THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
The knowledge of God consists of knowing His perfections, His works, His will, and the means of grace He has provided. St. Paul encourages us to “increase in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:10). We only know God partially and “in a dark manner” on Earth. Only in heaven will we see Him “face to face” and have a clear understanding of His perfections (1 Cor. 13:12).
The happiness of angels and saints is found in the knowledge of God. Our Lord tells us that “this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3). This is the “invisible meat and drink” of which the archangel Raphael spoke to Tobias (Tob. 12:19). In heaven, saints and angels have an immediate knowledge of God in the beatific vision. On Earth, our knowledge is indirect, gained through His works and what He has revealed to us. Our knowledge is like looking at a country through maps and pictures, while theirs is like having visited the country in person.
The knowledge of God is crucial, as without it, there can be no happiness on Earth or a well-ordered life. The knowledge of God is the food for our souls. Without it, the soul feels hungry, and we become discontented. A person who lacks inner peace cannot enjoy riches, health, or any earthly goods, as they become unappealing. Yet, few people think about this food for the soul, busying themselves with “the meat that perishes” (John 6:27). Without the knowledge of God, a person is like someone walking in the dark, stumbling at every step. They have no end goal in life, no comfort in hardship, and no hope in death. They cannot have true or lasting happiness.
A well-ordered life is impossible without the knowledge of God. Just as an uncultivated field produces no good fruit, a person without the knowledge of God cannot produce good works. Ignorance and forgetfulness of God are the causes of most of the sins people commit. Things like rash and false oaths, neglecting God’s service and the sacraments, the love of money, and the sinful indulgence of passions are all due to willful ignorance and forgetfulness of God. The prophet Hosea exclaims, “There is no knowledge of God in the land. Cursing and lying and killing and theft and adultery have overflowed” (Hosea 4:2-3). St. Ignatius of Loyola cried out, “O God, Thou joy of my soul, if only men knew Thee, they never would offend Thee.” Experience shows that in jails, most of the prisoners are those who knew nothing of God. When Frederick of Prussia finally realized that a lack of knowledge of God was the cause of rising crime, he exclaimed, “Then I will have religion introduced into the country.” This is why learning and understanding the Catechism, which is an abridgment of the Christian religion, is so important. However, a mere knowledge of religious truths is not enough; they must also be practiced.
DIVINE REVELATION
We come to a correct knowledge of God through faith in the truths He has revealed. While it’s true that human reason, through contemplating God’s creation, can lead us to a knowledge of Him (Rom. 1:20), our reason is weak and prone to error. Without revelation, it’s very difficult for us to attain a clear and correct knowledge of God. The strange and distorted views of the Deity found among heathen nations (cf. Wisd. 9:16-17) prove this. In His mercy, God comes to our aid with revelation. By believing the truths God has revealed, we gain a clear and correct knowledge of Him. St. Anselm says, “The more I am nourished with the food of faith, the more my understanding is satisfied.” Faith is a divine light that shines in our souls (2 Cor. 4:6). It’s like a watchtower from which we can see things that are not visible from the ground below. It’s a lens through which we see all the divine perfections. It is a staff that supports our feeble reason, helping us to know God better. There are two “books” from which we gain knowledge of God: the book of nature and Holy Scripture, which is the book of revelation.
The Natural Revelation of God
Strictly speaking, it does not require faith to recognize the existence of God. For those who reason correctly, God’s existence is a matter of knowledge. One can know that God exists by deducing it from evidence and principles observed in nature. Many thinkers from classical to modern times, such as Plato and Aristotle, have affirmed God’s existence as a matter of reason.
The First Vatican Council teaches that God “may be certainly known by the natural light of human reason, by means of created things” (Romans 1:20), but that it also pleased His wisdom and bounty to reveal Himself to mankind in a supernatural way (Hebrews 1:1-2). This divine revelation makes it so that truths about God, which are not beyond human reason, can be known by everyone with ease, firm assurance, and no error.
The Catholic Church holds that there are two distinct kinds of knowledge: one by natural reason and the other by divine faith. Faith is different because it includes mysteries hidden in God that cannot be known unless He reveals them (1 Cor. 2:7-9). Reason, when guided by faith, can gain some understanding of these mysteries from an analogy of the things it naturally knows, but it can never fully grasp them on its own. They remain covered with the veil of faith as long as we are in this mortal life, “for we walk by means of faith and not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7).
However, since the same God gives us both faith and reason, they can never contradict each other. A false appearance of contradiction is usually due to a misunderstanding of a religious truth or to a faulty conclusion drawn by reason. Faith and reason also help each other. Right reason can demonstrate the foundations of faith and, enlightened by it, cultivate the science of divine things. At the same time, faith frees reason from errors and provides it with a wealth of knowledge. The Church does not oppose human arts and sciences. It recognizes that they come from God and, if used correctly, lead to God. It allows each science to use its own principles and methods, but stands guard to ensure that sciences do not oppose divine teaching or invade the domain of faith. The First Vatican Council pronounces an anathema on anyone who says that the one true God cannot be known with certainty by natural reason or that divine faith is not distinct from natural knowledge.
God has, in His mercy, often revealed Himself to humans throughout the ages (Heb. 1:1-2). This supernatural revelation is in addition to the natural revelation of Himself He makes through creation. God’s revelation is usually given by Him speaking to individuals and instructing them to communicate His message to others. God spoke to Abraham, Noah, and Moses, and He sent them to deliver His message to their people. Sometimes He spoke to a group, as when He gave the law to the people on Mount Sinai. He also revealed Himself through angels, like Tobias through the archangel Raphael. When God spoke to people, He sometimes took a visible form, spoke from a cloud, from a burning bush, or in a bright light. Those who were entrusted with communicating divine revelation were called God’s messengers and were often given the power to perform miracles and prophecies to prove their divine mission. The main individuals entrusted with divine revelation were the patriarchs, the prophets, Jesus Christ, the Son of God (Heb. 1:1), and His apostles.
