Knowing God by Loving

Introduction

Cycles

The Nation has a liturgical cycle which begins with Memorial Day summoning us to the joys of summer. It explodes and peaks into the Fourth of July. It starts to wane with the falling leaves of Labor Day and is finally put to sleep with Thanksgiving Day in gratitude for the blessings of the harvest.

 

The Church’s liturgical cycle begins in the Advent-Christmas season with the Father sending the Son into the world. It continues with Son returning to the Father in the Easter-Ascension season. The cycle peaks with the Father and the Son sending the Holy Spirit on the feast of Pentecost last Sunday. So this Sunday at the end of the cycle we position a feast dedicated to the mystery of the Trinity, the mystery of three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in one God.

 

Theology and humility

In theology, mystery doesn’t mean something spooky or meaningless. It’s a rich word meaning there’s more here than meets the eye or ear. Mystery means there’s more here than the mind can grasp or the theologian can explain. On the other hand, Trinity--the Christian’s understanding of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit—is theology, and theology is simply the human mind’s attempt to understand God. So there’s Jewish theology: the Jews’ attempt to understand God. There’s Christian theology: the Christians’ attempt to understand God. And there’s Islamic theology: the Muslims’ attempt to understand God.

 

As we might guess, there’s a tension between mystery on the one hand and theology on the other. Mystery says God cannot be grasped, but theology, on the other hand, says that might be true, but I’m going to try anyway.  St. Thomas Aquinas who wrote volume upon volume of theology and ruled the Church with his writings from the thirteenth century right up until Vatican II was aware of that tension. At the sunset of his life he humbly pointed to his writings, his opera omnia, and exclaimed, “Nihil est!" It ain‘t worth a hill of beans.

 

The noted Protestant theologian Karl Barth was also aware of the tension between the mystery of God and the human attempt to write about it. Though he had for his bottom line Deus totaliter aliter (God is totally other than what we say, think, or write about God), Barth proceeded, anyway, to pen volume after volume about the ineffable God. But he, too, at the sunset of his life pointed to his writings and humbly joked saying, "The angels are laughing at pretentious old Karl Barth."

A new pope and humility

On Sunday, the 17th of April, two days before Cardinal Ratzinger was elected pope, I received an article by e-mail entitled My Hope for the Next Pope. It was written by Richard Gailardetz.  In it he says he has hopes and prayers for the new pope (whom he didn’t know at the time would be Cardinal Ratzinger). He says he’s not so much concerned about the separate individual issues that rankle the church, like women’s ordination, celibacy, birth control, homosexuality and especially the shortage of priests that has reached critical proportions.  He’s more concerned about a papal vision for the new pope. That vision would include two things. First of all,  the new pope, following the teachings of Vatican II in Dei Verbum, would see the Word of God as addressed to the whole church, and that he would, therefore, foster “a holy conversation” about the various issues that  need to be addressed.

 

Secondly, and more to my point,  he hopes and prays that the new pope’s vision, faithful to the constant emphasis and theme of Vatican II, would see the church as a pilgrim people, en route, never fully arrived at truth but “always advancing toward the plenitude of divine truth” (Dei Verbum 8). And so, he says, he’s hoping and praying that the new pope will be filled with “eschatological humility.” Eschatological mean the end of time. Eschatological humility is the humility that believes that the human condition will lay hold of the full truth only on the last day. So he hopes and prays for a pope who will look humbly upon all the church’s “confident dogmatic assertions not as erroneous but as inevitably impoverished before that ineffable mystery that is God.” He hopes and prays for a pope who will humbly see that the church “does not always have a ready answer to every question” (Gaudium et spes, 23).

 

Who doesn’t love doesn’t know God

In his first letter St. John writes, “The one who loves knows God. And the one who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love” (I Jn 4:7-8). [1] It’s not having the right stuff in your head but having the right stuff in your heart that makes you know God.

