predication.net

Thou hast girded me with joy” Psalm 30:12.

God is a God of joy. And if Christianity is a religion of fun, it is essential because it directly shares in the joy that dwells in the Holy Trinity. Happiness is like the atmosphere that reigns in God. We used to say that God is mercy, love, and peace. In certain circumstances of life, man can understand with the heart the divine attributes revealed to us. He experiences, for example, the fatherly goodness of God, who cares for his personal needs, or the mercy of Jesus Christ, who forgives his sins.

To enjoy joy, we must immerse ourselves in the atmosphere of the Holy Trinity. God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit experience complete and perfect joy because of the love with which they love one another. God’s perfect love results from the mutual self-giving of the Persons of the Holy Trinity. For as soon as there is a gift, there is potential joy. In God, this gift is complete; his happiness is complete. The Father is the joy of his Son when he gives himself entirely to him. The Son is the joy of his Father when he also gives himself entirely to him. They are each other’s joy for each other. And to give an idea of this, we can say that the explosion of love between them is the person of the Holy Spirit.

Despite the sublime doctrine, Holy Scripture does not despise the simple joys of life. It knows the joy of a bountiful harvest or vintage, the joy of being among brothers and being able to glorify God together, the happiness of the birth of a child, and the joy that springs from admiring creation. Perhaps we are little aware of this, which is why the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s statement still holds: “You all strike me as little redeemed people.”

Christian joy presupposes a person naturally capable of rejoicing. Human pleasures are pleasing to God. Let us not forget to offer them to Him to purify them, sanctify them, and intensify them. But the discovery of true joy presupposes that we can advance higher, that we do not stop at the horizontal level of the pleasures offered, but that we find a vertical direction in them.

For a Christian, joy is, above all, spiritual joy. Usually, it radiates into all-natural and emotional joys. She makes the natural joys the true joys of the human heart. He who stops at human joys, however exhilarating they may be, without trying to connect them with their source, only verifies their transitory character. His longing for authentic joy will not be fulfilled.

Man is a being who desires. Therefore, he is capable of knowing joy. He cannot live without it and seeks it with all his might. Very often, the desire for pleasure and happiness inspires his actions and decisions in life. But man is, first and foremost, a spiritual being. God created him to live in union with Him. Therefore, any joy cannot satisfy him. His heart will be filled only when he receives true pleasure, such as the world cannot give, but which God grants to the one who asks for it.

God judges – not by our criteria, but by His. And He says you are not to judge your brother, but to admonish, encourage, and pray for him lovingly. God will also believe me, and He will not compare me to how others are doing, but each one will be judged for himself. We must reshape what is happening around us that is wrong; we must take the attitude of those who are actively creating and not those who are passively waiting to see what happens next. We must become prophets of the times – teachers who know God’s will for us and the world; what He wants us to do. To be a prophet in this world requires listening to God and doing what He desires.

How and whether to listen to God today… when…, we can tell by example and the lessons learned from it. An Indian Catholic priest recalls an incident at the Bombay airport. At the security check, the queue stopped before him for a long time. For there stood a young European man, holding a mouse in his hand and with a snake around his neck, dressed in Hindu robes, with ashes on his forehead, talking to the policeman: “Let me get in with these gods.” The line was stopped, and irritated people shouted at the policeman to throw the young man out. A priest standing just behind him began to pray for the man, and God showed him his name and identity. He laid His hand on him and said: “Joseph, are you not a German Catholic? How humiliating is it that you hold these two creatures and say they are your gods?” The man asked, shocked: “How do you know me?” The priest pulled out a cross and showed it to him, saying, “This is your God. He died on the cross for you and me. He loves you.” The two men boarded the plane, and the flight ended with Holy Confession, receiving Jesus in the Eucharist and finding true peace and joy.

Who can help us recognize the quills in our inner sight? The Law, the commandments by which we show our dependence on and love for God, helps us know the plummeting stones. In what way can these “stones” be selected? This is only possible by an attitude of repentance, of true conversion, a perspective in which I look in truth at what I am. God’s Word says of us that we are all sinners. We are not to be the judge of our neighbor because we are sinners. What are we to do? Jesus came to save us, to set us free from sin. He, who is here among us today, points out to us by the light of His Spirit our sins, our hurts, our fears, our prejudices so that we may recognize them and turn them over to Him. The result will be a sight that will be clearer, and you will know yourself better and judge your neighbor less because you will see him as a brother, a sister, and you will not condemn, reject, or despise him. If you know the evil he does, admonish him, and encourage him to do better.

