
TWO GREAT MYSTERIES:

“God cannot be without man:
this is a great mystery”
— Pope Francis June
7, 2017
“Jesus
Christ’s Gospel reveals to us that God cannot be without us: He will
never be a God ‘without man’;
it is He
who cannot be without us, and this is a great mystery!
God cannot
be God without man: this is a great mystery!”
Vatican Press &
Rome Reports
We have added
the emphasis above to clarify the emphasis implied in the
existential reciprocity (we need God and God needs us) that Francis
himself maintains as an ontological reality — however much such a statement
conflicts with reason and revelation.
If God stands in need of anything, in
actuality, potentiality (potency) or possibility, existential or otherwise,
He would not be God. This is Theology 101 (the
most basic theology). This is absolutely contrary to the most basic
Christian (and non-Christian) concept of God.
God is the
“I AM WHO
AM” — the
“HE WHO IS”
of Exodus 3:14. He is in and of Himself being itself, self-existent,
and the source of all other participated being. He is in need of nothing
and no one.
Saint Paul is clear:
“Neither
is He served with men’s hands, as though He needed anything; seeing
it is He who giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.”
(Acts 17.25)
And so is the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
“Without
the Creator, the creature vanishes.”
CCC Part I.49
Saint Thomas Aquinas explained it thus:
“God
is His own existence, and not merely His own essence. ... if
the existence of a thing differs from its essence, this existence
must be caused either by some exterior agent or by its essential
principles. Now it is impossible for a thing’s existence to
be caused by its essential constituent principles, for nothing
can be the sufficient cause of its own existence, if its existence
is caused. Therefore that thing, whose existence differs from
its essence, must have its existence caused by another. But
this cannot be true of God; because we call God the first efficient
cause. Therefore it is impossible that in God His existence
should differ from His essence.”
(Summa Theologica Part I Question 3 Article 4)
More simply — and much more beautifully
— is this expressed by the Psalmist:
“Before
the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou had formed the earth
and the world, from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God.”
(Psalm 90.2)
Oh ... the Second Great Mystery?
That the man who uttered this can
be the Pope of the Catholic Church — this is a great mystery
indeed.
Geoffrey K. Mondello
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
Printable PDF Version
Comments? Write us:
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
Further Reading on the Papacy of
Francis:

Totally Faithful to the Sacred
Deposit of Faith entrusted to the Holy See in Rome
“Scio
opera tua ... quia modicum habes virtutem, et servasti verbum
Meum, nec non negasti Nomen Meum”
“I
know your works ... that you have but little power, and
yet you have kept My word, and have not denied My Name.”
(Apocalypse
3.8)
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