Theology: it takes perseverance
— St. Thomas Aquinas
I write this with equal amounts of frustration and fascination. Theology has to be the most unique realm of academia that anyone can attempt to study. The more I learn about theology, the more I realize how far we are from reaching pure truth. The more I try to understand God the more I understand how little I know God. At this point, which is not far into my theological journey, I now understand that the end goal of theology is unattainable in this life. We can’t even come close. Understanding the true nature of God is impossible, and as long as we live and breath through the constraints of time on this finite chunk of earth spinning in space, we will never have the ability to comprehend God in His fullness.
We are finite creatures and God is infinite. He is eternity itself. A finite creature cannot comprehend eternity. It’s like a fish trying to comprehend what it’s like to live on land. A fish couldn’t even begin to think about what it would be like to live outside of water. A human being cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like to live outside of time. It is truly incomprehensible. But this is why theology is so crucial to our world: we must still attempt to do so. This is what God calls us to do. We must attempt the impossible. We must strive each day to inch closer and closer to the end goal. To know God. And of course, as St. Aquinas proclaimed, as seen on the headline of my blog, “love follows knowledge.” We know our finiteness limits us greatly, but at what point can we stop? Where exactly is the limit of our knowledge? This is the question that theology challenges. It is the very question that drives the greatest minds the world has ever seen to reveal our greatest mysteries. Mysteries of eternity. Mysteries of our very nature.
The mysteries of God are impossible to fully comprehend. That is why they are called mysteries after all. And many believers are content in this fact. There are things that they believe that they do not understand, but with steadfast faith they are able to abide by them. This is quite an honorable approach, and one of great humility, but as a Christian, we are also called to grow in knowledge of truth. The mysteries of God can never be comprehended whilst we live in time, but little glimpses of them can. The fullness of God’s mysteries are incomprehensible, but this does not mean that we cannot attain tiny fragments, short glimpses.
A brilliant image portrayed by Catholic writer F.J. Sheed describes this idea as if a person were walking through an art gallery. It would be impossible for this person to fully comprehend the fullness of the entire gallery, but what the person can do is walk through each hall, each and every corridor of the gallery, and take in the beauty of each portrait. This is something we can do in theology. We will never be able to swallow a pill as heavy as the fullness of God, but we can take in one portrait at a time. This blog entry is not so much about a topic of discussion, but merely a rant. Words of praise to anyone who is courageous enough to study what cannot be studied. To attempt to understand what cannot be comprehended. Anyone who desires to push the limits of their finite nature. Eternity is every human’s end goal, and that is precisely what theology aims to describe.