Let us allow Jesus to be our guide on life’s journey, for He knows the way to eternal life. Let us accept the law of love that he offers us as the law by which we want to act.

The blind man, led by the one-eyed man, goes to visit his grandmother. On the way through the forest, the one-eyed man loses his excellent eye when he impales himself on a branch… Jesus says: “Can the blind lead the blind?” (Lk 6:39). Let us speak of the inner blindness that our Lord points out when He gives the correct explanation of the Law on the Mount of Beatitudes.

The goal of the true Israelite, the Jew, is to become righteous and holy by keeping the Law that God gave to the Jewish people after the deliverance from Egypt. Jesus asks if the blind can lead the blind and says that the disciple is not above the teacher. Jesus is pointing out that the leaders of the people – the teachers of the people, have impaired eyesight or are blind, and leading the disciples entrusted to them leads to disaster; that is, they cannot properly walk in the way of the Lord to keep His commandments, and thus come to righteousness. Their interpretations of the Law are wrong and often only external. Jesus is the true Teacher who came to open the eyes of those who do not see. To spread even the eyes of the teachers to lead the people aright. He did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. To illuminate the way with the truth that is good and leads to life. He explains the whole Law through the commandment of love of God and neighbor. The Law is not just a disciplinary order with commands and prohibitions that must be outwardly obeyed. Still, above all, it must be internalized, i.e., it must be part of our heart, a way of life to which God Himself, who loves man and desires his love, calls us.

We live in a world where there is much that is good and noble but also murders its children, children kill their parents, and the leaders who govern us under the pressure of so-called ‘public opinion say it is all right. We claim to understand the unhappiness that wars on all sides will cause, yet wars are still in the world. We wonder how this is possible; after all, has society learned its lesson? The answer is given to us by God Himself – man is destroying himself because he is in the darkness of his sin, living in delusion, in the desire for power, for control over others, wanting to be master over life and death. For him, other people are merely a means to his egoistic ends. Man refuses to submit to God and even puts himself in the position of God Himself, thus becoming not only an idolater but an idol. He only worships himself, throwing away God’s standards and giving himself only his own rules. What happens to him is pretty straightforward; since he is blind, he will not enter the finish line, and those like him will not. There is only one WAY out of the pit they are in – the way of conversion, the practice of accepting Jesus of Nazareth as Lord and Savior, as the One who is the Light of the World.

Today, as in the past, we often point only to the faults of others. We are only those who negatively analyze the deeds of our neighbors. Our attitudes are not those of Christians supposed to be people of love. 

“Anger is a gift from God; it is the energy we have to solve the problem,” says Salesian leader Peter Timko.

When anger made the list of the cardinal sins, people didn’t know our emotions. So anger is an emotion, and from a moral point of view, it is not a sin.

“It’s important not to take it so automatically that I’m sinning as soon as I get angry. There is a difference when I feel angry, which is fine, but it is another thing to be angry,” says Salesian Peter Timko in another interview on vices and virtues.

Anger becomes a sin when we mistreat it. We have no choice whether or not to express our anger. Once it is within us, it always manifests itself in some way. Our selection lies only in how we say it.

“A mature person does not express himself by not having emotions or not feeling anger. It would be strange if we did not feel anger. Maturity lies in how I can process and channel my emotions,” explains the Salesian.

The manifestations of sinful anger are not just outbursts of rage or quarrels. Other destructive consequences of poorly expressed anger are silence, ignoring, and creating tension.

“I have known such Christian scribes whom one is afraid to meet. They may live like the best Christians, but they feel the tension everywhere they go. They are angry with everyone and everything,” says Peter Timko.

In the interview, he also talks about how to use negative emotion to do positive things, how to understand God’s wrath, and even which saints can be an example to us in how they were able to handle their explosive temper.

Why is anger a sin, even a capital sin? After all, we read in Scripture about God’s anger; even Jesus knew how to get angry.
We mustn’t look at it in such a simple way. Anger is not automatically a sin.

People did not know our emotions when anger made it onto the list of capital sins.

So anger is an emotion and not a sin in and of itself from a moral standpoint; we don’t believe we are to blame for our emotions. Emotions are a gift from God; they always want to tell us something, to lead us to something. It is different to feel anger, which is okay, and it is different from being angry. That can already be a sin because I am allowing myself to be influenced by emotion to behave in a wrong moral way.

When anger flares up in us, don’t we need to feel guilty?
We need to examine and discern what the emotion of anger that has arisen in us is trying to tell us. Every emotion is like a text message that needs to be read and understood. Based on that, we can then control and process it more easily. We cannot suppress emotion. Repressed anger is a disaster. When it erupts in a person, it does a lot of harm.