Revelation is to all mankind what education is to individuals. It corresponds to the successive stages of human development, from infancy to youth. The patriarchs, who were like children, needed fewer laws, and God dealt with them more familiarly. The people of Israel, in whom self-will and sensuality were strong, had to be trained by strict laws. But when mankind reached the period of adulthood, God sent His Son and introduced the law of love. Of all who declared divine revelation, the Son of God was the best witness because He alone had seen God (John 1:18). With the revelation given through Christ and His apostles, the public divine revelation for the instruction of all mankind was completed.
Revelation was necessary because, due to original sin, man without revelation has never had a correct knowledge of God and His will. It was also necessary so that man could be prepared for the coming of the Redeemer. The three wise men would never have found Christ if He had not revealed Himself to them through a star. In the same way, mankind would have lived far from God and never attained a true knowledge of Him if He had not revealed Himself. As the eye needs light to see physical things, human reason, the eye of the soul, needs revelation to perceive divine things (St. Augustine). Original sin and the indulgence of the senses had so dimmed human reason that it could no longer recognize God in His works (Wisd. 9:16). The history of paganism proves this. Heathens worshipped idols, beasts, and wicked men, and their worship was often immoral and horrible, including human sacrifices. The greatest men among the heathens approved of practices forbidden by natural law, and even the best of the heathens recognized and lamented their ignorance of God. Without a prior revelation, the Savior would have been neither known nor honored as He should have been. It was fitting that He should be announced beforehand, like a king coming to take possession of his kingdom. We should be grateful to God for the light of revelation, just as a blind person is grateful to the doctor who restored their sight. Yet, many people still willfully shut their eyes to the light of revelation.
The Second Vatican Council summarizes divine revelation by stating that God chose to reveal Himself and His will to us through Christ, the Word made flesh, so that we might have access to the Father and share in the divine nature. This plan of revelation is realized by deeds and words that have an inner unity. The deeds manifest and confirm the teaching and realities signified by the words, while the words clarify the deeds and the mystery in them. Through this revelation, the deepest truth about God and human salvation shines out in Christ, who is the mediator and fullness of all revelation. The Christian dispensation, as the new and definitive covenant, will never pass away, and we do not await any new public revelation before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
PRIVATE REVELATIONS
Even after the death of Our Lord and His apostles, God has often revealed Himself to people through so-called private revelations. Examples include the appearances of Our Lord to Blessed Margaret Mary and of Our Lady at Lourdes and Fatima. Many saints have also had such revelations, such as St. Francis of Assisi, to whom Our Lord appeared on the cross, and St. Anthony of Padua, in whose arms the Child Jesus rested. These private revelations were often given to people striving for perfection to encourage them to even greater perfection. However, God also sometimes revealed Himself to wicked men, like to Baltassar in the handwriting on the wall (Dan. 5:5). Thus, a private revelation is not necessarily a sign of holiness.
These revelations are not a continuation of the public divine revelation intended for the instruction of all mankind, which ended with the death of the last of the apostles. They are rather a confirmation of truths already revealed. For instance, Our Lady, when she appeared at Lourdes, proclaimed herself the “Immaculate Conception,” thereby confirming the dogma that Pope Pius IX had defined four years earlier. The countless miracles and cures that have occurred there have established the truth of the apparition. However, the malice of the devil can introduce deceptions into private revelations. No one is bound to give private revelations the same belief as divinely revealed truth, even if they have been approved by the Church. Approved private revelations are trustworthy because of the guarantee the Church gives, but the Church cannot give the same guarantee of authenticity as it gives to the truths of public divine revelation.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “Throughout the ages, there have been so-called ‘private’ revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ’s definitive revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history.”
Saint John of the Cross, a Doctor of the Church, explains that in giving us His Son, His only Word, God “spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word.” He has no more to say because He has spoken all at once by giving us the “All Who is His Son.” Anyone seeking another revelation would be guilty of foolish behavior and of offending Him.
The authority of private revelations is fundamentally different from that of public revelation. The latter demands faith, as God Himself speaks through human words. Faith in God is different from any other human belief, trust, or opinion. The certainty that it is God speaking gives us the assurance that we are in touch with truth itself, a certainty that is beyond human verification. It is the certainty on which we build our lives and to which we entrust ourselves in death.
Private revelation is a help to this faith, showing its credibility by leading us back to the definitive public revelation. Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, who later became Pope Benedict XIV, states that an assent of “Catholic faith” is not due to approved private revelations, as it is not even possible. These revelations seek an assent of “human faith” based on the requirements of prudence, which presents them to us as probable and credible for our piety.
Therefore, the Church’s approval of a private revelation has three elements:
- The message contains nothing contrary to faith or morals.
- It is lawful to make it public.
- The faithful are authorized to accept it with prudence.
God grants private revelations to have an edifying effect on the life of the Church. They give rise to new devotional forms or deepen and spread older ones. They must encourage faith, hope, and love, which are the unchanging paths to salvation. Private revelations often stem from popular piety, leaving a mark on it and giving it new momentum, as seen in the feasts of Corpus Christi and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Cardinal Ratzinger said about private revelations: “In every age the Church has received the charism of prophecy, which must be scrutinized but not scorned.” Prophecy in the biblical sense does not mean predicting the future, but explaining God’s will for the present and showing the right path for the future. He emphasizes that the essential aspect of a prophetic word is the “actualization of the definitive Divine Revelation,” which concerns us at the deepest level. The prophetic word of a private revelation is a warning or a consolation, or both. In this sense, there is a link between the charism of prophecy and the category of “the signs of the times.”
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen