Lent with the Early Church Fathers Day 31

Day 31

Lent with the Early Church Fathers

A daily post from Tom Bandy 

Based on A Year with the Church Fathers (Ed. Mike Aquilina, St. Benedict Press, 2010) 

Do not try to limit God 

St. Hilary of Poitiers 

It is the father to whom all existence owes its origin. In Christ and through Christ he is the source of all. In contrast to all else he is self existent. He does not draw his being from without, but possesses it from himself and in himself. He is infinite, for nothing contains him and he contains all things; he is eternally unlimited by space, for he is illimitable; eternally before time, for time is his creation. 

Let your imagination wander to what you may suppose is God’s utmost limit, and you will find him present there; strain as you will there is always a further horizon towards which to strain. Infinity is his property, just as the power of making such effort is yours. Words will fail you, but his being will not be circumscribed. 

Or again, turn back the pages of history, and you will find him ever present; should numbers fail to express the antiquity to which you have penetrated, yet God’s eternity is not diminished. 

Gird up your intellect to comprehend him as a whole; he eludes you. God, as a whole, has left something within your grasp, but this something is inextricably involved in his entirety. Thus, you have missed the whole, since it is only a part that remains in your hands; and really not even apart, for you are dealing with a whole that you have failed to divide. For a part implies division; a whole is undivided, and God is everywhere and wholly present wherever he is. Reason, therefore, cannot cope with him since no point of contemplation can be found outside himself and since eternity is eternally his. 

TGB: The human condition is to live in constant ambiguity and eternal promise. God is always just beyond our imagination and comprehension, and yet God’s presence is what stimulates imagination and enables reason. God is with us and beyond us at the same time.