THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
From - "The teachers handbook to the catechism" by Rev. A. Urban.
You attend school so as to be instructed in
all that is good and useful. Now the most important instruction is
the instruction about God, for it treats of the Supreme Being, His
perfections and revelations and teaches us how we should live piously
and well upon earth, that we may one day enjoy the bliss of
heaven with God. If you desire to attain to this great happiness
you ought to pay great attention during religious instruction, take
to heart the good lessons you there receive, preserve them all your
life, and let them bear fruit a thousand fold. We shall begin the
religious instruction with the doctrine of the existence of God.
When any one builds a new house his first care is directed towards
placing that house upon solid ground, which we call the foundation.
The firmer the ground or the foundation is, so much the more firm
will the house be that is built upon it. He who neglects to build
his house upon firm ground will soon find that his house falls down
again.
Our holy religious teaching is built upon a foundation, and that is
the belief in the existence of God, of which we shall speak to-day
in the first religious instruction. By faith in the existence of God
is understood that we firmly and undoubtingly believe that there is
one God, an invisible, most perfect and Supreme Being.
Without this belief in the existence of God the whole structure
of our religious teaching would fall to pieces, for whosoever does
not believe in the existence of God will not believe in God s revelations.
A man who does not believe in the existence of God will
not fear God; neither will he keep his commandments, but will sin
without fear. You see then that in reality our entire religious teach
ing rests upon the belief in the existence of God.
In order to found this belief firmly within you I will to-day bring
before you the proofs of the existence of God. There are six principal ones, namely :
1. The creation of the world.
2. The preservation of the world.
3. The order of created things above and below.
4. The voice of conscience.
5. Revelation.
6. The circumstance that all the peoples of the earth believe in a
Supreme Being.
The first proof, then, is the creation of the world. Children, you
all like to be in the open air, you rejoice in the beautiful flowers,
and in the song of the birds. You enjoy playing in the green fields
and meadows ; in summer time you like to sit under the shade trees,
and you like to look for wild berries. Many of you have been out in
the open nights, and seen the gentle moon and the stars shining.
Dear children, it is not sufficient to look at created things in a superficial
manner, and to think : this is a flower, that is a bird, that is
a tree, there the moon, and the stars. But we must reflect whence or
from whom they all came. Now it could never occur to a reasonable
man that all these things existed of themselves. For instance, no
house could rise up of itself. Masons, carpenters, joiners, lock
smiths, plasterers have to be actively employed. If then not even
a house, however small it might be, could erect itself, how is it possible
that the great wide world and everything that it contains could
exist of itself?
Now if it is an assured fact that nothing can exist of itself we
might ask : Was everything that exists created by man ?
We will take five, ten, twenty, fifty, or a hundred workmen, and
let them singly or all together make a flower, a blade of grass, a
fly, or even a grain of sand. What would they accomplish ? Nothing.
Instead of a hundred workmen, let us take a thousand or all
the artisans of the whole world ; we will give them everything that
they require ; would they be able to produce the tiniest of creatures ?
Certainly not. Now if the visible creation, that is to say, created
things, do not exist of themselves, and all men of the entire earth
are unable to create anything, there must be a Being who produced
the visible creation. Behold, children, this Supreme Being, the
Creator of all things, is God.
The second proof of the existence of God is : the preservation of
the world. Whatever has been placed there or will be placed there
by man is only for a time. Things even which appeared to have
been made for centuries have perished. But what God has created
will last as long as it seems good to Him. Although the beauties of
nature pass away every year, still this perishableness is only temporary ;
for after a few months nature awakens again from the
frozen sleep of winter to new glory and beauty.
The third proof of the existence of God we will also take from
the visible natural creation. By attentively observing the works of
God we shall see that one creature is always subordinate to another.
