The words that make up the title of this article were spoken by St Veronica Giuliani, and were recorded in her diary. They refer to Jesus Christ, to His Heart, opened by a spear for us all to behold His love for us (cf John 19: 33-34). These words are a response to the only question that man, throughout all ages, has asked – and, billions of people, even today, continue to ask: “Who is God?” This is the most profound longing of our hearts: to know God.
“Who are you, O God, and who am I?” was the prayer of St Francis of Assisi. Did St Veronica or St Francis not know the answer, found all over the Bible, but explicitly so in the first letter of St John: “God is love” (1 John 4:8)? Of course they did. But this is the mystery of Love: “Love never ends” (1 Cor 13: 8). It is a continuous journey, that begins here, with faith – man’s response to God’s revelation, and which ends with the beatific vision in Heaven, a journey that is eternal, into the infinite Heart of God, made known to all by His Son, Jesus Christ, the image of the Father (cf Col 1:15, John 14:9).
Ah! What can the words of man say about such mystery, such beauty, such love! Where to begin, for God has no beginning: He is the beginning of everything created. God is love! Who would have thought? Certainly, nobody! Reading through the pagan literature of the Greeks and the Romans, there are so many instances that betray man’s most intimate desire, to know who God is. Man can ignore but he cannot – can never – deny God’s existence, for on his very soul, the image of his Creator is set, as a “seal” on his heart (CC 8:6). Deep within himself, man sees the Eternal Eyes that watch him with love and mercy: “Who are you, O God, and who am I?”
Without Jesus Christ, there can be no answer to this question, because between God and his creation, there is an infinite gap: “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1: 14), precisely so that we can know Him, the thrice holy God, for by knowing God, we may have eternal life (cf John 17:3). It is because of Jesus, “Son of David” (Matt 1:1), “Son of Joseph” (John 6:42), “Son of Mary” (cf Luke 1:31), that man can know God, who He is – that He is He who is (cf Exo 3:14). It is impossible – impossible – to ever praise Christ enough for this infinite gift of inestimable, pure, divine value. What can man say, but to repeat the words of St John of the Cross from his “Spiritual Canticle”:
“Reveal Your presence,
And let the vision and Your beauty kill me,
Behold the malady
Of love is incurable
Except in Your presence and before Your face.”
Love is un-understandable. Reason is too small for comprehending love. Imagination is too erratic for showing love’s true essence. Feelings are too ephemeral for them to be the basis for love. Our senses fail to embrace love. Faith alone allows man to reach and touch this mystery of mysteries, bigger than reason, perfectly harmonious, never ending, incomprehensible: through and by faith man understands love, he understands what cannot be understood, he understands that love cannot be explained, that love is the basis of everything, that love is really, actually, Love.
It is certainly no coincidence that the Bible is the greatest love story. This is the case for two reasons: firstly, because this story is no story at all, but the very reality from which stories come, and secondly, because it is Love Itself, eternal and invincible, that reaches out to man, whose love was broken by sin, to bring him back into Its intimate, everlasting life.
Image credit: Giuseppe Cesari, The Agony in the Garden, undated
Nihil Sine Deo 