There is an ancient principle in Catholic spirituality in which every concept of God eventually falls away and you are left in the dark for a time until you rediscover Him again. Many writings of the saints and mystics will tell you to expect this the more you draw close to God. Sometimes that dark period can last for years as it did with Saint Mother Teresa.
You can find a whole host of divine images and descriptions in any kind of popular media. Some celebrate concepts from the God who heals every one of your ills and wraps himself in the American flag to the one who is ready to cast every communist in Hell.
Mystics often relate a point in their spiritual journey where they realized that any image of God is insufficient. It is like coming to fully understand God and then watching your comprehension disappear in front of you. You find yourself in the dark groping for a return to that moment of light only to realize you have to begin searching all over again for Him on a deeper, truer level than you had prior to His vanishing act.
All is straw
Any of the current concepts of God by any form of media from video to the latest book by any bishop will fall short. Remember, St. Thomas Aquinas ultimately realized that all his writings — including in the Summa Theologica — were so insufficient he labeled them straw. He understood what he wrote was good to help us understand God but our human minds cannot comprehend Him fully. We may come to a point similarly where we realize everything we know about God is still present but starkly insufficient. We ultimately discover we do not know who God truly is and maybe never did.
It is possible the God some do not believe exists may also not be the God that I believe in at all.
If the Christian God will do everything he can to get you into Heaven and it is his will that all are saved then who am I to say that you will be cast into Hell. I can say that according to what we understand from scripture and tradition there are certain things that are against God’s will and he does not want us to do them. We adhere to this teaching so that we may grow into a deeper wisdom and deeper love of God and neighbor. As to whether he will cast you into Hell is not my decision to make. Whether or not I will get into Heaven is again not my decision to make. In fact, Catholic practice is not to assume someone is in Heaven or Hell, we say we leave all up to the judgment, love and mercy of God.
One of my favorite prayers from the last rites — a sacrament we offer as one is dying that includes forgiveness of all sins and the grace to trust the Mercy of Christ — is “In his/her heart he/she desired to do your will.” It reflects that we defer to God’s mercy which is more the default than in some other beliefs that condemnation is generally assumed. After all, Catholicism has three places in the afterlife and one is the anteroom for Heaven, so unlike other Christian religions, we see God’s mercy as the default.
Hell is for the obstinate
Catholic teaching says that those who go to Hell are obstinate in their rejection of God to their dying breath. They essentially choose their destination by choosing against God. It is nothing anyone does accidentally or under duress. That is a different understanding than when many hear others say they will go to Hell for (fill in the blank here.)
I consider my work to get people to pray. Let the Father, Son and Holy Spirit take care of the rest. I often quote St. Alphonsus Liguori who said to talk to God as you would a good friend. I also believe as he taught that when a person prays to Christ that is the most important action. Even if he or she has no other connection to God at that time. Praying is the first step on the path to encountering the true God and is the way through the occasional darkness where he leads us to deepen our understanding of who He is.
There is a famous story of a husband and wife evangelist team (non-Catholic) who preached for years about who Jesus is and what he wants to do for his people. They got in trouble and the husband went to jail. While there he read the bible and learned everything he had been preaching about Jesus was wrong. However, many in their successful days hung onto their every word.
The ancient mystics would have walked out of their preaching sessions or even more spoken up and called them heretics.
All you have to say, in many circles, is you believe in God or that you are a Christian and immediately you have some kind of street cred. The ancient mystics would explain that none of this means anything. They may correct you on your understanding of sin and holiness but then send you to encounter God and His son Jesus personally.
St. John Vianney had more hope for the salvation of the most hedonistic person reading this right now than the lukewarm Catholic. In fact, he had no hope for the latter. They can claim to attend church twice a year and suddenly people may consider them some form of semi-expert on the nature of God. He explained that the hedonist may come to a point even just prior to death where they realized they were wrong. The lukewarm, he warned, are deceived and so never reach that point.
Knowing Christ vs Knowing of Christ
A theologian who has a Ph.D. in any form of Catholic theology and who teaches at a Catholic university but has no relationship to Christ would mean nothing to the great saints. If doctors of theology know Christ then they will experience periods of what the mystics described as total spiritual darkness. They would seek to know on a deeper level who this light called Christ actually is. It would not come from their education. After all, Jesus said by their fruits you will know them, not their degrees or even their uniforms. Many others are just pontificating on the nature of Christ and acting as his lawgiver when their image of Christ may be more wanting than yours, even if you reject him in the first place.
If you look carefully at the teaching of Jesus, who are the people he condemns? The people who expected salvation. How did he condemn them? He uses the words in various forms that say: I never knew you (Mt 7:21–23) or you never knew me (Mt 25:41–43). It is assumed in every case that those whom he condemned knew of Jesus, they could even teach about Him but never truly encountered him.
He never responded to King Herod or the so-called bad thief on the cross. He never went back after his resurrection to prove his point to Pilate or the Sanhedrin. In true Christianity, everything is about relationship with God and neighbor which drives the quest for holiness.
The next time you hear of people believing in God saying something that disturbs you, do not assume we believe in the same God they do. The rest of us are busy deepening our understanding of the Christ we seek, so we are not listening to those people either.
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