I will give an example to explain it better. Surely you know the famous story of William Tell. He had to shoot down an apple on his son’s head with a crossbow from a great distance at the behest of a ruthless landowner as punishment because he refused to bow to his hat. Legend has it that Tell also had another arrow ready to shoot at the landlord in case he failed to shoot down the apple and hit his son. We know that William Tell succeeded in shooting down the apple and did not harm his son.

We also experience this dramatic moment when someone or something makes us angry. The feeling of anger is like a loaded gun that has to go off. However, we are not to shoot at ourselves or others but at the “apple” of the problem to which the emotion alerts us.

Beloved brothers and sisters, dear devotees and children of Our Lady! Today we celebrate the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Every birth of a child is always a joyful event. The liturgy of today’s feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary also encourages us in the opening antiphon: “Let us rejoice in the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for from her has risen the sun of righteousness – Christ our God.” This happened when the “fullness of time” had come. We may ask: What is the fullness of time? It means that humanity has already matured to a better knowledge of God. People have come to understand that there is only one God – and have rejected polytheism. People have felt that God is the Creator of the whole world and have admired Him. People saw God as a righteous Judge – and feared him.

Above all, it was time for humanity also to recognize that God is our heavenly Father – and to come to love him. And this revelation of God’s love comes in spades. Somewhere in the unknown land of Canaan, a little girl – Miriam – is born. The parents are now elderly, and the girl Miriam – Mary – is the light of their old age. And these loving parents – Jehoiakim and Hannah (or Joachim and Anna) – have given Miriam a careful home upbringing. They give her the best education in the Temple school in Jerusalem. Then they want her to marry well so that she will fulfill her mission as a woman in the highest way – motherhood.

The little girl Mary, born today, is not only the light and joy of her parents but also the light and joy of all generations of Christians. Already in Christian antiquity, St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote verses that still show us today the beauty of the Virgin Mary: Gently beautiful. She lives in seclusion. She resembles her shyness and tenderness. Unassuming. She behaves modestly. She gratefully accepts whatever the day brings her. Worrying about the next moment does not weigh on her mind. She is free. She touches the ground lightly. The richness of her soul looks out of her eyes. With her whole being, she sings thanksgiving and love to God. Despite the distance of centuries, these verses testify to the tender love of the Christians of the early centuries for the Virgin Mary – how gracious they imagined her to be.

The Eastern Fathers call the Nativity of the Virgin Mary “the dawning of the new world which God has willed from eternity.” Before the way to this new world was opened to us by the birth of Christ from the Virgin Mary, before the Lord Jesus offered the ransom sacrifice for the world’s salvation, the Virgin Mary lived a tough life of faith. And we seldom realize this unless we know well the life of the Nazarene family and the life of the Virgin Mary. The Holy Father, Blessed John Paul II, of blessed memory, in his Marian encyclical “Redemptoris Mater,” writes that in the years of Jesus’ life hidden in the house of Nazareth, Mary’s life is also “with Christ hidden in God” through faith. A mother encounters the truth of her Son only in confidence and, above all, with conviction. Yes, Mary is blessed because she believed.

Let us try to imagine how the secret life of the Lord and His purified Mother Mary unfolded at home in Nazareth. Do you think the Lord Jesus was saying to His mother, “You know, Mom, I am the Son of God, in heaven, it looks like so-and-so, such and such will happen?” No, we must not mistakenly believe that the Lord Jesus made such or similar speeches. He lived like any ordinary child and like an average young person. And His Mother Mary certainly felt, but she was experiencing particular anguish of heart with the night of faith. And that faith crystallized in the “night” brought Our Lady to the pinnacle of holiness. Herein lies her greatness and personal merit. And here is also the path for each of us. We can say that thanks to Our Lady, we can be “born twice.” Like the exiled sons of Eve, we are born to die in the old world. But thanks to Our Lady, who gave us Christ the Redeemer, we are born again in Holy Baptism as beloved children of God – born for a new world. And this can be repeated many times in our lives, namely when we die again because of grave sin. The Lord Jesus confirmed this. Let us recall the parable of the prodigal son: He was dead and is alive again – that is: born again.

