Day 6: Knowing God With Certainty (44-49)

  • Today’s paragraphs are the IN BRIEF

  • We have completed Chapter 1 of Section 1 of Part 1 in 6 days!!

  • The IN BRIEF is six bullet points

  • Six VERY SHORT SENTENCES

  • Pretty simple

  • Today is an “End of the Week Review”

  • We recognize that human beings, by our vocation and our nature, are RELIGIOUS BEINGS

  • That means something UNIQUE

  • We are made FOR GOD

  • And we are going TOWARDS GOD

  • We are ONLY HAPPY if we find ourselves IN GOD

  • We only experience FULLNESS OF LIFE if we recognize OUR SOURCE!!

  • OUR ORIGIN!!

  • OUR DESTINY!!

  • How can we speak about God?

  • We can only speak about God by ANALOGY

  • BUT…

  • We can also speak about God with ACCURACY even if it is merely by ANALOGY

  • Today is a shorter day

  • BUT…

  • It is really helpful to not forget about what he have heard so far

  • And to dive more deeply into this or at least be reminded of what we talked about

  • So let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you praise. We ask you to please open our minds, open our hearts to receive your truth. Open our hearts to not only hear what is true about you, but to really allow the truth to change us. Because, Lord God, you are true. You are THE truth. And when we apprehend you, when we grasp you, when you grasp us, you set us free. Because you are the God who gives life and you give liberty. But you give life and liberty through this paradoxical step of self-surrender. And we surrender ourselves to you. That’s when we experience true freedom. That’s when we experience true joy. That’s when we experience what it is to live. So Lord, please help us to live today. In your name, we pray. Amen”

  • Six sentences on Day 6!!

  • The first sentence reminds us that man is, by nature and vocation, a RELIGIOUS BEING!!

  • What is a NATURE?

  • What is a VOCATION?

  • NATURE is what a thing IS

  • It is the what-it-isness of a thing

  • So what is a human being?

  • The WHAT-IT-ISNESS of a human being IS a body-and-soul COMPOSITE

  • We are MATERIAL so we have BODIES

  • We are also SPIRITUAL so we have SOULS

  • We are BOTH OF THOSE

  • So the NATURE of a human being aka the WHAT-IT-ISNESS is to recognize that we live and move in our bodies

  • We have life in our BODIES

  • We also have life in our SOULS

  • So we are a BODY-SOUL COMPOSITE

  • SO by NATURE we are RELIGIOUS BEINGS

  • We are animals on this earth

  • BUT…

  • We are also SPIRITUAL ANIMALS and SPIRITUAL BEINGS that are called to have COMMUNION WITH GOD

  • Man is by NATURE and VOCATION a RELIGIOUS BEING

  • So if NATURE is the WHAT-IT-ISNESS of a thing

  • VOCATION, which comes from the Latin VOCARE, means “to call” or “to be called”

  • We are CALLED TO BE RELIGIOUS BEINGS

  • In the human heart there is this CAPACITY

  • In the human heart there is this DRAWING

  • In the human heart there is this DESIRE

  • YOU HAVE IT!!

  • Because here we are on Day 6 listening to The Catechism

  • So far, it’s been like “Ok, when is this going to get good?” (It’s been AMAZING since Day 1 for me, how about you? If so, throw your hands in the air and wave ‘em like you just don’t care. And if you love how Fr. Mike teaches us about the Faith then everybody say, “OH YEAH!” 😉😁)

  • Maybe you LOVE the last couple of days

  • BUT…

  • There is a certain element of wanting MORE out of this

  • The Church says, “YES! EXACTLY!”

  • Not just more INFORMATION

  • I WANT MORE HIM!!

  • We are RELIGIOUS BEINGS!

