Day 6: Knowing God With Certainty

Man is by nature and vocation a religious being. Coming from God, going toward God, man lives a fully human life only if he freely lives by his bond with God. Man is made to live in communion with God in whom he finds happiness... Without the Creator, the creature vanishes (GS 36). This is the reason why believers know that the love of Christ urges them to bring the light of the living God to those who do not know him or who reject him. (Catechism 44-49)

 

Today's reading is short, covering the In Brief section at the end of Chapter 1. This section summarizes what was covered in the chapter on man's built-in desire for God and our capacity for knowing Him. I like how the Catechism Companion puts it:

The very fact that you exist reveals that God wanted you to exist, which means he loves you. He does not have to love you, but he chose to love you when he chose to create you. You are alive on purpose. (p. 16)

Remembering this, especially in the hard times that life can throw at us, can be a struggle. In some ways, figuring out what God's purpose is in our lives can be even more difficult. It is good to be reminded of these truths, for not only do we have a "crisis in meaning" in modern culture but the mind does tend to wander in life.

Lastly, I like how the Catechism Companion points out that contrary to popular belief in modern culture, faith and science are not opposed to each other. 

Faith asks about supernatural realities, and science asks about natural realities. (p. 16)

Again, the teaching from Pope St. John Paul II in Fides et Ratio comes to mind, as well as Thomas Woods' excellent book How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization.