Episode Transcript  

One

Describing God

If your kid or a friend asked you, “What is God like?” How would you describe God?  

When Moses stood before God in the burning bush, he asked, “Who are you?” and God replied, “I am who am.” God is the pure source of existence. God said to St. Catherine of Siena, “Do you know, daughter, who you are, and who I am? If you know these two things, you will be blessed. You are she who is not; whereas I am He who is.”

God exists on His own; we do not. Left to ourselves, we cease to exist. So, start with that when you describe God. “God is pure existence, and He chose to share existence with me. Because He loves me.”

Think of all the other things God could have brought into existence, but the one he brought into existence was you. God has selected you from among so many people whom he could have created in place of you; but he has left them in their nothingness, and has brought you into existence, and placed you in the world.” 

God is Pure Existence. That’s where we start in describing God.

Two

Infinite and Perfect 

If God is pure being, then God must be infinite, because being itself can’t be limited. A thing is limited when it ends and something else begins. My yard ends where my neighbor’s begins. The United States ends where Mexico or Canada starts. But where could “being” possibly end? It makes no sense to say, “Existence stops here, and beyond this point is…non-existence.” That’s a contradiction. Non-existence can’t exist. So existence, or being, has no boundary, and God, who is pure being, must be infinite.

Now, if God is infinite, He must also be perfect. Imperfection is the result of lacking something. But an infinite being can’t lack anything, because there’s no good outside of Him that He doesn’t already possess. That’s why we describe God with words like omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and omnipresent. He has all knowledge, all power, all goodness, and is present everywhere. He’s not limited by time (He’s eternal) or need (He’s self-sufficient).

This is the God we worship, not limited, partial, or incomplete. He is the infinite fullness of being and perfection. And what’s most amazing is that this God, who lacks nothing, desires relationship with us.

Three

God is a Person

People today like the idea of some kind of all-powerful, benevolent force that guarantees that good will triumph and that things will work out. So they talk about “the universe,” or “karma,” or sometimes just “life.” They’ll say, “The universe led me to you,” or “that’s just the law of karma,” or “Life is unpredictable, but it has a way of working out for the best.” But that’s cheap religion. It’s where you try to get the comfort of there being some kind of ultimate force, without the discomfort of knowing that the ultimate force is Personal, is intelligent, and free, and interested in you, personally. 

The supreme Force made you. The supreme force loves you. The supreme force came to Earth and died for you. And the supreme force has put the ball in your court: how are you going to respond to Him? So ask yourself: how are you going to respond to the God who is Maker of Heaven and Earth, Pure Existence, Infinite Being, All-Perfect in every way?

Because the ball’s in your court. And the time for you to respond to His initiative is running out.

Four

God is Love

If you care about love, then you should be a Christian because the Trinity is the only God of love on the market. Scripture tells us simply: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). But love is more than a feeling. Love is the gift of self for the good of another. Love gives itself away.

God the Father gives Himself totally, and this perfect gift is the Son. Because the Father holds nothing back, the Son receives all that the Father is and is equal to Him. The Son is not created, but eternally begotten. And love, in its fullness, longs to be shared. The Father and the Son together give their divinity completely, and this gift is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit receives the fullness of divinity from both and so is the living bond of love. This is the Trinity: one divine nature, three distinct Persons, eternally giving, receiving, and sharing the infinite gift of divine life.

And here is the astonishing part: God doesn’t keep this exchange of love to Himself. He created us to enter into it. “God is an eternal exchange of love… and He has destined us to share in that exchange” (CCC 221).

Five

Mohammed, Luther, and Jesus 

By confronting the false conception of God as sheer power, we come to see more clearly the true God who is love. The essence of Islam is written on the Dome of the Rock, the famous golden-domed mosque in Jerusalem: God is one, God has no sons, God is not three. In Islam, the essence of God is not love; it is power. To relate to pure power is to submit. To be like God is to make others submit. Hence, jihad, sanctioned violence, and the dream of a single Caliph ruling the world under Allah.

Luther veered in the opposite direction: he conceded God’s love yet claimed fallen humanity remains a “snow-covered dung-hill,” its filth forever hidden, not healed, by grace. Jesus, however, revealed that God is love, a communion of Persons eternally giving, receiving, and sharing divine life, and He invites us to share that life, not merely wear a legal covering.

God is a consuming fire of love. St. John of the Cross says that just as material fire acting on wood “dries it, blackens it, drives out every foul odor, and at last transforms it into itself and makes it as beautiful as fire.” God does the same: His flame of love penetrates our soul and burns away sin until we shine with the very light and heat of divinity.

That is our God, the real God, the only God, who does not crush or merely conceal us but divinizes us.

Suggested Resolutions:

Choose one resolution for today to help you grow closer to God, or create your own. Here are some ideas to inspire you. 

• God is love, and love is the gift of self for the good of another. Each day, try to think of one act of service you can do for each of your loved ones: sending a thoughtful text, helping them with their chores, or just thanking them for all they do.

• Our God is a personal God who loves you as an individual. Make time this week to spend time in His presence in the Eucharist, either in Adoration or in the Sacrifice of the Mass.

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