Who Then is God?

by Rev. Thomas Coughlin

At Christmas time, I was given a very large and heavy book, weighing probably about ten pounds, titled: “The Universe.” It contained many fantastic photos of our universe. The photos taken by the Hubble telescope were incredibly clear and intriguing. One could look through the pictures with captions for hours without realizing how quickly time passed by.

The most surprising piece of revelation about our universe was that there are over hundreds of billions of galaxies in our infinite space. The book explained that there might be much more galaxies that could not be seen due to its astronomical distance. It reminded me of the Nicene Creed in which we pray every Sunday, “…of all things seen and unseen.”

We live in our own galaxy, commonly known as the Milky Way, one of the hundreds of billions of galaxies in our universe. The most mind-boggling revelation is that the distance from one end of our Milky Way galaxy to the other end is approximately three hundred thousand light years across. The distance of our Milky Way has to be measured in light year mode because no mathematical equation can be sufficiently formulated for our feeble mind to comprehend. Moreover, all other galaxies average about one hundred thousand light years across or even more. They all dance as seemingly randomly in the infinite space. We can only gaze at them in prayerful awe and admiration.

As we behold the infinite space in wonder, we ask ourselves in humility: who then is God? If it is true that God alone is the creator of all of hundreds of billions of galaxies that stretches from everlasting to everlasting and yet He is the same God that creates and wills a tiny snowflake to fall down on a cold winter day on a mountainside in our home planet, the earth, how then can we stand boldly before God? The scripture tells us: “Tremble, O Earth, before the throne of God.”

People sometime tells me that they do not have time to go to Mass or church on Sundays because they have more important things to do. As a result, God is no longer the center of their lives. Little by little, their world becomes smaller. Akin to one of the Microsoft Windows features, they click on their inner mouse, minimizing the great screen of God and turning His universe into a small cursor below the computer screen, to be left there blinking on and off until another time convenient to be called back and maximized for their benefit.

Fr. Thomas Merton, a notably holy Trappist monk who died in early 60’s, wrote that since we do not know God, we lose vision of God. We sin because we do not know God. He explained that the more we come to know God and love Him, the less we will sin. He was correct in his perception by telling us that we need to expose ourselves to God, not once every Sunday but every single day, even every single hour and minute of our lives. We need to saturate ourselves in the magnificence of God, reveling in His grandeur, greatness and holiness.

Psalm 147 reads: “He has decided the numbers of the stars and calls each one by name. Great and mighty is our Lord; His wisdom cannot be measured.” We need to spend more time contemplating the grandeur of God and His creation. We need to read and pray the Scriptures more often, especially the Psalms because they help us to understand the grandeur of God. We need to explore the universe and trace the handiwork of our creator who made heaven and earth. The more we know and understand about God, the better we can convert those who deny God as well as those who minimize God.

We are created for the goodness of God and other people. We are His handiworks and therefore we must proclaim the greatness of God. This is our special calling. One does not have to become a monk or live in a monastery to proclaim the greatness of God. However, before we can help to convert others, we need to convert ourselves first - by saturating ourselves with a deep awareness of the greatness of God and His creation. However, strangely speaking, we still sin. Perhaps the reason for our sinfulness is that often we may perceive ourselves as greater than God. Such is our human folly.

“Be still and know that I am God.” This particular scripture passage tells us that we need to pause often in whatever we are doing to contemplate the infinite grandeur of God and His universe through exploring God’s world and engaging in prayers and spiritual reflections. The Trappist monks pray seven times a day, 365 days a year to take a “pause” in their daily lives to contemplate the greatness of God. They teach us that we, too, can take off some of our busy schedule to contemplate the beauty of God in order to find God more fascinating, if not irresistible. When you begin to take time to pause and contemplate God’s world, you will never be disappointed as there is so much more to discover. St. Francois de Sales wrote:

“We all need one half hour of prayer every day. Except when we’re busy, then we need an hour.”