THE MYSTERY OF GOD AND THE FAITH

THE MYSTERY OF GOD AND THE FAITH
(A Reflection on the ‘Human Person and Absolute’)

Bertrand Russell, an atheist, once said, “Unless you assume a God, the question of life’s purpose is meaningless.”
Throughout our life, we incessantly search for meanings. We question the meaning of everything especially the meaning of our own existence. In our quest for meaning, we realize that we are just finite beings and not capable of our own existence. Unless we find our origin, our quest will never be meaningful. We attribute then our origin to a Transcendent Being who is beyond our humanity.

They say that we, human persons, are religious beings by nature. All of us have the inkling to know Someone Who is Transcendent to us. We call this Transcendent Being in different names such as God, the Absolute, the Supreme Being, the One, etc. This truth is very evident in the world. In every corner of this planet, even in the remotest tribe, people assume a Being who is beyond all things. Even the atheists who deny the existence of God cannot deny the idea of God, for how can they deny something that they do not know?

Human person’s quest for meaning for Being is forever, for no one can know the totality of reality. It is a fact that there are things that are so rich that will remain veiled to us all. We call them, “mysteries.”

The mystery of God is one of the greatest mysteries if not the greatest mystery in this world. People are perennially searching into the true nature of God but they come up incomplete and dissatisfied. Does God hide Himself?

The thrill of life is in its mysteries. As Antoine de Saint-Exupery had written in his book Little Prince, “The desert is beautiful because somewhere there is a well that is hidden.” When we already know all about the reality that there is no more left to exhaust, there is no more excitement to live life. Therefore, all we can do is to succumb to life’s mysteries.

We surrender to the great mystery of God by the act of believing which we call, “faith.” Faith is our ultimate response to the mystery of God. As Gabriel Marcel said, “Faith is a gift, a call, to which I am free to respond and yet demands of me to respond.” God somehow hides Himself but He gave us something we could use to somehow know Him---faith. Faith is a gift that we are free to accept or to reject. The acceptance of this gift entails a responsibility to the receiver to take care of it and to share it with others.

Why does God somehow hide Himself to us? Perhaps, it is for the reason that we must seek for Him. Because if God were very evident to us, we would only take Him for granted; He would just be subject of oblivion. It is really a great challenge for us to search for God and eventually to know Him. To know God is really difficult; but if we truly yearn for Him, we would do our best to know Him. It truly takes a great amount of perseverance, dedication and sacrifice. Great things are not so easy to achieve but their reward are fulfilling. Unless we have a God in our lives, we cannot find the meaning or the purpose of our existence.