Salesian Literature

Chapter 15:  The relationship between God and man

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No sooner does a man take the trouble to give even a little thought to the godhead than his heart thrills with pleasure – a sure sign that God is God of the human heart.  Nothing delights the mind more than the thought of God.  better to know a little about him than a lot about other things, says Aristotle, prince of philosophers.  Let some calamity befall us, we turn at once to God.  this goes to show that we recognize, though all other things betray us, he alone is faithful; that when danger threatens, only our supreme good can keep us safe and sound.

 

The human heart’s natural delight, natural trust in God is due solely to the relationship between soul and God. A close bond it is, but a hidden one; known to all, yet understood by few; undeniable, but unfathomable.  Wearing the image and likeness of God – that is how we have been created (cf. Gen. 1:26); and this means that there is the closest of connections between ourselves and God.

 

The human soul is spiritual, indivisible, immortal; it thinks and wills; it is able freely to make judgements, follow a line of argument, discover facts, possess virtues; in this it is like to God.  the soul is present in every part of the body; just as God is everywhere within the universe, and whole in each part of it.  Man knows and loves himself – activities of his mind and will; but these activities of two distinct faculties are inseparable from the soul to which the faculties belong.

 

Similarly, in the godhead, the Son proceeds from the Father as the expression of his knowledge, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from Father and Son as the expression of their mutual love – each of these two persons (Son and Spirit) is distinct from the other and from the Father; yet they are inseparably one in a godhead that is utterly simple, indivisible, unique.

 

Apart from the bond of likeness, however, a special relationship exists between God and man for their mutual perfection.  Not that God is completed by man in any way; but man needs the completion which only God can give – so humanity provides God with an outlet for external expression of his perfection.

 

Man needs God, and is hungry for his favours. God is full of all good things, and longs to give them.  Our weakness leaves us needy, in want of all God has to give; but God’s fullness has no need of our emptiness, save as the overflow of his goodness.  God’s perfect goodness knows no improvement by being shared; it does not gain by overflowing – it gives.  Humanity’s poverty, on the other hand, would hold us sunk in destitution, in wretchedness, unless God’s fullness came to our aid.

 

We find no perfect contentment here; nothing this world offers can satisfy our desires.  The mind ever wants to know more; the will never comes to the end of its search for goodness to love.  Surely we can recognize that I is not for this world we were made!  A supreme good attracts us, some infinite craftsman who has fashioned us with an endless longing for knowledge, with a hunger for good that knows no appeasement.  That is why we must turn and reach out towards God – creatures of whose fashioning we are – and seek fro union with his goodness.

 

Such is the relationship in which we stand to God.

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