God is a spiritual being
God loves you. He made you like himself. He has gifted you with his life and invited you to cooperate with himself in improving the world. He instituted a moral law for your own good, let you know, how to live and behave, that you may be safe among people and happy.
Perhaps sometimes you want to meet God. Maybe you would like to see Him, just like you see other people ? Is it possible ?
God is not like a man
People try to imagine God. You learn in your history book, that the Egyptians believed in many gods. Some they portrayed themselves as people, others as figures with human bodies with animal heads. They were convinced, that gods could reside in animal bodies. Greeks also believed in many gods. They depicted them in the form of people, but they believed, that they are immortal.
Many other nations had similar ideas about God. Unfortunately, neither of them had a complete understanding of God. There was only one nation, chosen people, who knew God. To him God revealed himself as the only and true. Through him, other nations were to come to know the one and true God. At times, influenced by neighboring peoples, the Israelites also tried to portray the invisible God in the form of various statues. But God rebuked them through the prophets, that he is one and completely different God, than people imagine Him. Through Hosea the prophet spoke to them : ,,I am god, not a human " (Oz 11, 9). Why, then, in the Scriptures. We find such expressions of the Old Covenant, from which it seems to arise, that God is like man ?
We read in the Scriptures. words : ,,I look at your sky, the work of your fingers " (Ps 8, 4), or : ,,God looks down from heaven to the sons of men " (Ps 13, 2).
St.. also speaks often, that God spoke to people, with Abraham, Moses, David. He says, that God is angry, enjoys, forgives. How should such expressions be understood ? They cannot be taken literally. Admittedly, the Scriptures. says yes about God, as if he were a man, but it does so only because, that he wants to present a living and working God. On the other hand, language expresses human life and action with words : sees, hears, he says, he is angry, forgives etc..
Any comparison of God to man or other creatures does not reflect this, who is God. This is why the Law of the Covenant forbade the Israelites to represent God in pictures or statues (Wj 20, 3-5). The prophets still remind us of this prohibition (Jr 2, 26-28).
God, therefore, reveals himself to us in Scripture. as alive and working. But He is God, not human. He is a ghost, and not the body, that can be imagined and seen.
God, who is the Spirit, he revealed himself in Jesus Christ
St.. The Old Testament tells us, that God is not the same as man, that it is invisible and acts differently from humans. Jesus Christ has also revealed to us, that God is spirit. In a conversation with the Samaritan woman at the Jacob's well, he said : “God is spirit ; so it is necessary, that His devotees worship Him in Spirit and truth” (J 4, 24).
Nevertheless, in Jesus Christ, God is invisible, who is a ghost, he became visible to us. Thanks to Christ we got to know the invisible God. He instructed us, that it is one with God the Father. Who sees Him, he sees the Father as well. At the request of the Apostle Philip : "Lord, show us the Father ", Jesus replied : “I have been with you for so long, yet you do not know me ? Who saw me, he also saw the Father. So why do you say : «Show us the Father ? »Don't you believe, that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?” (J 14, 9-10a). God, who is a ghost, man cannot know on his own. He cannot touch or see Him. God cannot become a subject of scientific research : physics, chemistry or astronomy. With our minds, we only come to this, that God exists. But what He is like, we can only know from Revelation.
How will I answer God ?
God is completely different from man. We get to know him from Revelation. How much effort do you put into your religion lessons, thanks to which you can get to know God better ? How do you use the liturgy of the word, when the invisible God speaks to you ?
The mystery of the invisible God, who has come close to us in Jesus Christ, we experience it especially during the Christmas season. You too can use words in your prayer, which the whole Church prays during the Eucharistic Assembly :
“It is worthy and just, that we may be to you, Lord, they gave thanks. For through the mystery of the Incarnate Word, a new splendor of your light shone before the eyes of our soul, that we may know God in visible form, they were kidnapped by him to love the invisible " (Pre-facies for Christmas).
■ Think:
1. How the Egyptians understood God ? Greeks ?
2. What God revealed to the chosen people about himself ?
3. What the prophets reminded the Israelites ?
4. In whom God made himself visible to us ?
■ Remember:
58. Why is God not sensual ?
It is impossible to present God with the senses because of this, that he is a spiritual being.
59. Who has revealed to us the full truth about God ? The full truth about God has been revealed to us by Jesus Christ - the Son of God.
■ Task :
1. Find and enter the cosmonaut's prayer in your notebook.
2. Re-read the news about the Egyptian and Greek gods and think twice, is there anything like your faith ?