 

A Church that didn’t know God

In eleventh century there was a historic theological dispute over the Trinity. It turned out to be a 1000 year war. The burning issue at the time was this:  Does the Holy Spirit proceed equally immediately from the Father and the Son, or does the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father through the Son? Doesn’t that set you on the edge of your pews? What in the world should all that mean in the first place, and what difference could it possibly make? Well, the Western part of the Church added to the ancient Nicene Creed that the Holy Spirit proceeds “from the Father and the Son” instead of “from the Father through the Son.” All hell broke loose. The Church, the seamless robe of Christ, was torn into two pieces: the Church of the West (Latin Church) and the Church of the East. And we’ve been mad at each other ever since. It’s not having the right stuff in your head but the right stuff in your heart that makes you know God. In that great historic battle the Church didn’t know God, because the one who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love. It’s that simple.

 

Christian preachers who don’t know God

When John Paul II made a pilgrimage to England, that staunch Protestant and fierce anti-papist, the Rev. Paisley of Ireland, stalked him relentlessly every inch of the way, throwing sticks and stones at him. He did this "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." He did this in the name of true belief!  Make no mistake about it, no one believed with more orthodoxy in the Trinity than he did. At the end of the day the poor man really didn’t know God for scripture says, “The one who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.” It’s really very simple.

 

Matt Shepard was a gay student from the University of Wyoming, whom two skinheads beat to a pulp and left to die in his tears and blood, chained to a wooden fence out in the country.  The Rev. Mr. Phelps picketed Matt’s funeral by sporting his theology on a sign which read, “God hates fags and buries them in hell—Romans 9:13.”  

Despite the fact that the Rev. Mr. Phelps quotes the Bible and professes the Trinity as he recites the Nicene Creed, he really doesn’t know God, for scripture says, “he one who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.” It’s really very simple.

 

A Muslim preacher who doesn’t know God

Make no mistake about it, Usama bin Laden is first and foremost a theologian.  He is an Islamic theologian.  His theology proclaims the Five Pillars of Islam, especially the Pillar of Shahada. That’s a one-line personal profession of faith which proclaims “there is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.” Bin Laden’s theology proclaims also that Saudi Arabia is the true Holy Land containing the two sacred cities of Mecca and Medina. It is a Holy Land which must not be desecrated by the feet of Western infidels working in the oil industry of Saudi Arabia. His theology even proclaims Jihad, which, for him and millions of Muslims like him, is a sound declaration of war against those who do not have the right answer, i.e., the Islamic answer about God.  On 9/11, bin Laden, that great Islamist theologian and chief jihadist, sent suicide bombers as weapons of mass destruction slamming into the Twin Towers in the name of Allah murdering three thousand innocent human beings with one grand slam. That’s three thousand times more despicable than displaying Saddam Hussein in his underwear. According to our book, bin Laden doesn’t know the first things about God, for St. John writes, “The one who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.”

 

Who loves knows God

A Samaritan who knew God

But John’s words are a two-edged sword. For he continues, “The one who loves knows God.” One day a man going from Jerusalem to Jericho was waylaid by robbers and was left half-dead. Along came a Jewish priest with a load of books under his arm and a ton of theology in his head but not an ounce of love in his heart. He glanced at the poor guy and without further ado passed him by. Then along came a Samaritan, who, in Jewish eyes, was neither kosher in blood nor in belief. Not kosher in blood, for he was considered a half-breed and mongrel. Not kosher in his belief, for he worshipped God on Mt. Gerizim, while Jewish theology claimed the right place to worship God was in the temple in Jerusalem (Jn 4:20).  Now the Samaritan stopped and poured the oil of compassion into the poor man’s wounds, then hoisted him unto his beast of burden and hurried him off to the nearest inn where he provided for his care and cure.

Which of the two knew God? Certainly not the Jewish priest with a ton of theology in his head but not an ounce of love in his heart, for scripture says, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (I Jn 4:8). It was the unlettered Samaritan who knew God, for scripture says, “The one who loves knows God.”

A Jew who knew God

When the fabric mill of Aaron Feuerstein burned down near Christmas of 1995, this Jewish CEO didn’t grab the insurance money and run. Rather he stuck with his 2000 employees, gave them all a Christmas bonus, kept paying their health insurance and weekly wages at fifteen dollars an hour until the factory was rebuilt. Corporate America, famous for its infamous greed, stunned by such fiscal insanity, named him CEO of the year. In humble protest to the praise given him, this modern day saint who is still way back in the Old Testament, which knows nothing about the Trinity, quotes his  Prophet Micah who tells him "to act justly, with loving kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God" (Mic 6:8). This faithful Jew does, indeed, know God, for Scripture says, “The one who loves knows God.”

