A Reflection from “The Logic That God Exists” by Robert Trussell

“We are bound by man’s innate dignity to seek the truth, and once we find it, to adhere to it and live it. Man is drawn to the truth by his own nature, by his own freedom. God won’t force it on us. Man must always listen to his conscience no matter what it tells him. However, it is not permissible to indulge in error without seeking the truth. The essential usefulness of faith is that man achieves the good of his rational nature through faith. We say, ultimately, only God can save man, but he expects man to cooperate. The fact that man can cooperate with God determines his authentic greatness.” – Pope John Paul II

John Paul II also said, “Without the Gospel, we can easily find ourselves far from the truth about man. Who is man if the Son took on human nature? Who must man be if the Son pays the supreme price for his dignity? On the heels of faith comes humility. Faith is recognizing the truth of who God is and who we are. The more we understand this, the more we start to get on our knees. Our ego naturally recedes as we stand before our Maker in awe. We begin to see that everything we have in our life is a gift, and every gift has been given to us gratuitously. This is the ultimate recognition of reality.”

The Apostle’s Creed is a relatively short prayer summarizing everything Christians believe. If you are struggling with your faith or even belief in God, this prayer is simple and powerful:

I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and Earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day, he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there, he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

What if You Were God?

God created the entire universe, the physical laws, the planets, and stars, and He created the animals, plants, angels, and human beings. He gave free will only to the angels and humans, and both rebelled against Him immediately. God probably had complete foreknowledge of this, but I would think this had to disappoint Him.

Ask yourself: What if you were God? What would you do if everybody rebelled against you? Would you be angry? Here’s a better question: If you were God, would you be authentic? Or would you be kind of a con man god where you created everybody and everything, but then just let it all ride through time and get your kicks out of people’s misery?

Do you think someone who could make the universe, create rainbows and mountains and animals and intricate laws of nature and people who love each other … do you think someone who could do that would be inauthentic? Do you think he would be a bad guy? Do you think he would create billions of people just to torture them for his amusement? Because that’s what you think if you don’t trust God. You believe that God is either uncaring or really doesn’t get it or is just stupid.

But how could the Creator of the universe be stupid or devious or selfish or even human? He would have to be above that, right? He would have to be a lot better than you or me! God created the angels first, and apparently, there were millions of them. From Scripture, we know that many of them, perhaps one-third by some estimates, rebelled and turned against God, upset about the whole idea of man’s creation, composed of a mortal body with an angel-like spirit.

It seems like God was angry about this and cast them into hell. But we don’t talk much about how God felt about this. If it were you or me, we’d be very hurt, and I believe God was very hurt as well. You might say, how can a vast and powerful God be hurt? But we know from Christian teaching that God is offended by our sins, and we know for sure that Jesus was hurt in every imaginable way in His persecution, torture, and death while on Earth.

If God is a person, He must have feelings, and if we think about it, that’s where our feelings come from too. We are made in the image and likeness of God. How could a God with no feelings make humans with feelings? Today, aren’t many of us rebelling against God like the angels did? As God looks down upon His creation of 8 billion people at any given moment, how many of them are even thinking about Him? How many of them appreciate what He has done in creating and sustaining us and what Jesus did to save us from certain destruction to eternal joy? God sees people break the Ten Commandments left and right. When we rebel against our human fathers, there are consequences. Similarly, if we rebel against God, there are consequences. This must be so for God to be authentic. The consequence is that we lose some of the protections that we had. Our dad takes away the car keys or cuts off our allowance. This explains the hardship we face in life. It is our doing, not God’s doing.

To sin against God is no small thing. It is a rejection of our Creator and his laws. Therefore, the consequences must be big, and that is what we see in the world today. That’s also why it took a big thing, God him-
self taking the form of man, to offset this rebellion and to make it right. Authentic in this context means the purpose of God is (must be) for man. By the way, Jesus was surely authentic! I doubt anyone can argue that.

Since everyone was created in the image and likeness of God, we all have implanted in us a desire for truth. In a sense, there is really no such thing as atheism. People just substitute themselves as God. Today’s pluralism suggests we let everyone define their own good. It’s a new kind of atheism, where Man is the source of truth, not God. People know authenticity when they see it. Jesus’s disciples must have had it. Christ is the fullness of revelation of man as well as God. He is the answer to the question that is every human life. Man is a mystery to himself.