The Mystery of God: Who God Is and Why He Matters

There are many views about God. Some see him as a mythical fairy, others the Supreme Being. Some consider him a threat to our freedom. But for Christians, God is not one being among many - not a competitor to our flourishing. God is that than which nothing greater can be thought, the source of being itself. Before discussing anything about God we must become clear about one question: who is God?

In the 13th century, St. Thomas Aquinas composed his famous five paths to God. His proofs don't depend on the Bible or divine revelation. They simply start from the world around us-trees, birds, buildings, and even ourselves. None of these things have to exist. But since they do, their existence must have a cause. For all Christians since, we know this source of all being by its ancient name-God.

Once we understand who God is, we wonder, "What is he like? How does he act?" We can never fully answer those questions. We know that God is self-sufficient-he doesn't need the world but creates it out of love. God is omniscient, knowing all things. God is omnipresent, existing everywhere. These attributes reveal a God who non-aggressively presses upon the world with love, always and everywhere.

Perhaps the most difficult question in theology is this: Why does God allow evil? If God is all-good and all-powerful, then why are our lives marked with pain and suffering? We have each wrestled with misery, wondering when God would intervene. As with Job, God does not give us answers. He instead offers a person: the crucified Jesus, through whom God enters our suffering and makes it his own.

Human history changed indelibly when God, infinite and incomprehensible, became a finite and familiar man, Jesus Christ. While some reduce Jesus to a wise teacher, the testimony of scripture and the early Church makes it clear that Jesus was, and is, God incarnate. He's the Second Person of the Trinity. And by his sacrificial death and glorious resurrection, we too can enter into Trinitarian life.

The book of Genesis reveals that we are made in the image and likeness of God. For St. Augustine this affirmed that our own traits-our minds, our self-knowledge, our self-love-can tell us something about God as a Trinity. What is Christianity finally about? What is the deepest meaning of being and all reality? The Christian answer is this: God is love, a play of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.