  • That’s what you are BY NATURE

  • The WHAT-IT-ISNESS of a thing

  • It is also what you are CALLED TO

  • There is a CALL that has been PLACED ON YOUR LIFE

  • You are alive ON PURPOSE

  • The very FACT that you exist REVEALS that God WANTED YOU TO EXIST

  • GOD LOVES YOU

  • God doesn’t HAVE to love you

  • BUT…

  • God CHOSE to love you when He CHOSE to create you!!🤯🤯🤯

  • You are alive ON PURPOSE!!

  • That’s what it is to say by our very NATURE and VOCATION we are RELIGIOUS BEINGS

  • We can live a fully human life ONLY if we FREELY LIVE by our bond with God

  • St. Augustine says, “When I am completely united to you, there will be no more sorrow or trials…”

  • We need to clarify this

  • This does not mean that the circumstances and situations of our daily lives will not have tragedies

  • Will not have trials

  • Will not have sorrow

  • BUT…

  • When we are completely united with God Himself, WE ARE FULL OF HIM!!

  • OUR LIVES OUR COMPLETE!!

  • That’s one of the reasons for JOY

  • One of the best definitions of JOY is, “An abiding and pervasive sense of well-being”

  • We may not be happy all the time

  • Happy seems to be a state of mind

  • Happy is, a lot of times, associated with pleasure

  • We may have talked about that before (Fr. Mike has talked about JOY a lot. You can search on YouTube for the many talks he’s given on JOY but here’s a homily about JOY: "Who You Are Now, is Who You Are" + 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Fr. Mike's Homily) 😁)

  • JOY is the sense that I KNOW that God EXISTS

  • JOY is the sense that I KNOW that God KNOWS MY NAME

  • When I am united to HIS WILL, I have a sense of my life being complete

  • There is nothing REALLY lacking even if in any given moment, I am lacking food or drink or health

  • Even if it gets to the point that I am lacking life

  • Life will STILL be complete

  • Why??

  • Because we would be ENTIRELY FULL OF GOD

  • St. Augustine is saying, “There is nothing more that I am waiting for.”

  • How many of us are searching CONSTANTLY for what FAILS TO SATISFY?

  • Maybe the next thing…

  • Or maybe the next thing…

  • Maybe you remember in The Book of Ecclesiastes and here is Qoheleth writing in the voice of Solomon (Oh if you did The Bible in a Year with Fr. Mike, you BETTER remember this 😉 https://www.thebibleinayearstudyguide.com/day-149 )

  • Ok I have POWER but that doesn’t satisfy

  • I have WEALTH but that doesn’t satisfy

  • I have RELATIONSHIPS but that doesn’t satisfy

  • I’m really WISE and I’ve accomplished GREAT THINGS but that doesn’t satisfy

  • BUT…

  • When we find God, then we realize, “OH! There is NOTHING MORE that I am waiting for!!”

  • We may not have COMPLETE union with God in this life on this Earth

  • But there is NOTHING MORE that I am waiting for

  • I am just diving MORE AND MORE DEEPLY into Him

  • WHICH IS JUST INCREDIBLE!!

  • Paragraph 46 says, “When (human beings) listen to the message of creation and to the voice of conscience, man can arrive at certainty about the existence of God, the cause and the end of everything.”

  • Paragraph 47 says, “The Church teaches that the one true God, our Creator and Lord, can be known with certainty from his works, by the natural light of human reason.”

  • This is asserting a couple of things

  • Faith and science are NOT INCOMPATIBLE

  • Faith and science are NOT OPPOSED TO EACH OTHER

  • IN FACT…

  • That has been one of the most PERVASIVE MYTHS that has been put forth by our culture

  • Our culture asserts that FAITH and SCIENCE are ANTITHETICAL TO EACH OTHER

  • THEY CANNOT BE!!

  • THEY COULDN’T POSSIBLY BE!!

  • Why?

  • Because FAITH is asking questions about SUPERNATURAL REALITIES

  • What is the TRUTH about SUPERNATURAL REALITIES?

  • SCIENCE is asking what is the TRUTH about NATURAL REALITIES?

