One and Only God
by Pat Gohn in Faith on Thursday, April 22, 2010 6:00 AM
God is big. Way bigger than I can imagine or, frankly, write about. When I start to dwell on the magnitude of God, where God begins and ends, well, actually, my brain starts to hurt. There really is no beginning and end to God.
When we humans contemplate the stuff of heaven… we often do it precisely in terms of “stuff”. You know, we think in finite material terms, most often. Or else we lapse into analogy. Trying to fit grandiose ideas into smaller manageable boxes. But an analogy, only takes us so far. In the words of my former theology professor, “All analogies limp.” And like I said, God is way bigger than analogy.
God is clothed in mystery. As soon as you try to wrap your mind around the totality of God, you find the quest is limitless. Our language to explain God, as I’ve demonstrated, is limited.
I’m sure there are great theologians and philosophers who can describe God in ways that are much more profound that this inadequate attempt of mine. They would use words like “supreme being” and “spirit” and “divinity.” And that would be fine for a moment, except to say that God’s infinitude would still exceed those terms.
God is beyond all our imaginings, contemplations, conceptualizations and lofty ideas. That’s the point. God’s Almighty majesty really does defy description.
God is Omnipotent. That makes God unique. There is only one God.
It is what we believe as Catholics, and the Church helps by giving us the language we need to begin to understand the unfathomable mystery we call God.
The Nicene Creed prays: “I believe in one God.” God is the First and Last, and the beginning of everything we know.
The phrase, “one God” helps us unlock the mystery of the unique Omnipotent One.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church unpacks this for us in terms of salvation history from the Old Testament in CCC 201:
To Israel, his chosen, God revealed himself as the only One: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might [Deut. 6:45].”
Through the prophets, God calls Israel and all nations to turn to him, the one and only God: “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other… [Isa 45: 22.]”
The very words of God in Scripture reveal God is… “One.” God alone unveils this unique and unrepeatable status.
The words and actions of Jesus in the New Testament confirm “One God” as well.
CCC 202:
Jesus himself affirms that God is “the one Lord” whom you must love “with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength”.
At the same time Jesus gives us to understand that he himself is “the Lord”. To confess that Jesus is Lord is distinctive of Christian faith. This is not contrary to belief in the One God. Nor does believing in the Holy Spirit as “Lord and giver of life” introduce any division into the One God.
Church teaching dating back to the Fourth Lateran Council (1215 AD) gives us some very official and technical language on this subject, cited also in CCC 202:
We firmly believe and confess without reservation that there is only one true God, eternal infinite and unchangeable, incomprehensible, almighty and ineffable, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; three persons indeed, but one essence, substance or nature entirely simple.
See? Even the Church’s Magisterium needs a mouthful of impressive terminology to make these points.
But note, again, the central theme in that magisterial text: “there is only one true God.” That’s what believing in One God means. False gods, or idols, have no place in our life. There is no room for them when you believe in a God this big.
Believing in the one triune God is much more relevant than being able to explain the one God. What’s most important here is that when we pray, “I believe in one God,” that God is our One and Only.
Want to read more? Try CCC 228:
Tertullian (approximately 200 AD) wrote: “The supreme being must be unique, without equal. . . If God is not one, he is not God.”
—Pat Gohn is a wife & mother celebrating 27 years of Catholic family life. Her Catholic writing, podcasting, and ministry life are found at PatGohn.com.
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