...to know the mind of God?

Over the past few months I've been studying and reading and rereading the Book of Genesis, along with a number of excellent commentaries addressing the book's remarkable first three chapters. Genesis has always intrigued me, ever since I opened our family Bible for the first time as a child and encountered the dramatic illustrations by Gustave Doré, illustrations that brought the creation story to life. I no longer have that particular Bible, but I can still remember several of the illustrations: God creating light; the creation of Eve; and the eviction from the Garden of Eden. Such images are extremely powerful, for even today, almost 60 years later, when I read those passages from Genesis, these images instantly appear in my mind's eye. 

Gustave Doré: Adam and Eve driven out of Eden

This recent study of Genesis has on occasion generated peripheral thoughts that lead me away, sometimes far away, from the book itself. For example, in Genesis we find Adam and Eve enjoying a preternatural existence that apparently included a close personal relationship with God Himself, who from the first couple's perspective must have been the true and perfect Father. While their relationship with God could not even begin to approach the level of intimacy that exists within the Trinity, it was certainly far closer than that which exists between God and man after the fall.

Now this has led me to think about the different ways we humans have tried to reclaim this close relationship with God. For me prayer, Scripture, meditation, and the sacraments -- especially the Eucharist -- have been the most rewarding means. But for some people it seems these disciplines are too demanding. Instead of coming to God in prayer, humbly opening themselves to Him, they come to God demanding that He open Himself to them. They want an Eden kind of relationship with God. No, that's not correct. They want a relationship with a god who will do their bidding.They are searching for a god who isn't there. They want a god created in their image, or in an image they have imagined. They really want themselves wrapped in a false cloak of divinity, a god they can fully comprehend, a god who is like them, one they can grasp and understand. 

The theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking, in his best-selling book, A Brief History of Time, typified this attitude when he concluded the book with these words (p. 193):

"However, if we discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable by everyone, not just by a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason -- for then we should know the mind of God."

"...we should know the mind of God." This is the great temptation to which so many succumb. To know the mind of God is to be like Him, to be a god. Do you hear the echo of the serpent's words in Eden? "...your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods" [Gen 3:5].

This is a temptation that follows God's people throughout salvation history. It appears again at the foot of Mount Sinai when the Chosen People decided the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses was too unapproachable, to "other", and had Aaron construct the golden calf, a god they could see, and touch, and understand because they had created it themselves. And as we can see by Dr. Hawking's comment above, it's a temptation that remains with us today.

But the Father, who knows the human heart so well, disrupts Satan's plans through the remarkable gift of the Incarnation. He sends His Son, God Himself, to take on our nature, to become one of us, to save us from our sinfulness and folly. And so for the first time God becomes truly approachable. Jesus Christ in His humanity is one with us and in His divinity one with the Father. Our Redeemer, our Intercessor pleads for us at the right hand of the Father, for He is like us in all things except sin.

This isn't all though. For Christ doesn't leave us orphans, but promises to be with us always until the end of time. To fulfill this promise He gives us His Word, especially the Gospel. But He also offers us the gift of Himself in the Eucharist; and through this gift we are united with Him, Body, Blood Soul and Divinity. 

You and I don't need to search for a comprehensible God, one we can fully grasp within our finite minds, or try to mold God by transforming Him into something He isn't. All we have to do is accept God just as He is, turn to Him who became one like us, and let the love and mercy and forgiveness of Jesus transform us.

Blessings...

Stephen Hawking: God Isn't

Physicist Stephen Hawking has assured the world (and the universe) that it can forget about God, at least as Creator. In his latest book, The Grand Design, Hawking apparently believes that the multitude of theories that form his view of the universe confirm his notion that there are countless universes. But since you and I exist in only one of these universes, we're deceived into thinking it is unique. According to Hawking, though, it's nothing special. It's just one of trillions of universes and therefore requires none of the fine-tuning that our limited human perspective here on little old earth thinks it needs. It requires no God to create it. It can just pop into being on its own, purely as a result of chance.

Hawking also claims he has killed off philosophy. Since his theories explain everything, there's no need for speculative thinking of any kind. Hawking, of course, is wrong, and not just on his belief that philosophy is no longer needed. He's also wrong about creation, since all his theories, all his multitude of universes, all his speculation (those theories are, after all, still just theories), all his attempts to kill philosophy by philosophizing, still cannot explain how something like the universe (the only one for which we have any evidence) can come into being from nothing. That, you see, is something that only God can do. It is also something we mere humans will never fully understand because we cannot know the mind of God.

Science can tell us a lot about our material word, but it has its limits. And Stephen Hawking has come up against those limits. We will always need philosophy to ensure that people like Hawking don't jump to conclusions for which there is no real evidence. Indeed, I believe there is far more evidence supporting the existence of God than there is for Hawking's M Theory of a countless multitude of universes.

As my grandchildren prayed before lunch this afternoon, "God is great, God is good, let us thank Him..."

Amen.