“Finally, brothers and sisters,

whatever is true, whatever is honorable,

whatever is just, whatever is pure,

whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious,

if there is any excellence

and if there is anything worthy of praise,

think about these things.”

How can we know God?

Reason. The Church affirms the possibility of knowing the existence of a singular and personal God through our use of reason alone. Because God is our creator, all created things, everything we can see or apprehend, share in some way in the existence of their creator. The whole universe reflects certain attributes of God, especially human beings made in the image of God. That which is good, beautiful, or true in created things points to the goodness, beauty, and truth in God. These are known as transcendentals (there is a rich and diverse philosophical and theological history of thought about transcendentals, but for purposes here, I’ll stick to these three) because they transcend time and place. They are universal and beyond particular culture, doctrine, or ideology. Within created things, they reflect God himself. The Catechism states, “The manifold perfections of creatures - their truth, their goodness, their beauty all reflect the infinite perfection of God.” Moreover, if we start within ourselves as human beings, we recognize that truth, beauty, and goodness are the great desires of our hearts fulfilled by perfect love. Love itself is true, beautiful, and good. To come to a knowledge of God through reason, however, is limited in understanding the interior life of God (aka the Trinity) and can be difficult. Influenced by our own sinfulness, culture, doctrines, and ideologies, our reason is often clouded. God’s grace helps to illuminate our minds in our search for him through the transcendentals of beauty, truth, and goodness. We often need God’s help to know him. 

Revelation. Within our reason and beyond our reason, revelation builds upon what we can know with our minds alone. God has freely chosen to share with human beings his own life. Beyond our capacity, God seeks for us to know and love him. Through specific acts in history (aka salvation history), God has revealed more and more of himself. In word and deed God has gradually communicated himself, culminating in his final word, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the full revelation of God, the complete communication of himself, the divine word. This revelation, intended for all people in every place, is passed on through the sacred scriptures and apostolic tradition. Two sides of the same coin, in a sense, scripture and tradition form the deposit of faith. As the work of the Holy Spirit, the revelation of God is preserved and communicated through the Church. We can know God through his revelation contained in scripture and tradition, most fully in the person of Jesus. The grace of God, given through the Holy Spirit, helps us to recognize the fullness of truth, beauty, and goodness revealed in Jesus. Faith is a gift of God, which he prepares us for, opens us to, and sustains within us. At the initiative of God, faith allows us to know him and, in knowing him, to love him. Placing ourselves in the hands of God, our creator and redeemer, is an act of trust. We surrender wholly to our God in faith. This faith opens our eyes to God’s love. The hunger we all share for beauty, truth, and goodness is filled by God himself, the infinite source of beauty, truth, and goodness. Reason and faith are not opposed. They are both paths to knowing God, creator of all that is. We don’t check our brains at the door of the Church. Instead, our reason illuminated by faith is freed to probe the depths of knowledge, to apprehend the fullness of truth, beauty, and goodness. Think about these things.