Day 30: God Is Who Is

God, "HE WHO IS", revealed himself to Israel as the one "abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness". These two terms express summarily the riches of the divine name. In all his works God displays, not only his kindness, goodness, grace and steadfast love but also his trustworthiness, constancy, faithfulness and truth. "I give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness." He is the Truth, for "God is light and in him there is no darkness"; "God is love", as the apostle John teaches. CCC 214

In today's reading the Catechism covers two primary attributes that God has revealed to us about Himself: His love and He is truth. It is right for us, as His creations, to worship Him. What He promises always comes true. When He says that He will remain with us, He definitely will. In no one else can we say this, however much we may love and trust them. For we are fickle creatures at times and the best of us will still fail us at some point. 

As the Catechism Companion, Vol I puts it:

God is absolutely faithful. His promises always come true. We can abandon ourselves to the Lord because he is truth. He can neither deceive nor be deceived... God has revealed that not only is he truth, but he is love. God calls us to worship him because he loves us. (p. 64)

The most awesome display of God's love for us is expressed in perhaps the greatest verse in Scripture:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Amen. Anything I could add to this would be as useless as St. Thomas Aquinas' "epistles of straw".

 

Refuting Gavin Ortlund on the Canon of Scripture

A great roundtable discussion with Gary Michuta, William Albrecht, and David Szaraz responding to a video by Gavin Ortlund.

Day 29: Knowing the Name of God

In revealing his mysterious name, YHWH ("I AM HE WHO IS", "I AM WHO AM" or "I AM WHO I AM"), God says who he is and by what name he is to be called. This divine name is mysterious just as God is mystery. It is at once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name, and hence it better expresses God as what he is - infinitely above everything that we can understand or say: he is the "hidden God", his name is ineffable, and he is the God who makes himself close to men. CCC 206

God's "I Am Who I Am" name has always struck me as revealing that He is so ineffable that He isn't even bound by a clear name, for nothing can fully describe Who He Is. God is everything, existence itself. All life, love, and grace come from Him. In St. John's Gospel, Jesus echoes Exodus 3:14 in at least two places:

They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father. So Jesus said [to them], “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me... Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” (John 8: 27-28; 58)

It is no wonder that those who didn't believe in Christ were so shocked and "picked up stones to throw at him" (John 8:59). He was equating Himself with the ineffable, eternal  God, the "I Am Who I Am" of Exodus. Jesus "doubles down" even more in John 10:30 by saying "The Father and I are one". Aghast, in their murderous anger they again wanted to stone Him yet could not.  

I like how the Catechism Companion, Vol I puts it for this section:

God is existence himself, but he has entered into our lives and put himself into our story... When we realize who God is and who we are, we realize our own smallness. We realize his glory. We realize his faithfulness and our faithlessness. This is a God who loves us, who draws near to us. (p. 62)

Burning Bush painting by Sebastien Bourdon

Day 28: The Nature of God

Our profession of faith begins with God, for God is the First and the Last. The beginning and the end of everything. The Credo begins with God the Father, for the Father is the first divine person of the Most Holy Trinity; our Creed begins with the creation of heaven and earth, for creation is the beginning and the foundation of all God's works. CCC 198

Today's reading starts with the first part of the Apostolic Creed: "I believe in God the Father". The mystery of the Holy Trinity is spoken about, in that God is One but also Three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all Divine Persons who are all the One God. I like how the Catechism describes God in part as being "ineffable", that is so great that mere words cannot fully describe Him. To Muslims and others, the concept of God being truly One yet also Three seems contradictory and impossible. The Church has defined some elements of who God is, or perhaps who God is not, but for a layman such as myself, much of this seems difficult to grasp even that much. God is God, my mortal brain can only go so far in understanding Him. It makes His response in Job 38 understandable. My attempts to describe God completely are but "words of ignorance". God being "ineffable" to me, which I accept as a logical truth, means that all things are possible for Him and God being One but also Three is beyond my full understanding. Others may wish to delve deeper into this as much as they can, but I'm satisfied with the answer St. Augustine received when pondering this: "[Y]ou could never possibly understand the Holy Trinity." Or as the Catechism Companion, Vol I puts it:

The Trinity is a mystery. God's identity is the deepest mystery that any of us could ever even begin to ponder. (p. 60)

We are truly blessed to have this truth about God revealed to us through His Son, Jesus Christ, even if our complete understanding is lacking.

Three figures representing the Trinity on the Dogmatic Sarcophagus (300s)

Day 27: The Gift of the Creed

The Apostles' Creed is so called because it is rightly considered to be a faithful summary of the apostles' faith. It is the ancient baptismal symbol of the Church of Rome. Its great authority arises from this fact: it is "the Creed of the Roman Church, the See of Peter the first of the apostles, to which he brought the common faith". [St. Ambrose] CCC 194

In today's reading, we finish the intro to the Creeds. I must first of all mention that I made a mistake yesterday because the Catechism clearly lays out in CCC 196 that it "will follow the Apostles' Creed, which constitutes, as it were, 'the oldest Roman catechism'". I had mistakenly said that the Catechism will follow the Nicene Creed, which was wrong, but that it will make "constant references" to this Creed since it is "often more explicit and more detailed". With that out the way, this section does a good job wrapping up our intro to the Creed. I like how St. Ambrose is used on this, noting that:

This Creed is the spiritual seal, our heart's meditation and an ever-present guardian; it is, unquestionably, the treasure of our soul. CCC 197

The history of the early Church shows that it can be quite easy to slip into heresy over Christological doctrines (as does our modern age), which the Creed acts to safeguard the faith. In ancient times the Creeds distinguished between who was truly Catholic and who was not, such as the Arians. Likewise, in our day they show us who is truly Catholic, or other Christians holding to orthodox Christology, and those who are not such as Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Oneness Pentecostals, etc. 

I like the way the Catechism Companion, Vol I (p. 58) puts it about the Creed:

The creed is meant to be a boundary for us so that we do not say something about God that is not true and we do not deny something about God that is true. The creed, as an ever-present guardian, continues to lead us in the path of truth so that we can dive more deeply day by day into the reality of who God truly is. 

Council of Nicaea 325. Fresco in Salone Sistino, Vatican (1590)