From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
At another Catholic site I saw this question and I was wondering how you would answer it. How can it be said that God loves us infinitely when He never speaks to us directly or shows Himself to us directly?
Okay, the pressure is on! Firstly, I don’t want to compete with anyone in questions like this, because they are hard and we can approach them in differing ways, just as we can view the twinkle of a finely cut gem from varying angles.
Let’s break this down.
“How can it be said…”.
It can be said because in the first place God’s love is considered by what God is, not by the degree to which we presently feel or perceive Him.
God does not “have” love as a passing affection. God is love: Deus caritas est (1 John 4:8).
God’s act of loving is identical with His own infinite being.
There is a philosophical adage that guides us here: that which is received, is received in the manner of the one receiving… quidquid recipitur in modo recipientis recipitur. When God loves a creature, the creature receives that infinite love in a finite way, according to its finite capacity. But the divine act from which it comes is not finite. Analogy: a cup receives only a cupful from the ocean, but the ocean is not thereby reduced to a cup.
Now we come to the meat of the question, probably the motive behind the question.
“…when He never speaks to us directly or shows Himself to us directly?”
There is longing in this question, which we should all have.
For the sake of brevity, we leave apart special, rare instances when God seems directly to communicate in clear terms with one of us, such as seems to have been the case with, for example, St. Margaret Mary. Some people experience powerful interior locutions, etc. In the normal course of the developing spiritual life, God “speaks” to us apophatically in silences and seeming distance, in mental prayer, by mediation, etc.
Why does infinite love come to us so often through silence, distance, obscurity, and mediation?
God will not overwhelm us with the unveiled vision of His essence. Even in the Transfiguration Christ did not reveal His divinity to Peter, John and James: He revealed only a tiny bit of His divinity. Scripture gives the reason: “Man shall not see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). The direct vision of God belongs to glory, to the Beatific Vision. Even then, the vision of God will be infinitely beyond our grasp.
In this life, however, we are strangers and sojourners, pilgrim soldiers. We know God through faith, grace, sacraments, Scripture, conscience, providence, transcendentals like beauty, along with suffering, and charity. These are mediated forms, but mediation does not make love unreal. A mother’s love may be signaled, mediated through the food she prepares, her sacrifices, giving correction, in letters during absences, and the self-giving labor of years. The child may not always feel loved, yet the love may be most real precisely where it is least dramatic.
God’s hiddenness preserves the conditions of faith and love. There is an old saying in theater: everything is nothing. That is, if the entire set is red and costumes are red without contrasts, if the music is always fortissimo and relentless, people simply tune out. If God were constantly manifest with irresistible clarity, obedience might become compulsion, repentance panic, worship self-preservation. He gives enough light to seek Him, enough obscurity to make seeking a free act. “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). We continue to peer through that “dark glass”, like Moses who peered through the crack in the rock hoping to see God pass.
Finally, the Christian answers that God has in fact spoken and shown Himself directly, above all in Christ.
“In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son” (Hebrews 1:1–2). And again: “No one has ever seen God; the only Son… he has made him known” (John 1:18). The Incarnation is God’s direct self-disclosure accommodated to human weakness.
I think it was St. Hilary of Poitier who describes the eternal Son as the perfect invisible image of the invisible Father and describes the incarnate Son as the perfect visible image of the invisible Father. In all that Christ said and did, He reveals God, shows us God.
The Christian answer is the Cross. “God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Infinite love is not demonstrated chiefly by private voices or visible apparitions. It is proven by the Son of God giving Himself for us, then drawing us toward the vision where silence will end and …
“We shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
Perhaps what the verse from Exodus means is this. If we were to see God, and then have that consummation of our lifelong yearning removed, we could not survive the grief of the separation.
(I am certainly open to correction if this is contradicted by sound theology.)
Wonderful reflection, which I will “plagiarize” , with due credit to Fr. Z, in future homilies. Yes, we should pray for consolations on our earthly pilgrimage, but we should let God console us in ways that God sees fit. Paul
Another angle; God speaking directly to us might not be good for us. Jesus says in John 16:13 “ I have still much to say to you, but it is beyond your reach as yet.”
