Lesson 6: God
1. Who is God?
God is our loving Father, the Creator of all that exists.
2. Can we fully know who God is?
No, we cannot fully know who God is. He is far more beautiful, good, and awesome than anything we have ever experienced. “Even when He reveals Himself, God remains a mystery beyond words: ‘If you understood Him, it would not be God.” (CCC, 230, citing St Augustine)
3. Where is God?
God is everywhere, but He is especially present in Holy Communion, and in the souls of those who possess Sanctifying Grace.
-Holy Communion is the Body, Blood, Soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ.
-Holy Communion is Jesus who is loving us.
-Sanctifying Grace is the life of Jesus in our souls, which we received at Baptism.
-Sanctifying Grace is lost through mortal sin, but regained through being sorry for our sins and going to Confession. When we have Sanctifying Grace the Holy Trinity dwells within us and we dwell within the Holy Trinity.
4. Does God know all things?
Yes, God knows all things.
God knows even the secret intentions of our hearts that are unknown to us.
5. Can do all things?
Yes, God can do all things?
God however respects our freedom. He will change us and make us good and holy only if we let Him.
6.Did God ever have a beginning?
No, God never had a beginning. From all eternity God always existed.
The stars and planets had a beginning. The angels had a beginning.
God never had a beginning. HE alone was never created.
He creates all else that exists.
Among all beings, He is thus the Supreme Being
7. Will God always exist?
Yes, God will always exist.
The stars, the planets, the earth, and life as we know it, will all pass away. God will never pass away.
God will never change. God was always infinitely perfect. God is infinitely perfect. God will always be infinitely perfect.
Since God never changes, there is no time in God. God is eternal.
8. Is God interested in you?
Yes, and He loves you with an unlimited love.
“Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even if she should forget, I will never forget you. “(Isaiah 49: 15)
9. Does God permit evil?
Yes, God permits evil. He does so, however, only to bring forth from that evil a greater good.
10. Is God involved in even the littlest details of our lives?
Yes, God is involved in even the littlest details of our lives. This is why He does not want us to worry about the many problems of every day life.
“Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.” (Luke 12: 6-7)
“Let nothing trouble you. Let nothing frighten you. Everything passes. God never changes. Patience obtains all. Whoever has God wants for nothing. God alone is enough.” (St Theresa of Avila
11. What is the greatest attribute of God in his relationship to men?
The greatest attribute of God in his relationship to men is mercy.
When God grants his mercy, bringing the sinner from the state of mortal sin to the state of Sanctifying Grace He manifests more power than when He created the world from nothing. (St Augustine)
St Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897)
St Therese had a deep love for God. Because of this love she had a deep thirst to know who God was and how to act in order to please Him. Because of her great love God reveled to her very deeply who he was and how we can please Him. God revealed to her how He is so much more merciful and good than we could ever image. The devil, who is a liar, seeks to make us believe that God is not good and that God does not love us. God revealed to her how much He is pleased when we have great confidence in his mercy and goodness, and how much He is hurt when we do not have confidence in his mercy. She gave the example of two little children who did something naughty. When their father came home one of the children went and hid, fearing the father’s punishments. The other child ran into his father’s arms, trusting in the Father’s mercy. He immediately confessed his fault, that he was sorry, and that he would never be bad again. The Father loves both of his children, but the one who gave Him the greatest joy and who received the greatest blessing from Him was the one who trusted most in his goodness and mercy. So should be our relationship with God, if we really want to please Him.
12. Can we know with certitude from reason alone that God exists?
Yes, we are able to know with certitude that God exists from reason alone.
“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.” (Romans 1:20)
13. Do all come to know that God exists through reason?
No, not all actually come to know that God exists through reason.
14. How can we come to know with even greater certitude and without any error about God’s existence?
Through Jesus Christ who teaches us through the Catholic Church we can come to believe in God’s existence with ease, with even greater certitude, and without error.
Venerable Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916)
Charles’ parents died when he was six years old. As a result, he and his sister were raised by their grandfather. By the time he was fifteen, less than a year after his First Communion, he was an agnostic (uncertain about he existence of God). In school he did so little work that he was expelled. After the death of his grandfather, he received a large inheritance, and became very wealthy. He lived a very sinful life. He later said of himself: “I was so completely selfish, so completely vain, so completely irreligious, and utterly given over to wickedness, that I was only one step away from insanity.” God seemed infinitely remove, if He existed at all.
Charles at a certain point became deeply impressed by his cousins, Marie de Bondy. She was very devout and her good life was attractive. Through her good example he started to wonder about the existence of God. In Paris he began to enter the Church of St Augustine. There he repeated over and over again: “My God, if You exist, let me come to know You.” One day as a priest elevated the Host, he received in his heart the gift of faith. He knew then in his heart that Jesus was in the Host, and that Jesus was God. He said, “My God, You are real.” Because he knew that God existed, his life had to change. “The moment I realized that God existed, I knew I could not do otherwise than live for Him alone.” The Eucharist, which had communicated to him the gift of faith, until deah was to be the center of his life. Charles spent long hours adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. He wanted by that maens to become aprsence of Christ, so that he could prech about God, more by his presence than by his ords. This is the way he had received the faith, and it was the way he wanted to communicate it to others. After becoming apriest he lived as a hermit in Algeria (Africa) Little Brother Chales of Jesus, as he called himself, wrote down a plan for two religious orders. The members of these orders would live a life patterned on the life of Jesus at Nazareth. They would spend much time adoring Jesus. They would become a presence of jesus and then go and live among the worlds’ poor, sharing all they had, working each day for a living. They would tech only by the example of a good Christian life.
Charles never saw this dream realized while he was alive. In the 10 years he was in the desert among the Moslems he did not ake a single convert to the Fatith; although many considered him to be a holy man. Nor were his plans for a new order carried out. The only person who came to join him left after only a shor time. Nonetheless, within 20 years of his death 3 religious Congregations were founded that were inspired by him. They adore Jesus in the Eucharist and live among men, preaching the Gospel more by their good lives than by their words.
