Paths that lead to the knowledge of God.

“Man, created in the image of God and called to know and love God, discovers certain “ways” to come to the knowledge of God when he seeks God. They are also called ‘proofs of the existence of God,’ not in the sense of proofs such as the natural sciences seek, but as ‘consistent and convincing arguments’ that make it possible to acquire true certainty…” (CCC, 31). This is a fantastic discovery: the Church teaches that one can know with certainty the existence of God (CCC, 36; Dei Verbum, 6; cf. Rom 1:19-20). Here we must say in advance that God is and will remain a mystery to man – if only because He is not an object that can be immediately known, like material realities, for example. God does not exist in the way that things or people live. That is why the Holy Scriptures call him the hidden God (Isa 45:15), who dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim 6:16). Humans, as finite beings, will never comprehend the infinite, all-encompassing Being (Ps 139:6).

“God transcends every creature. Therefore, we must continually purify our human language of what is limited, figurative, and imperfect in it, lest we confuse God, who is “ineffable, incomprehensible, invisible, and uncontainable,” with our human imaginations. Our human words are always inadequate to the mystery of God” (CCC, 42). God is only true God if his mystery remains intact and man recognizes the limits of his knowledge. If this were an easy solution, the problem in question would not have existed long ago. A God whom man fully understood would not be God. “Even if no one ever confirmed the existence of God, that would not prove that he does not exist” (R. Wurmbrand). Our senses, intuition, and rational reasoning define the boundaries. Even St. Paul knew this, as he testifies in Romans (11:33-35). God lives mysteriously, yet in a perfect way that our imperfect reason cannot even imagine today.

Nevertheless, every person can seek and also find God, for “he is not far from any of us. For in him, we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). However, to be able to enter into an intimate relationship with God, God wanted to reveal Himself to him and to give him grace so that he could accept this revelation by faith. Nevertheless, the evidence of the existence of God can prepare for faith and help one to understand that belief is not contrary to human reason” (CCC, 35). “The starting point of these ‘ways’ of approaching God is creation: the material world and the human person” (CCC, 31). “The world: from the movement and causal efficacy, from the randomness, order, and beauty of the world, God can be known as the origin and goal of the universe” (CCC, 32). “Man: by his openness to truth and beauty, by his sense of moral goodness and freedom, and by the voice of his conscience, by his desire for infinity and happiness, a man questions the existence of God…” (CCC, 33). “Thus, by these various ‘ways’ man can come to the knowledge that there is a reality which is the first cause and the last end of all things and ‘which all call God” (CCC, 34).

To know God, we must seek him, which requires wanting him with all our might. But this we lack. God, however, has given us the reason and the will to seek and find him. Yet, left to ourselves, we would remain in darkness and the shadow of death (Lk 1:79) if he had not come to meet us in a completely new way – by his revelation. Os Guinness comes up with an exciting idea in his book The Dust of Death when he describes a scene in a comedy performed by the German comedian Karl Vallentin. This actor with a routine arrives on stage, illuminated only by a small ring of light. Again and again, he goes around this circle with a tormented face. He is looking for something. After a while, a policeman meets him and asks him: “I lost the key to my house,” Vallentin replies. The policeman helps him to look, but the search is ultimately fruitless. “Are you sure you lost it here?” The cop asks. “I’m not!” Vallentin says, pointing to a dark corner. “It was there!” “Well, why are you looking for it here?” “Because there’s no light,” the comedian replies.

If there is no God, or if there is indeed a God, but the fact that man fails to know him is God’s fault, then all human efforts to seek and find (“know”) resemble this comedian’s search: there is no light where there is light to be desired; and where there is light, there is no point in seeking. Is this our case? According to Holy Scripture, the problem is not on God’s side but in us. Therefore, the problem is solvable. It is solvable because God can take and, in fact, has taken steps to reveal Himself. In so doing, He has provided us with the missing key to knowledge. Revelation, in the first place, means that God makes Himself known and available. The two are inextricably linked: God tells us something about himself that we could not know of ourselves, and at the same time, he gives himself to us (CCC, 142). We will unite with him unspeakably delightfully when we know and see God as he is.

So what does it mean to know and know God? Something more than theoretically acknowledging his existence. Knowing God is also about ourselves, the meaning of our being, and the meaning of the world. Knowing God is not only a work of the intellect but also of the heart. To know God is also to acknowledge him as the reason and goal of one’s own life, to accept him as the only and absolute good. Knowing God, therefore, manifests itself not only in thought but also in thanksgiving, praise, celebration, and moral living.

St. Thomas Aquinas argues that God is the most knowable, for nothing is more full of light, precise, and accurate than God Himself. No knowledge satisfies our desires as much as the knowledge of God (CCC, 1718). The believer knows, however, that we will know God most perfectly in the blissful eternity (CCC, 1024) when we see Him face to face. Thus the Holy Apostle Paul writes, “Now we see only dimly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know only in part, but then I shall be known as I also am known” (1 Cor 13:12).