child only in the natural sciences, without religion and God. This scientist was an atheist. One day he finds his child looking out the window, and overhears his child saying, 'Wow, look at the sunrise! Look how beautiful it is. And how much more beautiful must be the One who created it!”

2. “The physical world is able to reveal to us the existence of God. The stars in the sky, the birds in the air, the fishes in the sea, the wind that blows, the sun that rises and sets, and all of the beauty of creation is able to reveal to us God.”

3. “The order of the universe reveals God to us. Everything is so perfectly ordered, how could creation occur by chance? Either the universe was created by chance, or it was created by an intelligent design. Well, if it was created by chance, doesn't chance have to do with randomness? Doesn't chance have to do with things being disordered? So then, wouldn't that contradict the creation which we see, which we observe, which is so perfectly ordered, I mean, look at our bodies, just observe the way our bodies are structured, and how all the parts of our body and all the organs relate with each other and work with each other, and everything is so orderly. Therefore, if order is opposed to randomness, then creation cannot be something that happened by chance. So it must have been created by intelligent design. Now, intelligent design occurs in a mind, and a mind exists in a person, so therefore the intelligent design of creation was created by an intelligent designer, who could be no one else but God.”

4. Romans 1:18-23

a. “Ever since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what He has made...for although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened.” (vs. 20-21)

b. “ This is exactly what is happening today throughout the world: What's happening is not so much ignorance, but the denial of God's existence . I think that'sthe case because once you acknowledge that God exists, ultimately you realize that you have an obligation to seek Him, and to know Him, for He is your Creator.”

5. Acts 17:22-32

a. All of these readings tell us something: That it is possible for EVERYONE to know God.

b. This reading shows us how to approach someone who does not know God. This reading should be studied carefully, and its example followed. This reading will show you how to preach and how to defend God's existence.

C. CCC #33

1. This clearly states that man questions himself about God's existence with his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his longings for the infinite and for happiness, and the voice of his conscience.

2. Pilate asked Jesus, “what is truth?” (Jn 18:38) Jesus said in another passage of John's Gospel, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” (Jn 14:6) By Pilate asking, “what is truth?” he was really saying, “I want to know the truth,” hence, “I want to know God!”

3. Our souls come from God, was created by God, for God.

4. Every human person has a voice of conscience, which can reveal God. Even those who deny God or do not know Him have a voice of conscience. Do we listen to it? The sense of moral goodness that our voice of conscience wants us to practice can only come from God.

D. CCC #34

1. God is the first cause and final end of all things.

2. We did not, and cannot, create ourselves. We cannot give ourselves our own beginning. It was given to us by God, who sustains all of creation.

E. CCC #35

1. God's desire is to reveal Himself to us, and to give us the grace of being able to receive this revelation in faith. All is through God's grace and mercy. He longs for us to know Him.

2. To not know God is to go against reason. Faith and reason do not have to oppose each other, but they should actually work together.

IV. Reading: Jeremiah 24: 7.

A. God offers to give each human person a heart to know Him.

V. Reading Wisdom 1:1-2

A. To know God, it is necessary to have simplicity and trust.

B. We are all in a process of knowing God, every person, whether he/she has faith or not. We could never know God completely while on earth.

VI. Reading 1 Cor 2:14

A. We cannot know the things of the Spirit through our own strength.

VII. Reading Matthew 11:27

A. Christ Himself tells us that He is the one who gives us this knowledge of God.

B. We have been talking about the simple knowledge of the existence of God. However, now we are talking about a more personal knowledge of God's presence. Every human person has the potential of knowing that God exists, but God doesn't wish for us to just have this general knowledge, but He desires for us to have a deeper knowledge of Him. This is what we are discussing now.

VIII. Reading John 14: 7-14

A. Jesus is speaking with the apostles and He is pretty much saying that we know God by knowing Him, the Christ. This is when He has the conversation with Philip who says, “Lord, show us the Father, that is enough,” and Jesus responds, “whoever sees me see the Father.”

B. We know God by knowing Christ. Christ desires to be known on a very personal level.

IX. Reading Jeremiah 9:22-23

A. Pride and glory fills the human heart because of their many accomplishments, but the Word says that we should not glory in anything but in knowing God.

X. In the beginning of this lesson, I asked, “if God did not desire that we know Him, how would He accomplish this?” All of you gave me some interesting answers. (See Part II)

A. Now, I am going to ask this: How does God reveal Himself to us?

1. He reveals Himself when we receive His Sacred Body in the Eucharist.

2. He reveals Himself through the Gift of Hope.

3. He reveals Himself through the Church.

4. He reveals Himself by having created the whole universe, and everything that we see.

5. He reveals Himself when we are with other people.

6. He reveals Himself through His very nature, through being God.

XI. So, how do we come to know God? We can summarize this whole lesson by stating that we know God mainly through three (3) ways:

A. Contemplation:

1. “The gift of vision, to be able to see. Just contemplate the world, its beauty, and think about how wonderful must be He who created all the beauty we are able to see. Everything that we see screams His presence. The beauty of the sun screams how God is the Light of the World. The greatness of the sky speaks to us of how infinite God is. The trees speak to us about how He is the Giver of Life. The wind speaks to us about how God is He who we cannot see, but He who is near us. And just everything, all creation, screams to us God's presence.

B. Study:

1. We get to know God through study. By studying His Word, and by studying the Catechism, and other good spiritual books, we get to know God.

C. Prayer:

1. We get to know God through prayer. In prayer God speaks to us, and we speak to Him. This is when we have our dialogue with God. Prayer will give us the graces we need to know God more and more.

XII. “Hopefully, this knowledge of God will shape our lives and the lives of those who live with us and around us. It's really all about this. It's not only about knowing God, but it's also about allowing others to know God through us. God has called us so that we can come to know the desire that we have for Him, and to come to know how He wishes to reveal Himself to us, so that His purpose for us can become more clear, and so that His plan for us can become more clear, so that we can know what it is that the Lord is asking of us, and what He wants for us.” Amen.