32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Ask Father:
This week’s question: “Why is God so important?”
Here’s another one that one of younger members submitted recently – and, because God IS so important, so is your question, so (as always) thanks for asking! So, let’s get right to it.
Why is God so important? Because He Is!
No, really, that’s why.
In His great theophany to Moses, God gives us His Name: I AM. That’s Who God Is – He is the One Who Is. Everything and everyone else that you can think of (and everything else that you can’t think of) sometimes is and sometimes isn’t. There was a time when I was not, and the same is true for you and everyone else. Before I came to be (about nine months before I was born), I wasn’t. The same is true of everyone – and even more true of everything. You and I will always exist once we’ve begun to exist (because we have immortal souls). But things do not. If we think of something that doesn’t exist – whether it be “the soul of a nation” or a unicorn named Fredderf – they only ‘exist’ for as long as we think of them.
These things are only thoughts that don’t have existence in themselves – outside of our imaginations. But many other kinds of things, of course, do possess existence – things like this piece of paper that you’re reading right now or the air that we’re breathing or that car that just drove by or the sun up in the sky. These things exist, but they don’t have to and they didn’t always exist nor will they always continue to exist. There was a time when they were not; there will come a time when they will not be.
What all this eventually leads us to is this: if nothing and no one always IS, then where and how did anything or anyone come to be? After all, nothing comes from nothing, so everything had to come from something (or Some One Who always Is). That, of course, is Who God Is: I AM. Without Him, there could not be anything (or anyone).
That’s why God is so important. He is the original all-or-nothing dilemma. Either God Is, or nothing is; so, since He Is, He is all-important. He is more important than anything or anyone. Moreover, He Is more important that everything and everyone! “All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:3-5)
What this means is that we should be eternally grateful to God for being God. Our whole lives should revolve around Him, because He is so important,
because He Is. Thanks again to God for making you, and to you for asking such an important question! If you have any other thoughts on this one or any other question, please share them with us. May God bless you this wintry autumn and always!