  • We know that TRUTH and TRUTH can NEVER CONTRADICT ONE ANOTHER

  • Truth can simply be defined as WHAT IS

  • So we know that WHAT IS TRUE about SUPERNATURAL REALITIES can NEVER CONTRADICT WHAT IS TRUE about NATURAL REALITIES

  • Another way to say it is that the questions SCIENCE asks are WHAT IS THIS? HOW DID IT COME TO BE?

  • The questions RELIGION asks are WHY IS THIS? and WHO MADE IT?

  • So these are two sets of DIFFERENT QUESTIONS

  • We can look at the world around us and ask, “What is this? How did it come to be? How does it work?”

  • These are great questions!!

  • The WHAT and HOW are the questions of SCIENCE

  • BUT…

  • WHO and WHY is the question of FAITH!!

  • WHO made this?

  • WHY did this WHO make this?

  • WHO did this person make this for?

  • These are the questions that will NEVER CONTRADICT EACH OTHER!!

  • Why?

  • Because the answer to the question WHO and WHY will NEVER CONTRADICT the answer to the question WHAT and HOW

  • Hope that makes sense!!

  • It is SO IMPORTANT to understand that contradictions CANNOT EXIST between GOOD SCIENCE and GOOD RELIGION

  • The Church says, “We can know with certainty about the existence of God.”

  • So wait a minute!!

  • With CERTAINTY?

  • What do you mean by that?

  • We recognize that we can ALWAYS question what we KNOW to be true

  • Does my mom REALLY love me?

  • I know that she SAYS she loves me

  • I know that she served me and my sister for so many years of our lives

  • I know that she still reaches out to care for us

  • BUT…

  • I can always DOUBT what I KNOW to be TRUE

  • I can always QUESTION what I KNOW to be TRUE

  • That does not make it any LESS TRUE

  • That does not make it any LESS CERTAIN

  • We can look at this world and see that it EXISTS

  • Therefore, there must be SOMETHING or SOMEONE that BROUGHT IT INTO EXISTENCE

  • This world had a DESIGN so there must be a DESIGNER

  • Think about this…

  • Everywhere we look in this world and everywhere we look in our lives, whenever we find DESIGN, there is ALWAYS A DESIGNER

  • That reality is consistently true EVERYWHERE WE LOOK

  • Because of that, we can have a certain degree of CERTAINTY

  • We can ALWAYS question what we KNOW to be TRUE

  • BUT…

  • That DOES NOT make it any LESS TRUE!!

  • That DOES NOT make it any LESS CERTAIN!!

  • BUT…

  • We recognize that objective truth CANNOT CONTRADICT objective truth

  • We also know that OBJECTIVE TRUTH cannot be replaced by SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCES

  • That’s one of the reasons Paragraph 49 quotes Gaudium et Spes, “Without the Creator, the creature vanishes.”

  • My definition of TRUTH is “what is”

  • A statement is either TRUE or FALSE to the degree that it conforms to WHAT IS, to REALITY

  • We have such a thing as OBJECTIVE TRUTH which is something that is TRUE OR FALSE regardless of whether I know it, like it, or believe it

  • It is truth INDEPENDENT OF ME

  • We also have SUBJECTIVE TRUTH and SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCES

  • I like pizza!

  • I like cherry coke zero! (pepsi is yuck 🤢🤮)

  • I like driving over the speed limit!

  • But YOU might say that you don’t like pizza, cherry coke zero, or driving over the speed limit

  • So that is true for YOU

  • But it is not true for ME

  • That is SUBJECTIVE TRUTH

  • Why?

  • Because it is about the SUBJECT

  • We know that we don’t merely have SUBJECTIVE TRUTH

  • We have OBJECTIVE TRUTHS

  • Objective truth can NEVER BE REPLACED by subjective experiences

  • This is why we can state, “Without the Creator, the creature vanishes.”

  • If all we had was SUBJECTIVE TRUTH

  • MY truth vs YOUR truth

  • THEN WE VANISH

  • If all we had was this ACCIDENTAL UNIVERSE then meaning VANISHES

  • One of the things that marks modern human life is a CRISIS IN MEANING

  • Is there ANYTHING that means ANYTHING???

