Understanding God 

   “If you understand, it isn’t God.” (St. Augustine) 

   I’ve tried to understand more about God and have found that there is only so much that can be known about Him in this life.  I know that He is a loving God, but His love is one of perfection and perfection can’t be understood in a sinful world.

   He is all merciful but, again, His mercy is perfect and unable to be understood by the mind of a sinner, one who truly doesn’t and can’t understand perfection.

   I have come to realize that the only way to truly understand God is to pass from this life and enter into His presence.  I believe that is the ultimate goal of faith, to enter into that existence in which I will be able to truly know and understand God.

   Until then I will have to be satisfied with knowing and seeing only that which is possible in this world.  I can know of His love and mercy even if I don’t fully understand it.  I can see His majesty in the magnificence and grandeur of His creation.  From the tiniest microbe to the vastness of  the universe itself, God tells me of His majesty though I will never know how it all works.

   God doesn’t expect me to understand but to have faith.  St. Augustine said, “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe.”  In faith I will continue to believe.  When I leave this world faith will no longer be necessary.  With Him, in His eternal light, I will see and know. 

Your ways are beyond my understanding.

I can’t grasp perfection in a sinful world.

I believe and trust in You.

In faith I will come to see the truth. 

Amen