A Unitarian & Trinitarian who knew God.

The homilist at the funeral Mass for Sr. Barbara Kutchera was the Rev. Linda Hansen. These two great ladies were friends over many years. Rev. Linda Hansen was born and raised a Catholic but years ago left the Church for good reasons of her own and became an ordained Unitarian minister.  As a Unitarian she does not espouse the dogma of the Trinity. She simply doesn’t place it up there on the top of her list of truths to be firmly believed nor, for that matter, does she soundly reject it.  She’s a Unitarian not a Trinitarian.  And then there was Sr. Barbara, a good Roman Catholic and a good Trinitarian, who did espouse a Trinity of three Persons in the one God. Despite their theologies, they had a long loving relationship. Now which of the two knew God?  They both did.  Rev. Linda knew God, not because she was a Unitarian, and Sr. Barbara knew God, not because she was a Trinitarian.  They both knew God because they both were loving people, for scripture says, “The one who loves knows God.” It’s really very simple.

Another CEO who knows God

I have a nephew who is a CEO of a small but thriving industry in the Houston area of Texas.  Sometime ago he hired a young lady as secretary. Soon after coming aboard ship she came to work one day limping in obvious discomfort. She had either sprained or broken her ankle, but didn’t have any health insurance to see a doctor.  My nephew said to the young lady, “M’am (they like to use M’am down there), M’am, we hired you not only because of what we thought you could do for us, but also because of what we thought we could do for you. Now you go home, see a doctor, get your leg fixed up, send us the bill, and then come back when you’re in decent shape.” This nephew is a true son of his mother, my sister, and of his father. This is typical of him: honest, fair, never using people even though he’s in a position to do so.

But let me tell you something else about this nephew of mine. He is a lousy Catholic! Hardly ever goes to Mass. While he’s a really sharp guy, he doesn’t know the first thing about God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It’s probably not much more than mumbo jumbo for him. But at the end of the day, I’ve got to say, he knows God, for scripture says, “The one who loves [especially in such a down-to-earth, practical and costly way] knows God.” Some day when the moment is ripe, I plan to tell him this, for I’m sure he knows he’s a lousy Catholic.

A crusade for peace

Obviously this isn’t a crusade against theology or dogmas or creeds or catechisms or church affiliation. That would certainly put me on a hit list for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  These all have their value. This, rather, is a kind of crusade for peace. If, as you recite the creed today with its unequivocal but highly theological profession of the mystery of the Trinity, and you feel you really don’t know what the words mean, be at peace. As long as you are trying to be a loving human being, you do, indeed, know God, for “the one who loves knows God.”

You fathers and mothers out there, poor theologians that you are, be at peace. Your being loving human beings helps your children to be loving creatures (even when they become CEOs), and though neither of you might know very much about the Trinity, you do, indeed, know God, for “the one who loves knows God.”

If, as you sit here in the Sunday assembly alone, missing someone you love very much and wishing that one were here with  you, like a son or daughter who has gone Buddhist or Muslim or Unitarian on you, or who just doesn’t believe anything anymore, be at peace. As long as they are trying to be loving human beings to their spouses and their children wherever they are, they do in some mysterious way know God, for “the one who loves knows God.” It’s really very simple.

Conclusion

Pretty good stuff

At the end of the day, our theology of Trinity--our Christian attempt at God--is pretty good stuff. Scripture says it is not  good for man to be alone. Our theology of Trinity says it’s also not good for God to be alone. Trinity says God isn’t alone; God is a family of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Trinity says that just as on earth there was the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, so there is in heaven the Divine Family of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 

Scripture says that God is love, but for loving you need more than one. So in God there is a Father who has a Son, and the Father loves the Son, and the Son, in turn, loves the Father. Trinity says that this always going out to an Other in God is what we mean by the life of God.  Trinity says that from the Father and the Son proceeds their Holy Spirit of love, who is sent upon us so that we, too, might go out to others. With that Holy Spirit we become good Samaritans on the journey of life, and with that same Holy Spirit we care not only about what others can do for us but what we can do for them.

 

 


[1] Islamic theology will never call God love.  It will call Allah most gracious and most merciful, but it will not call Allah love. That’s considered a designation which is weak and unworthy of Allah, the Almighty One.