Human Experience of God
by Fr.Gus Carter
9/18/05

In our relationship with God a great source of confusion comes from treating our Creator as just another human. We judge the Lord by our own standards and feel free to criticize Almighty God. I have met individuals who told me of the good deeds they had done. They expected to be rewarded as if they were involved in an even trade. "I give to God, God gives back to me," they say. The image I have in mind is of a five year-old making his bed. Then he demands a thousand dollars from his mother. He does not consider all the ways his parents support him and how trivial his deed is.

I have noted that St. Ignatius and St. Teresa often addressed God as "Majesty." They had profound experiences of the Lord. Their response was a deeply felt reverence in their dealings with God. St. John of the Cross stated that it is a great grace to experience the incomprehensibility of God. This kind of experience is not as rare as we might think. Surveys in the past have indicated that about a third of the people in our nation have had profound experiences of God.

About eighty years ago Rudolph Otto wrote a book entitled "The Idea of God." He described certain experiences of God as "Mysterium tremendum." Many people have been given a sense of the magnitude of God. The reaction to this experience is at first fear. To face such overwhelming might becomes scary. It results in what Otto called a "creature feeling." The person feels extremely small in the presence of such overwhelming goodness, love, power. This is the "tremendum." The individual tries to grasp this experience with the mind. The mind falls back because it cannot grasp what has been sensed. This is the "mysterium." As this experience continued the person felt that she could possess and be possessed by this entity. Otto calls tpis part of the experience "fascinating." The person feels very humble and yet has a great desire to work to make mutual possession possible. This comes very close to the sense of the incomprehensibility that St. John was writing about.

When I was in grammar school my brother and I discussed what we heard about eternity. Someone had suggested that to have an idea of eternity, we should think of the vastness of the Himalaya Mountains. Then think of a bird tapping its wing on the mountain once every hundred years. When the mountain becomes warn down, eternity is just beginning. We tried to fix our minds on this. We reached a point where we knew that such a concept was beyond our reach. Part of our experience was a kind of fear when our minds gave up. However, there was also a kind of feeling of exhilaration as though we had touched the fringes of eternity.

We do have some scientific tools to think about the vastness of the universe. You have to deal with immense distances, get involved with the powers of ten, consider light years and trillions of miles. This can give rise, at times, to a sense of the vast distances of space. Then I think of how small I am in such a universe. To me space is a sacrament of the immensity of God. When I think of how small I am in such an expanse, I feel very humble. God is even greater than the vastness I have experienced. How tiny I am in the enormity of space, and inconsequential before the might of God. This makes me feel very humble about my theology and my right to question God. I do believe that the Lord wants me to question, but very humbly. Even if our Creator explained some things to me, would I understand? However, finding answers to some of my questions has strengthened rather than threatened my faith.
No wonder that the words of Isaiah today are the guide numerous people use in their relationship with God: "As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thought above your thoughts." The psalmist reminds us, "The Lord is good to all, compassionate to every creature." Jesus revealed the incalculable graciousness of God. He assured us that God will reward us far beyond our merits. No one deserves the glorious future our God has prepared for us.

Space and time are sacraments of God. The enormity they represent cannot be grasped by the human mind. Yet it is worthwhile to ponder these ideas that open our minds in some way to the infiniteness that is God. We must come to know that full understanding of the Lord's ways is beyond us. Such majesty demands our reverence. We are surrounded by God's goodness in Creation. Jesus tells us that God is infinite mercy. This is the faith that makes life a joy and gives us hope that we cannot even imagine the goodness the Lord has prepared for us.