And when God appeared to people in Exodus, they all fell away in sin soon after with some dying (the strange fire incident in Leviticus). It didn’t do them good. Exodus 24:9-11 “ Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abiu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up the mountain, and had a vision of the God of Israel, with a pavement about his feet that might have been made of sapphire, bright as the fashioning of the heavens. There they stood, far removed from the rest of Israel, and the hand of the Lord never smote them down; they had sight of him, and lived to eat and drink like mortal men.”
I don’t know that God doesn’t speak directly to us. There are times when I’m ruminating over one thing or another, related to scripture or the faith, and the answer just drops into my head fully formed.
It doesn’t happen all the time because I don’t all the time have the radio on.
Turn Your Radio On
Every Saint who is known to have been given the Fullness of the Beatific Vision whilst still alive has been called to The Heaven of our Lord within days.
Even a partial Beatific Vision seen as through a veil, for me it was the Holy Virgin standing before the Full Glory so that I could only see It and Him through her, is amazingly Glorious — for indeed God IS Love, a Love so strong that even veiled it seems as a Sun made not of material Light but of the unbounded greater Brightness of the Love Who is Manifest, and were God not to protect those who see Him by placing His Hand — Jesus’ Hand or that of one of His creatures that is in Heaven with Him — to protect us, our one singular desire would be to go to Him without delay, of that I can testify.
His Plan for each of us though may be elsewhere and to other purpose.
—
Otherwise, God DOES speak to us directly, through the Revelation in the Scripture, His words spoken as the Father through Moses and others, as the Son in His Words and Teachings in His Incarnation our Lord Jesus, as the Holy Spirit in the promptings that He gives to our very Souls.
Through Holy Church, and most especially in the Eucharist Which IS Truly God, and in the Eucharistic Sacraments.
So that when you have a vision of a Saint, or are even visited by one, or you are visited by an angel, perhaps in human form, perhaps even unbeknownst to your mind, or you look upon the Eucharist in either Species, God is also speaking to you and showing Himself to you as directly as He possibly Will without Willing that you are to come to Him in Heaven as quickly as you can.
Incredible. Thankyou padre. I’ve had the same question and now it all makes sense to me. Of course this is why God doesn’t broadcast to all of us all the time. I am almost 70 and a life long traditional Catholic. I am surprised every day when I read something or hear a sermon. I say to myself “why didn’t I know this?” “How come nobody ever told me this?” Our Faith is incredible and ever new and never boring, I love it that I am I learning the Faith so much more every day.
God speaks to me to get me to the Confessional. He speaks to me during Mass and at Holy Communion and after receiving His Body and Blood .
He spoke to me When I lost my Mother and then lost two daughters, one a Stillborn whom I Baptized and another at 45 years old. God spoke to me when Father told me that my 45 years old had gone to Confession and Mass the day before she died. As Our Lord said..” Listen if you have ears”.
Thanks for this. It is very timely, as my wife and I just finished watching the movie “Silence.”
First, what do you mean by “directly”? This is important. If I were to speak to you face-to-face, that speech is mediated communication; through language, cultural symbolism, inflection, and tone, etc. So, what do you mean?
Consider for a moment that if you were to communicate to an ant, would the ant be receptive to your communication? Would it even be listening? Consider the stars in the sky? How often do we listen to what they communicate?
Now I think that most people, when they say “why doesn’t God speak?” they really mean “why doesn’t God talk to me in a way that I can understand Him?”, for, as the scripture says, the heavens and earth constantly proclaim God and only the fool says that there is no God – ie only the one who stops his ears to the proclamation and speach says that there is no God. So it is really “Why doesn’t God speak in a way that I would listen?” and implicitly “Why don’t I listen to what God is already speaking?”. So the real issue isn’t about God but about the human person.
John 5:46-47 speaks to the follow-up question of “If you got the communication and ability to hear that you implicitly want, would you even listen?” And the answer is that for a great many people, no not even direct communication according to the desire of the listener would result in them “hearing” God.
After all, consider in marriages how many spouses complain of the other not “listening” or “hearing,” and when you analyze things, one finds that the other does speak and the complainer doesn’t listen.
So it is really an “us” problem, not a God problem. God is very “talkative,” but we don’t like actually listening. When we consider “God’s silence” or “spiritual dryness,” that isn’t God not communicating, but rather us being frustrated at not getting communication according to “what I want” and thus not listening to God and not communicating with Him in divine silence.
Besides, until one has been divinized, if God spoke to you directly without mediation, you would evaporate, for no one can look upon the face of the living God and live. Exodus 33:20.
