The Unknowable 

   “Faith reveals to us God’s incomprehensibility; when we arrive at seeing that God infinitely surpasses all our conceptions, then we have arrived at the point where we begin to understand what God is.”  (Blessed Columba Marmion, “Christ, the Life of the Soul”) 

   As much as I want to come to know God better and better I must admit and accept the fact that He is beyond my human understanding.  I can grow in love of Him, I can strive to serve Him more completely, I can even give my life to Him, but I can never know Him as He is.  As much as I want to know Him completely it’s simply not possible in this lifetime.

   Even the Apostles, who had walked with Christ throughout His ministry, didn’t fully comprehend who He was.  Much of what He had said to them remained a mystery even after His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension into heaven.  If those who knew the Son of God best during His life on this earth didn’t fully know Him, how can I expect to fully know God?

   In so many ways I know about God.  I know He is love and that His love is the reason for all of creation.  He didn’t need the universe or humankind to be complete, but He created in order love His creations.  I see a glimmer of His beauty and majesty in His creation, but I can’t see Him as He is.  I know that He is within me, I feel His presence within me.  Still there is so much I will never fully grasp in this lifetime.

   St. Thomas Aquinas said that God is not a being, but is being itself, He simply is, always has been, and always will be.  He is the unknowable, so far beyond human understanding as to be a near complete mystery.  I know His words as recorded in scripture, I know His works as I see His creation and all that is in it, but I will never fully know Him until this life is over and I am in His eternal presence.