Fr. Michael Williams

Whenever I began a long car journey I am always grateful for signposts. They point me in the right direction. Without them I would probably never arrive at my destination. Signposts lead me on to the place where I want to get to.

The physical world is like a big signpost that directs us to God. The physical world, and it’s beauty, points to something beyond itself. It points us to God, who existed “before the earth came into being”. The mountains, the hills, the countryside, the clouds, and the sea, speak to us of the grandeur of God. Creation is a series of signposts pointing us in the direction of God. We heard in the psalm, how the psalmist gives praise to the Lord , “when I saw the heavens, the work of your hands, and the moon and the stars which you arranged”. The wonderful work of creation raised the psalmist’s mind to the wonderful Mystery of God.

Pondering the mystery of God is what creation should point us to. Of course a mystery can never be fully fathomed, it can only be entered into and enjoyed. St. Gregory of Nazianzen had a good way of describing entering into the mystery of God when he says, “[it] is like crossing the ocean on a raft”. We enter the mystery of God, but can never exhaust Him then because God is infinite, whereas we are finite.

Although God is Mystery, He is also knowable. “The Church teaches that the one true God, Our Creator and Lord, can be known with certainty” (CCC47). This is because God has revealed Himself to us in the Person of Jesus Christ: “He has spoken to us by the Son” (Heb 1:1-2). The Second Person of this Trinity, the eternal Son of God, has wedded Himself to us by assuming human nature. God has become man, so that man can enter into the life of the Trinitarian God. When we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension a couple of weeks ago, we were celebrating humanity’s entry into the heart of God. God came down from Heaven, so that humanity could ascend into to Heaven.

It is only in the eternal life of heaven that we will experience the fullness of sharing in the life of the Trinity. Nevertheless, sharing in the life of the Trinity has already begun for us, because we have been baptised in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Participating in the Holy Mass is also a participation in the life of the Trinity. We are in communion with the Son of God, who has become our Brother, as He gives praise to the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, which “has been poured into our hearts”. The Mass is the action of the Holy Trinity, in which we are active participants.

As we travel on our earthly pilgrimage into the heart of God, the physical signs and symbols of the Liturgy, direct us to God. But in the Liturgy, the Mass, we also arrive at our destination. We commune with the Body and Blood of Christ, and so share in the life of God at its centre. So then, let us always give glory and praise to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, who even in this world, calls us to share in His Divine life.