MAN'S CAPACITY FOR GOD
I. The Desire for God
27 The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for:
The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator.1
28 In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behaviour: in their prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so forth. These forms of religious expression, despite the ambiguities they often bring with them, are so universal that one may well call man a religious being:
From one ancestor (God) made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him - though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For "in him we live and move and have our being."2
29 But this "intimate and vital bond of man to God" (GS 19 # 1) can be forgotten, overlooked, or even explicitly rejected by man.3 Such attitudes can have different causes: revolt against evil in the world; religious ignorance or indifference; the cares and riches of this world; the scandal of bad example on the part of believers; currents of thought hostile to religion; finally, that attitude of sinful man which makes him hide from God out of fear and flee his call.4
30 "Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice."5 Although man can forget God or reject him, He never ceases to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and happiness. But this search for God demands of man every effort of intellect, a sound will, "an upright heart", as well as the witness of others who teach him to seek God.
You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised: great is your power and your wisdom is without measure. and man, so small a part of your creation, wants to praise you: this man, though clothed with mortality and bearing the evidence of sin and the proof that you withstand the proud. Despite everything, man, though but a small a part of your creation, wants to praise you. You yourself encourage him to delight in your praise, for you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.6
1 Vatican Council II, GS 19 # 1.2 ⇒ Acts 17:26-28.3 GS 19 # 1.4 Cf. GS 19-21; ⇒ Mt 13:22; ⇒ Gen 3:8-10;⇒ Jon 1:3.5 ⇒ Ps 105:36 St. Augustine, Conf. I, I, I: PL 32, 659-661.
8 comments:
27) This is false. I've no desire for God written on my heart and I'm happy. Although I'm always searching for truth, whether or not it ends with a deity is unknown at the time but with such a lack (read: none) of evidence, I'm skeptical.
28) Entering dangerous territory here. Whose god do we accept and how do we know?
29) I'm not revolting against evil. I'm definitely not igorant of religion nor indifferent to it's effects. I'm not rich and my current position resulted from a religious quest. Hmm, yes, "the scandal of bad example on the part of believers" assisted my current position but isn't at the core. If "currents of thought hostile to religion" are such things as free thought and rational arguments, consider me guilty. I never hid from God. I pursued him with great passion. He never answered.
Really, this post makes me think of several things I'd like to expand on later in a post of my own but I thought I'd toss out a few comments anyway.
I love no# 30. How so very true. I became a christian kicking and screaming all the way! No, really! My conversion would make a mime laugh out loud. But one thing I have found to be true of myself, both then and now, is that I have a great love for truth. Even if it hurts, or goes against what I believed at the time, I love truth. And He gave it to me in a way I completly understood over an over again until I had to say....."okay, your God." There is never a lack of evidence of God, people just want to change the rules of what evidence is when it comes to "Religiious" stuff. I can prove Jesus Christ to you easier than I can prove Alexander the Great, through manuscripts, witnesses of the time, archeology digs, ect... and through the change of when you knew me then as to how i am now. I am not some mindless, senseless, go with whatever is the most sensational at the time follower.....God had to prove himself to me. He did a great job at it.
Logan...your response to #27 I find little funny. Your skeptical because you've fallin' into the trap set up by the 1st wave of modern philosophers and atheists...Machiavelli, Hobbs,etc...And yet, and yet you find your self drawn into this debate about what you claim you don't belive in. This is one of the ways God works with us...lol...The Holy Spirit is present in the conversation, if only you would "choose" hear Him...lol.
Oh, what trap is that? Okay, I choose to hear him....no answer. :) Now what?
Seriously, you make several claims but that's all. Claims. I'm "drawn" to this argument for various reasons. One, you guys are my friends and I think you're pursuing a fantasy. Two, religion is still, regrettably, a driving force in our society and politics which results in more bad than good, IMO. Three, I passionately studied this material for over a decade so I may as well put it to use. Four, I enjoy a good debate as much as the next person. I also debate politics, MMA, work ethics, Union vs Company, philosophy, et al. There's no supernatural source for this debate on my part.
PS I forgot to add that I could just as well say, Jay, that you're drawn to this discussion because you inwardly desire the truth of Atheism. So, there! :)
lol...ok, the last comment was just plain silly.
The one before that I can counter in the same way... "you make several claims but that's all. Claims." Yes, there is nothing I can say that can change your mind if your mind is closed and your heart harded. But, I'm not the One at work here(lol)...
But there are degrees of claims, IMO. I attempt make no claims beyond the world as anyone could view it. However, you and Sarita make statements of faith that disagree with not only a naturalistic approach to reality but with other faiths. That's why I call them claims in the sense of faith statements of what you believe, not what is. I'll be elaborating on this soon in a post of my "claims".
I disagree with your last statement. There certainly could be something you or Sarita could say to change my mind. It's wide open. And if your and her minds are wide open, then hopefully there's something I can say to make you understand and accept my positions, providing they're truth.
Jay, this is from our conversation on Facebook. I'd really like for you to elaborate on it:
"3) My faith is based on reason and personal witness, it is not blind, it is based on the facts of my experence(s)....."
What is the reasoning and what are "facts" of your experiences. Shouldn't facts be veridical?
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