Identity and Mission

I wonder if you have ever had the opportunity for a conversation with your child around the idea of God and what at a Catholic school, we mean by the concept of God?  Recently, in an Early Years classroom, a number of children raised some of the richest questions and statements possible for a faith filled community.  They ranged from ‘If God is one, how can God be everywhere?' to statements such as ‘My parents don’t believe in God’.  In the New Testament there are a number of moments when Jesus talks about people needing a child-like approach to his message. What does this mean, simply, it means that children are open to possibilities, that for many of us adults, have long passed away.  

Before continuing, I would like to acknowledge the insights into this topic by Dr Drasko Dizdar. 

Some students in this discussion indicated that their parents did not believe in God.  As Dizdar says, we can choose to see this in two ways; it could be seen as a sad denunciation on society and its rejection of anything that doesn’t have empirical evidence or as a welcoming sight as children reject the conventional notions of ‘God’.  Let us approach it from the second view.

My first reaction to this is ‘What do people often mean by God?'  If they mean a human like figure with powers beyond those of humans (possibly at home in the DC or Marvel worlds), who would smite people if they disagreed with him then we, in the Catholic Tradition, reject that notion too. Often when portraying God, our ego takes over and we portray God in our likeness rather than the other way round. In fact, we confine God to short- sightedness by applying our human limitations to God.  

So what do Catholics mean by the word God?  Firstly, God is nothing, God is ‘no thing’.  One way of trying to get our heads around this is to think of God not as a noun (a person, place or thing) but rather, a verb (action, state or occurrence).  Catholicism is clear that God is not a god like what the ancient Greeks or Romans (and many today) believed a god to be (Zeus like). Throughout Christian history one recurring idea is strongly associated with this.  Succinctly put by St Augustine ‘God is less like us than God is like us’.  So how do we talk about God? Although limited by our humanity, humans have spoken by analogy and metaphor.  “Almost all of the books in the Bible speak of God in metaphor; and almost all Catholic theology (at least the academic kind) speaks of God by analogy.” (Dizdar,)

So how should we talk about God? Ultimately, because of our limitations, God is mystery.  God is mystery because we can never fully understand something we are not (for example, a human can never understand what it is like to be another animal because we have never had its experiences, its nature, etc). That is why we speak in metaphorical language to describe aspects of God.

One specific claim when talking about God, which is richly emphasised through Christian history, is that GOD IS LOVE.  Christianity makes the radical claim that God does not just love but GOD IS LOVE, an insight unique to Christianity.  How can Christians make this claim?  Primarily, through the words and actions of Jesus, the Incarnation or Emmanuel – God with Us.  God and Jesus, in Christianity are two ‘persons’ of The Trinity – the Christian claim that God is three in one.  From a Catholic perspective let us be very clear that we are not talking of three separate beings but for love to occur you must have three ‘aspects’: The Lover (Creator), the Beloved (Jesus) and their shared love, - the Holy Spirit.  The Christian notion of God is Love is best summoned up in the Greek term ‘Agape’. Agape is the love we show when we will the best of the ‘Other’.  Love wills the neighbour’s good whether we like him or her or not – it is NON-PREFERENTIAL. This is AGAPE.  Thus, like in the powerful parable of the Father who had two sons – often referred to as the Prodigal Son, God loves us no matter what we do.

Another young student posed the insightful question ‘How can God be everywhere if God is only one?’ (If we take a step away from all the theological statements, isn’t it wonderful that we have students thoughtfully considering such profound ideas) When we reject the conventional notion that God is like us we can start to see the true nature of God – GOD IS LOVE. How? We may not be able to see love (we see acts of love not love itself) but we know it is ever present so we understand that we may never see God but we can experience God.  Once again I reference the idea that ‘God is nothing, God is no thing’. God is not a noun (a person, place or thing) but rather, a verb (action, state or occurrence).  If we portray ourselves in the likeness of God (to love) rather than the other way round how differently we may see the world.

One thing we try to emphasis in Religious Education, here at Mount Carmel, is the idea that even if we don’t agree or totally reject someone else’s notion it is essential that we try to understand where they are coming from.  Next time your child poses a question about God (or even introduce the conversation yourself) hopefully you give your thoughts but also say “but they are different views about God and the Catholic belief is ….. and that is a very important reason why we send you to a Catholic school.”  Let us open up our children’s sense of awe and wonder.  One good introductory resource is the children’s book ‘What is God’ by Etan Boritzer. It will be coming to our library soon.

Gerard McNulty

Head of Department - Theology and Spirituality