When we talk about God, we often use familiar terms, but what do we truly mean by 'God'? Understanding God's nature can be challenging, especially when we confront common misconceptions. Many people mistakenly view God as a distant being, a supreme competitor, or simply the most powerful entity in the universe. These misconceptions can lead us to misunderstand God’s true nature, limiting our ability to connect with Him deeply.
Viewing God as merely distant makes it harder to see His intimate presence in our lives, while seeing Him as a competitor reduces our sense of His generosity and love. These misconceptions can hinder a deeper understanding of God's true nature. This guide explores the deeper meaning of God as understood in the Catholic tradition, offering insights that are particularly relevant for those curious about the Christian faith.
One of the most frequent misunderstandings about God is the perception that He is a sort of supreme being among other beings, simply a bigger and more powerful entity in the cosmos. Many people reject the idea of God as a distant deity who is somehow in competition with us, and this rejection is actually quite valid. God, properly understood, is not merely a supreme being that sits atop a hierarchy of other beings. He is not an item in the world nor a detached creator who winds up the universe and then leaves it to its own devices.
Even Thomas Aquinas saw that God is not a competitor to humanity. Aquinas argued that God is not just another being among beings; instead, He is the cause of all being itself. Unlike creatures, who derive their existence from something else, God simply is existence. This means that God does not compete with creation but instead sustains it at every moment. God is not like us but on a grander scale; rather, God is the very ground of our existence. He is being itself, and our own lives are caught up in His. The more we glorify God, the more we flourish, because God, as the source of all being, desires our fulfilment and ultimate happiness.
In the story of Moses on Mount Sinai, we encounter one of the most profound revelations about the nature of God. Moses encounters a burning bush that is aflame but not consumed, and from that bush, God speaks: "I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." When Moses asks God for His name, the response is, "Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh"—translated as "I am who I am." This is not merely a title; it is a revolutionary statement about God's nature.
Moses was used to the idea of gods with specific domains—gods of mountains, rivers, or particular tribes—beliefs that were typical of ancient cultures, which often saw the divine as limited to certain places or peoples. But this God is different. He is not one god among many, not something that can be limited or defined by human language. "I am who I am" indicates that God is existence itself, the One who is. This profound mystery underpins the Catholic understanding of God. God is not just another being but the foundation of all being.
In the Catholic tradition, there is an insistence on God as ipsum esse, or "being itself." As St. Anselm famously said, God is "that than which nothing greater can be thought." At first, this might seem straightforward: God is the greatest thing. But we are challenged to go deeper. If God were simply the greatest thing among other things, then adding God to the universe would mean that the sum is greater than God alone. Yet, in the truest sense, God plus the universe is not greater than God alone. God transcends everything we can conceive.
The word 'mystery' comes from the Greek muein, meaning 'to shut the mouth.' Karl Rahner said that God is the last thing we say before falling silent. St. Augustine echoed this when he said, si comprehendis non est Deus—if you understand, that isn’t God. This tells us that God is essentially beyond our concepts and categories; all of our human attempts to describe Him inevitably fall short.
Yet, if God is ultimately beyond our comprehension, does that mean we are left in silence, unable to say anything about Him? In Exodus 33, Moses asks to see God’s glory, and God tells him, "You cannot see my face, for no one shall see me and live." Instead, God allows Moses to see His back. This symbolises that while we cannot fully comprehend God's essence, we can still perceive aspects of His presence and understand Him indirectly through His actions and creation. This imagery signifies that while we cannot grasp God directly or see Him face to face, we can perceive His presence in an indirect way—through His creation, through the effects of His actions in the world. We glimpse God’s back as we perceive beauty, order, and love in the world around us.
St. Thomas Aquinas’ argument from contingency offers another way to understand God. Contingency refers to things that come into being and pass away, indicating they do not have the reason for their existence within themselves. In our ordinary experience, we see that everything is contingent—that is, things come into being and pass away. From summer clouds to great mountains, everything changes. Aquinas noted that if every being we see is contingent, then there must be a cause outside of them to explain their existence. If we trace this chain of causation, we must come to something that is not contingent, something that simply is. This necessary being is what we call God—the One whose very nature is to be.
This is where we make the connection with Moses’ encounter. When Moses asked for God's name, God responded, "I am who I am." God is not a being among others; God is the one whose essence is existence itself.
Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, formulated an argument that complements this understanding of God. He noted that the universe is marked by intelligibility—it is knowable. This is the foundation of all scientific endeavour; scientists presume that the world is structured in a way that can be understood by the human mind. But why is this so? Ratzinger argued that the ultimate source of this intelligibility is a great intelligence—a mind that has thought the universe into existence. In other words, creation reflects the divine mind, and our ability to know is a kind of "recognition," as if we are thinking again the thoughts of God.
There are two critical aspects of God's nature: transcendence and immanence. God is transcendent—utterly beyond anything in creation. When we look at structures like the Cologne Cathedral, with its grand, upward-reaching lines, we are reminded of God’s infinite majesty and mystery. God cannot be measured or contained by our categories; He is beyond time, space, and materiality.
At the same time, God is immanent—present everywhere in His creation. Psalm 139 speaks to this: "Lord, you search me and you know me." This verse highlights how intimately God knows us, from our actions to our thoughts. Another verse, "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?" further emphasises that there is no place where God is not present, underscoring His closeness and unwavering presence in our lives. This verse highlights God's intimate knowledge of every aspect of our lives, emphasising His immanence and closeness to us. God knows every aspect of our lives, is closer to us than we are to ourselves, and is actively present in every part of creation. The same God who cannot be grasped because of His transcendence also cannot be hidden from because of His immanence. He is, as the old spiritual song says, "so high, you can’t get over Him, so low, you can’t get under Him, so wide, you can’t get around Him."
What do we do in response to this understanding of God? The answer is simple yet challenging: stop trying to control God or hide from Him. God is neither a being we can manipulate nor a distant force we can ignore. Instead, we are called to enter into a relationship with Him, to love and be loved by Him. This is what God ultimately desires from us, and it is in this relationship that we find our true purpose and fulfilment.
All the theological reflections and philosophical arguments ultimately point to one thing—God wants us to fall in love with Him. Understanding that God is not merely a being in the world, that He is not in competition with us, but rather that He is the source of all existence, changes everything. We no longer need to grasp at God or flee from Him. Instead, we can rest in Him, finding peace in the One who simply is, the One who knows us and loves us beyond measure.
This is the invitation: to know God not as a distant, unknowable force, but as the ground of all being, the One who is closer to us than our own breath, and the One who calls us to share in His divine life.