We Can't Just Walk Away From God

The notion of a "comprehensible god" is an intriguing one: to only admit a god we can understand. The Catholic view of God is not that we can know nothing about God, but that what we know is remarkably less than what is to be known. The mystery of the Christian God is not how little we know of Him but how much more there is to know—even when we know a lot, including what He has revealed to us. We are not skeptics, but we are careful. We consider the question of whether God has revealed anything of Himself to us over and above what we might know by our own reasonings. We find that a rather considerable amount of what God is and is like has been made known to us. Yet, we must put this knowledge in place and proper order. The relatively little that we do know of God, as Aristotle said, is worth all our efforts.

God did not reveal everything we need to know about everything. He expected us to figure out many things by ourselves. Indeed, what in addition, beyond our own reflections, was made known to us was designed for our own good. We were told things about God that were helpful to reach Him. The reaching of God was itself the purpose of our creation and subsequent redemption; it was the purpose of the Resurrection and the gift of eternal life.