Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Youcat commented through CCC. Question n. 6.
(Youcat answer) Although we men are limited and the
infinite greatness of God never fits into finite human concepts, we can
nevertheless speak rightly about God.
A deepening through
CCC
(CCC 39) In defending the ability of human reason to know
God, the Church is expressing her confidence in the possibility of speaking
about him to all men and with all men, and therefore of dialogue with other
religions, with philosophy and science, as well as with unbelievers and
atheists. (CCC 40) Since our knowledge of God is limited, our language about
him is equally so. We can name God only by taking creatures as our starting
point, and in accordance with our limited human ways of knowing and thinking. (CCC
41) All creatures bear a certain resemblance to God, most especially man,
created in the image and likeness of God. The manifold perfections of creatures
- their truth, their goodness, their beauty all reflect the infinite perfection
of God. Consequently we can name God by taking his creatures’ perfections as
our starting point, "for from the greatness and beauty of created things
comes a corresponding perception of their Creator" (Wis 13:5). (CCC 42)
God transcends all creatures. We must therefore continually purify our language
of everything in it that is limited, imagebound or imperfect, if we are not to
confuse our image of God --"the inexpressible, the incomprehensible, the
invisible, the ungraspable"-- with our human representations (Liturgy
of St. John Chrysostom, Anaphora). Our human words always fall short of the
mystery of God.
Reflecting and
meditating
(Youcat comment) In order to express something about God,
we use imperfect images and limited notions. And so everything we say about God
is subject to the reservation that our language is not equal to God’s
greatness. Therefore we must constantly purify and improve our speech about
God.
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 43) Admittedly, in speaking about God like this, our
language is using human modes of expression; nevertheless it really does attain
to God himself, though unable to express him in his infinite simplicity.
Likewise, we must recall that "between Creator and creature no similitude
can be expressed without implying an even greater dissimilitude" (Lateran
Council IV: DS 806); and that "concerning God, we cannot grasp what he is,
but only what he is not, and how other beings stand in relation to him"
(St. Thomas Aquinas, SCG I, 30). (CCC
48) We really can name God, starting from the manifold perfections of his
creatures, which are likenesses of the infinitely perfect God, even if our
limited language cannot exhaust the mystery.
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