Thanks to Our Lady, we have the possibility of beginning again if we follow the way of faith. God, in His infinite mercy, gives us the chance of new birth. We do not need to believe in reincarnation to undo our previous lives, for we have come to know the great mysteries of salvation. That’s a beautiful thing. This is a fantastic wonder of the grace and love of God! Friends of God, we know from Jesus’ parable that the householder comes to hire laborers for his vineyard, even an hour before the end. And therefore, even one who will work only a short time in life can receive the same eternal reward. And we must not envy, for God is infinitely benevolent. And all this has been made possible by the most blessed Virgin and Mother of God, Mary. The beginning of the whole work of God is in her birth. Yes, Mary, from you, the Sun of eternal salvation has risen for us, the night has fled from the radiance of its light, the virtues of unearthly beauty have grown, and the whole earth has blossomed with new life. Blessed is the fruit of thy life – intercede for us always with thy Son! 

Have you ever been to a herbalist? No? Then you are fit! But you probably know about the Chinese miracle root ginseng or Swedish herbs. Alongside the search for the elixir of life, humanity has not forgotten to turn its attention to the mixture of happiness. The happiness of human life and its acquisition has often been and still is the subject of philosophical controversy. Every movement gives a guaranteed the best recipe for a happy life. However, we have seen the young lives of well-known actors and singers end because they saw their happiness in drugs and intoxicating poisons. When we return to the world of fairy tales, we find that the content of every fairy tale is the acquisition of life’s happiness. So it was when you recall the range of the fairy tale of The Fisherman and the Goldfish. Three wishes and he was to be happy! But human happiness is fickle, and with great speed, it can also dissolve… And all this is only because we cannot thoroughly weigh the values offered.

We will be on the side of truth if we all focus on the values on offer that Jesus put forward in the Sermon on the Mount. We are human. What are we? It does us good to order others around, orchestrate them, exalt ourselves above them, and despise the weaker. They are egoists. Has egoism ever brought anyone happiness? Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and the Word of God want to protect us from such degenerating tendencies. The way Christianity leads us is not so easy to understand. This way of life is meant to guide me and those around me to joy, bliss, and happiness. It’s not just a different world; it’s a different world! It is a world of complete and accurate humanity into which Christianity leads us. A world of people who are blissful and happy, and this is because they control their animal instincts and give vent to their fullness in God. Let us, therefore, learn to understand this wisdom of life, which, though it is a laughing matter to the world, will teach men to laugh happily! Let us try to translate the Beatitudes into today’s thoughts and words:

– Blessed are those who are poor in mind, for this poverty makes them accessible. They have no concern about what and where to hide.
– Blessed are those who are sorrowful for their sins and seek to make amends for them. Then they will experience joy.
– Blessed are those who do not use violence. Everything will be given to them.
– Blessed are those who desire to be better than they are now, to be as much like God as possible, and to come to Him.
– Blessed are those who graciously forgive, for they will be ignored.
– Blessed are those who keep the hearts of the children, for they will behold the face of the heavenly Father.
– Blessed are those who love reconciliation and peace, for they will embrace peace and tranquility.
– Blessed are you when you are persecuted for your faith and Christian life, for you will be among the children of God.

Former U.S. President Truman said: “If men observed the rules of the mountain speech, surely paradise would reign on earth. But …”

The group of about 35 men stayed with the priest in a convivial conversation that was truly colorful. They asked him all sorts of questions they could think of.
– Mr. Parish Priest, you say that God is almighty. Can God make such a great stone that He would not lift it Himself? – one man asked.
But before the questioner could get an answer, another question came thundering in:
– Why did your God, all-knowing, create man, even though He knew things would go downhill with a man?
The priest took a breath, but they kept asking and didn’t wait for an answer. Then the oldest gentleman spoke up.
– Young men, the things you keep asking are silly. I used to dull my conscience with such questions. It was when I was running away from God. He thought for a moment, ran a calloused hand across his forehead, and began to tell his story:

– I came from East Prussia and couldn’t make it far on my father’s small farm. And then the news spread that in the Ruhr, money was rolling in the streets. You have to collect it. So I set off on my journey. But I was disappointed. In the Ruhr, there was nothing but dirt on the streets, and I found myself in deep need. I spent my money wisely and didn’t get a job. Eventually, I started living among beggars who talked me into stealing. My conscience was churning inside me. But what was left for me?! One evening I walked the streets hungry and desperate. If I do not find help now, I am left with one option, to which many and so many have led me. Suddenly, I heard my name: – Henry! – I was about to turn round, but I said to myself: No one knows me in this unknown world, so who would call me, for there are so many Henrichs in such a big city… and I went on. But the call came again:- “Henrich!”- I took no notice of it and went on my way. I distinctly heard my name called a third time. I turned round. Someone waved his hand to me. I recognized him. We went to school together. I quickly ran and climbed onto the wagon. As we sat next to each other, my friend accused me:
– I called loudly after you; why didn’t you turn around? A few more seconds, and then we would have hardly met! Say, how are you doing?
I told him everything; what misery I had got myself into and what the others were telling me. My friend was touched by my story and drew me into his house. He gave me food and clothed me. And now take heed! Did you understand that the future of my life hung in the balance in those seconds? I heard the first and the second call, but I did not respond to them. Who knows how I would have turned out in my life if I had not answered the third one? It all depends on whether we hear the call and follow it…
The listeners sat breathlessly. They understood. But the older man continued:
– Everything depended on whether I would respond to at least the third call. And so it was about God. He called me at my baptism, but I didn’t understand that. Then he called me at First Holy Communion and Confirmation, but I didn’t make anything of this call. When he called me a third time, I realized I must obey! Otherwise, even God can disappear around the corner like this, and I will never hear from Him again! And so I answered his call. What did I want to say to you all? That it is not at all about your “wise” questions that you are asking, but it is about whether you want to respond to God’s call and whether you want to follow it. The older man sat down, and a deep silence fell over the room.