Fr Z: There is an old saying in theater: everything is nothing.
Skyrizi (a treatment for plaque psoriasis): nothing is everything.
Seriously, though, St. John of the Cross spent the entire work, The Ascent of Mt. Carmel, answering this question. Perhaps, the person who originally wrote the question on the site might ponder this quote from The Ascent (book 2, chapter 22):
22.3.(2). But in this era of grace, now that the faith is established through Christ and the Gospel law made manifest, there is no reason for inquiring of him in this way, or expecting him to answer as before. In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word — and he has no more to say.
22.4. This is the meaning of that passage where St. Paul tries to persuade the Hebrews to turn from communion with God through the old ways of the Mosaic law and instead fix their eyes on Christ: Multifariam multisque modis olim Deus loquens patribus in prophetis: novissime autem diebus istis locutus est nobis in Filio (That which God formerly spoke to our fathers through the prophets in many ways and manners, now, finally, in these days he has spoken to us all at once in his Son) [Heb. 1:1-2]. The Apostle indicates that God has become as it were mute, with no more to say, because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All, who is his Son.
22.5. Those who now desire to question God or receive some vision or revelation are guilty not only of foolish behavior but also of offending him by not fixing their eyes entirely on Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty.
22.5.(2). God could answer as follows: If I have already told you all things in my Word, my Son, and if I have no other word, what answer or revelation can I now make that would surpass this? Fasten your eyes on him alone because in him I have spoken and revealed all and in him you will discover even more than you ask for and desire. You are making an appeal for locutions and revelations that are incomplete, but if you turn your eyes to him you will find them complete. For he is my entire locution and response, vision and revelation, which I have already spoken, answered, manifested, and revealed to you by giving him to you as a brother, companion, master, ransom, and reward.2 On that day when I descended on him with my Spirit on Mount Tabor proclaiming: Hic est filius meus dilectus in quo mihi bene complacui, ipsum audite (This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear him) [Mt. 17:5], I gave up these methods of answering and teaching and presented them to him. Hear him because I have no more faith to reveal or truths to manifest. If I spoke before, it was to promise Christ. If they questioned me, their inquiries were related to their petitions and longings for Christ in whom they were to obtain every good, as is now explained in all the doctrine of the evangelists and apostles. But now those who might ask me in that way and desire that I speak and reveal something to them would somehow be requesting Christ again and more faith, yet they would be failing in faith because it has already been given in Christ. Accordingly, they would offend my beloved Son deeply because they would not merely be failing him in faith, but obliging him to become incarnate and undergo his life and death again. You will not find anything to ask or desire of me through revelations and visions. Behold him well, for in him you will uncover all of these already made and given, and many more.
22.6. If you desire me to answer with a word of comfort, behold my Son subject to me and to others out of love for me, and afflicted, and you will see how much he answers you. If you desire me to declare some secret truths or events to you, fix your eyes only on him and you will discern hidden in him the most secret mysteries, and wisdom, and wonders of God, as my Apostle proclaims: In quo sunt omnes thesauri sapientiae et scientiae Dei absconditi (In the Son of God are hidden all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God) [Col. 2:3]. These treasures of wisdom and knowledge will be for you far more sublime, delightful, and advantageous than what you want to know.3 The Apostle, therefore, gloried, affirming that he had acted as though he knew no other than Jesus Christ and him crucified [1 Cor. 2:2]. And if you should seek other divine or corporeal visions and revelations, behold him, become human, and you will find more than you imagine. For the Apostle also says: In ipso habitat omnis plenitudo Divinitatis corporealiter (In Christ all the fullness of the divinity dwells bodily) [Col. 2:9].
22.7. One should not, then, inquire of God in this manner, nor is it necessary for God to speak any more. Since he has finished revealing the faith through Christ, there is no more faith to reveal, nor will there ever be. Anyone wanting to get something in a supernatural way, as we stated,4 would as it were be accusing God of not having given us in his Son all that is required. Although in having these desires one presupposes the faith and believes in it, still, that curiosity displays a lack of faith. Hence there is no reason to hope for doctrine or anything else through supernatural means.
The Chicken
Lurker 59 :
Now I think that most people, when they say “why doesn’t God speak?” they really mean “why doesn’t God talk to me in a way that I can understand Him?”
You’re quite right.