  • Because if this world is ACCIDENTAL then the answer is NO

  • If all there is is MATERIALISM

  • If all there is is JUST STUFF

  • There is just THINGS and NOT SOULS

  • There is just MATTER and NOT SPIRIT

  • This world is merely an ACCIDENT

  • That means…

  • Then EVERYTHING you and I do

  • EVERYTHING you and I are

  • IS MERELY ACCIDENTAL!!

  • IT HAS NO ULTIMATE MEANING!!

  • That means everyone is merely SUBJECTIVE

  • We have SUBJECTIVE LIFE

  • We have SUBJECTIVE VALUE

  • Our lives have SUBJECTIVE MEANING

  • But human beings in this world were BROUGHT INTO BEING by an OBJECTIVE CREATOR

  • Who had a PURPOSE for creating this universe

  • And has a PURPOSE for creating YOU

  • Without the CREATOR, the creature VANISHES

  • Without a God who has MADE THIS WORLD, meaning COMPLETELY DISAPPEARS

  • HOPE THAT MAKES SENSE!!

  • Fr. Mike underestimated how “short” this day was supposed to be 😉

  • Paragraph 48 says, “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.”

  • We can speak of God with accuracy

  • At the same time, ALL OF OUR LANGUAGE WILL FALL SHORT

  • Fr. Mike read this book that said that every healthy baby is born with the ability to speak ANY LANGUAGE

  • Our mouths, tongues, and voice boxes become more and more limited to speak other languages as an adult

  • Our brain matter makes it more difficult

  • Our accents

  • We develop certain ways of moving our mouths and tongues

  • How many people who do not grow up speaking Spanish or Italian can roll their R’s?

  • That’s kind of the idea

  • BUT…

  • We are all born with the CAPACITY to speak ANY language with ANY accent in ANY way, shape, or form

  • There are over 7,000 languages that exist RIGHT NOW

  • Babies have the capacity to speak ANY of them

  • BUT…

  • If we don’t EXERCISE the capacity to speak in even ONE language, we won’t be able to speak AT ALL

  • Does that make sense?

  • To learn that one language, we become limited

  • But also by learning that language, it provides us with something solid to say

  • Something analogously is true when it comes to talking about God

  • There is FAR MORE about God that we could EVER SAY

  • We will never actually FULLY CAPTURE the TRUTH of WHAT and WHO God is

  • BUT…

  • Scripture and Reason and our Human Language gives us the ability by looking at the ideas of perfection of reality around us and says, “Ok that’s a glimmer. That’s a hint that points to the INFINITE PERFECTIONS OF GOD.”

  • So yes, it limits us

  • And at the same time it gives us a language with which to speak

  • Hope that makes sense!!

  • Seems pretty accurate!!

  • This was Fr. Mike’s first IN BRIEF

  • He thought 6 sentences would go so fast

  • But here we are 20 minutes (and an hour and a half for me 🤣) later

  • Fr. Mike is praying for YOU

  • To kind of get some traction is a little bit difficult

  • BUT STICK WITH IT!!

  • We are going to get DEEPER AND DEEPER into this

  • Things are going to get more and more complex

  • BUT…

  • SO MUCH MORE PROFOUND!!

  • Pray for Fr. Mike

  • I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!

Scripture References & Reflections

- compiled by Andrew Adamany


Bible Translation - RSVCE



CCC 45 "Man is made to live in communion with God in whom he finds happiness: "When I am completely united to you, there will be no more sorrow or trials; entirely full of you, my life will be complete:" (St. Augustine, Conf. 10, 28, 39: PL 32, 795}."


Ecclesiastes 5:10

"He who loves money will not be satisfied with money; nor he who loves wealth, with gain: this also is vanity."

1 John 3:2–3

"Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure."

Revelation 21:3–4

"and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.”