The Invisibility of God is the
mystery that my mind has been grappling with in the past few days. Why is God
invisible? Would not everyone in this
world bow or bend his knee if he sees the Greatness of the Supreme Being in
this world? We are told, of course, that
God is a Spirit that is beyond man’s human capacity to grasp.
In
my attempt to try to understand God’s invisibility, the phenomenon of
electricity gave me some points of comparison.
Electricity is defined in the dictionary as “a fundamental property of
matter, associated with atomic particles whose movements, free or controlled,
lead to the development of fields of force and the generation of kinetic or
potential energy.” It is invisible to
the human eye. It is, however, a
powerful energy that has been harnessed by men to make this world a better
place to live in. Thomas Edison, for instance,
invented the incandescent lamp in 1879, using the power of electricity.
This
characteristic of electricity as being invisible and yet a reality that has a
tremendous power to provide energy is to me a phenomenon that can somehow allow
us to get a glimpse of God’s invisibility.
In the Book of Exodus it is written that when Moses asked God to show
him His face, God replied: “You cannot see My face, for no man can see My face
and live!” (Exodus 33:20). To me this
means that God is so great a reality that no finite being can have the capacity
to see Him in all His glory, He being an Infinite Being. Nevertheless, His reality is something that He manifests
in many different ways.
The
Mystery of Christ’s Incarnation is actually the greatest manifestation of God’s
reality for we read in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have
eternal life.” And in John 1:14 we read:
“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory
as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Hence, through this Mystery of INCARNATION,
God made Himself visible in the form of a MAN – JESUS CHRIST.
Today,
more than two thousand years have already elapsed, yet the world is still
divided about the Divinity of
Christ. About one third of the
world’s population believe in Christ as God’s only begotten Son, and are called
Christians. The rest, however, still
doubt and even make a mockery of Christ.
It was due to this unbelief that the Jewish authority then put Christ to
death through crucifixion. For them,
Christ’s death on the Cross was proof that He was not God. For us,
Christians, however, Christ’s Crucifixion became the Great Event that proved
His Divinity, because on the third day after His crucifixion, HE ROSE FROM THE
DEAD. The RESURRECTION of CHRIST, is for
us the Foundation of our Faith in Him.
Hence, it is considered the Greatest Celebration in our Liturgy.
Historically,
God made Himself visible in this world thru His Son, Jesus Christ, who lived in
the form of a Man for 33 years in the land of Israel. When He rose from the dead, the same Christ became invisible again,
but He said “I will be with you till the end of the age”
(Matt.28:20). Since He is invisible,
how can I get in touch with Him? For me,
the answer to this question is PRAYER.
Prayer may be likened to the switch which we put on
when we want to use the electric current.
In like manner we get connected to God through the Mystical Body of
Christ when we pray. Prayer can be done
together with others or by oneself alone.
Praying with others is known as
Public Prayer, while praying alone is Private
Prayer. While the Church invites
everyone to join in her Official Prayer, which is called the Liturgy, particularly in the Holy Sacrifice of the
Mass, we are, however, also advised to pray privately as we read in Matt. 6:6:
“…when you pray, go into your inner room,..pray to your Father who is in secret,
and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” St. Paul also advises us “to pray without
ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:18)
God’s reality is a certainty. Even the so-called atheists cannot but admit
that there must be a Supreme Being who created this world. How He manifests Himself in this world,
however, is a question of Faith because
of His invisibility. In one way or another people from all walks of life have
tried to get in touch with Him. Thus we
have different kinds of Religion, each one having its own way of reaching out
to God. We, Christians, who believe in
JESUS CHRIST as the only begotten Son of God, who became Man to SET US FREE
FROM SIN AND BE THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD, have our special way of getting in touch
with God – and that is through PRAYER IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST, for He said:
“I AM THE WAY, AND THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE; NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER, BUT
THROUGH ME.” (John 14:6)
For me, therefore, PRAYER through JESUS CHRIST is my
way of getting in touch with GOD who is INVISIBLE.
by: Buddy Cagurangan
October 2, 2011
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