Daily Reflection

October 1, 2011
Knowing God

As a teacher of Holy Scriptures for many years, I often witness students who struggle with the idea of God. They ask, “Who is God? How can we know God? Is God cruel and vengeful, a God of wars, as some Old Testament passages seemingly portray Him?”
Human history is not all about wars and conquests or about politics and treaties. Beneath this surface, we can detect that human history is an endless search for a supernatural Being — a Being we call God. From the beginning of the human race, people of so-called primitive tribes, as well as those of highly developed ancient civilizations, have tried to reach beyond the physical world with its imperfections, struggles and sufferings, and the inevitable experience of death. Why? Because they sensed that there must be something better than this. This world must have its origin from powerful beings. Who and where are they? How can one reach and experience them?
Often, people projected their ideas, even their weaknesses, on the divinity and from the way people imagined their gods, we learn something about these people. The gods of the Greeks reflected the promiscuous, war-loving character of the Greeks. Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto must have shocked viewers by the blood-thirsty Aztec gods who only reflect how bloodthirsty these people were.
Do we really know God? Even the greatest theologians and saints admit that we do not have anything close to an adequate idea of God. “No one knows the Father,” Jesus exclaims in today’s Gospel passage, seemingly agreeing with all great religious thinkers. But then He adds, “…except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
In other words, Jesus is the answer to the question. Through Him we can know God. The more we know Jesus through prayer and reading about Him in the Bible and spiritual books, the more we know about God, who is a loving God. Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD

Reflection Question:
Who is God for me? Do I know God as the loving God whom Jesus revealed to us?

Lord, thank You for revealing the Father to us. With the help of the Holy Spirit, help me to know the Father better by knowing You more intimately.

St. Ralph Crockett, pray for us.