Tell me, how many times have we heard the instructions for a happy, contented and right life in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount? Have we responded in our lives to the first, second, third, or twentieth call of God? Let us not hesitate to look back. The way is hard, but the ages and men have tried it. Jesus himself walked it. Today, when we hear the voice of the Lord, let us not harden our hearts but open them willingly and with sincerity! 

What do you do, brother or sister, when you have a serious decision to make? Maybe you can’t sleep and keep going back in your thoughts to the events and things before you. It is a matter of course. Even the Lord Jesus knew that the moment had come for Him to step out and begin to teach the multitudes about His Father publicly and explain His mission to them. What was He doing when He was about to choose and select from the crowd His closest associates, the apostles?

The evangelist Luke, who knew this from the apostle Paul, writes: “In those days he went up into a mountain to pray, and spent the whole night in prayer with God” (Luke 6:12). The Lord Jesus, as the second Divine Person, in all things follows the will of His Father, “The Father and I are one” (Jn. 10:30). The Lord Jesus went forth from the Father and, having completed His mission among men, He returned to the Father on the fortieth day after His resurrection. So that His teaching might have spread on earth, He chose a few from among them to entrust them with this solemn task.

Jesus prayed. He talked with his Father all night. After this conversation, Jesus is no longer alone. He chose twelve and called them apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, the son of Alphaeus; Simon, whom they called the Zealot, Judas, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who had become a traitor. This naming of the apostles must not tempt us to think it was on the same day. We know that he first called Andrew and Philip. Andrew brought Peter to Jesus, Philip brought Bartholomew, and John and his brother James were called by Jesus as he passed by their boat where the brothers were mending their nets. He called Matthew when he saw him sitting in a tree. Here, Luke wanted to emphasize their namesake – that the Lord Jesus had chosen to build the human Church on them. That is why he writes: “He went down with them and stood on the plain, and a great multitude of his disciples, and a great multitude of people from all Judea…” (Lk. 6:17). This tells us about the future mission of the Church and its structure. The apostles are marked by a certain rank and responsibility to one day lead the Christians.

After the Apostles, this mission is taken over by those who, guided by the Holy Spirit, ordained in their stead. Let us remember the deacons, of whom Stephen died first. In place of Judas, Matthias succeeds Matthias. Paul the Apostle does not come into the number of the Apostles until after Christ’s ascension under exceptional circumstances at the gate of Damascus. It is a fantastic movement. “The Lord Jesus went out from the Father and is returning to the Father. The apostles go out from the Lord Jesus and follow Jesus.

Even today, there is constant movement in the Church after two millennia. The Church has new apostles in the persons of priests and bishops. The Church is growing and is still young. This is a movement that many have tried to stop but have failed. They have failed. Today they are remembered only by historians. But a billion believers in the world, on all continents, countries, and nations, still profess Christ today…

The Gospel warns us not to forget the further flourishing of the Church so that we too may have at heart the future workers in the vineyard of the Lord – the priests. Let us remember this in prayer with the words: Lord, the harvest is excellent, but the laborers are few… The night is not just the time after sunset. The night is often a time of unbelief, indifference, and betrayal of God. Let us pray earnestly that God would send new workers into his vineyard, young men and women who would dedicate their lives to Christ alone.

This is a matter of reflection for you also, dear young friends. Perhaps the Lord Jesus also wants to reach you. Maybe Jesus prayed for you then too. Perhaps you were in his heart. Search your hearts! Ask yourselves if the Lord Jesus is not addressing you.

And this is serious business. And maybe sleep is passing over you, too, and you are wondering: Am I not also? Entrust it into the hands of Our Lady.

“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).