Man is above the animals, animals above plants, plants above stones,
living creatures above inanimate ones, and the more perfect above
the less perfect. We have every right to conclude from this that a
creator must be above all creatures, that above all imperfect, defective,
earthly beings there must be a supreme perfect Being, namely,
God. The fourth proof consists in the voice of conscience. If,
for instance, some one wants to do wrong, he hears an interior voice
which warns him not to do so. If he does not listen to this warning
and sins, then the interior voice reproaches him bitterly; he feels
within him an indescribable fear and perturbation ; he is afraid
without knowing of whom, and peace and quiet have vanished from
his heart. But when any one has done good he feels an interior
contentment within his heart, a delight and a happiness which it is
impossible to describe.
Behold, children, this inward voice which praises or blames us
is conscience. There must, therefore, be a Supreme Being who
has placed this voice within us, and this Supreme Being is
God.
The fifth proof of the existence of God is revelation. God has
revealed Himself to men ; that is to say, He has made Himself known
to them. God said to our first parents in Paradise : "Eat not the
fruit of the forbidden tree. If you eat therefrom you shall die."
When, notwithstanding this, they sinned, God made known to them
His displeasure, and ordained for each one the punishment deserved.
Later God revealed Himself to Cain. "Why art thou so angry and
why is thy countenance fallen? Behold, if thou doest good, thou
art as dear to Me as thy brother Abel."
Furthermore God revealed Himself to Noe: "Make thee an
ark, for I will bring the waters of a great flood upon the earth to
destroy all flesh." To Abraham God revealed Himself several times :
"Walk before Me," said God to him, "and be perfect." When
Abraham was about to sacrifice his onlv son, Isaac, to God, God said
to him : "I will bless thee, and thou shalt be filled with blessings.
All the people of the earth shall be blessed in thee."
God revealed Himself to the Israelites in the law through
Moses, to whom He gave the ten commandments upon Mount Sinai.
In the new law God revealed Himself to men by His Son Jesus
Christ.
But if God has revealed Himself to men, there must then be a
God, for only a being who is really present can reveal Himself.
The sixth proof of the existence of God is this, that all the peoples
of the whole world believe in the existence of a Supreme Being.
The savages call Him Manitou (the great spirit), the Mohammadens
call Him Allah, the Jews call Him Elohim, Adonai, Jehovah,
but we Christians call Him God. The ancient Greeks and Romans
even believed in numerous gods, because they had the idea that the
operations of the Supreme Being were so infinite that one God was
not sufficient for them.
There are people who to this day look upon the sun and the fire
as gods and worship these elements, so profoundly is the belief in
the existence of a Supreme Being founded amongst all the peoples
of the earth. Even if the idea of a Supreme Being is different with
many people, obscure and confused, still this fact is a proof to us
that there must be a Supreme Being, there must be a God. For this
reason the Apostles Creed (which contains briefly everything that
a Christian ought to believe) begins with the words: "I believe
in God," that is to say : I believe that there is a Supreme Being.
I have, then, by incontestable proofs proved to you the existence
of God.
Notwithstanding this, and although the visible world alone is
sufficient to prove this belief, there are still men who are so blinded
as to deny the existence of God. They are called atheists. It is
hardly credible that a man could go so far. Holy Writ calls these
men fools, -when it says : "The fool only says in his heart : There
is no God."
I would willingly have kept silent on this subject, but it is possible
that later in life you may meet persons of this kind. I consider it
my duty to draw your attention to this, and to warn you against
associating with them. Believe them not, and accept none of their
maxims ! Be all the more faithful and firm in your belief in the
existence of God. This faith will encourage you to learn to know
God better, the knowledge of God will lead you to the love of God,
the love of God to be obedient to Him, as well as to fear Him. The
fear of God will preserve you from every sin and be an incentive
to virtue and piety. Thus your belief in the existence of God will
become the basis and foundation of your eternal salvation. Now
so as to convince myself that you were attentive during the instruction
to-day, and that you have understood and observed everything,
we will have a repetition of it all.