SECRET TRUTH | KAIROS GLOBAL | FEBRUARY 2022

Author: Anil Israel

Intro: We are called to an intimate relationship with God, to be filled with the truth and to put love to action, says Anil Israel.

I once heard in a retreat that ‘pagans’ are those who do not ‘know’ that God is their Father. If believers are meant to be those who ‘know God’ and unbelievers as Gentiles who do not know God (1 Thessalonians 4:5), then we who call ourselves Christians ought to ask ourselves, am I truly a believer? What is my personal understanding of what it means to ‘know God’? Interestingly, knowing about something and knowing something are not necessarily the same. 

If I grow up in a place where a certain fruit or for that matter any other uncommon thing is not normally available, then I can know a lot about that thing by reading about it or learning about it from several sources of information at my disposal. However, if I do not taste that fruit or have a tangible experience of that which is not easily accessible in my vicinity, it continues to remain alien to me. I might know something about it, but I am still to know it fully. The same can unquestionably be said about God. I can expose myself to a lot of information about God, about his attributes, about his works, but still, I might not yet ‘know God’. ‘Does that really matter?’ one might ask. The short answer: It’s all that matters. 

As a young adult, like many others, I too happened to put myself on the irresistible quest-for-truth, my self-initiated search for answers to all of life’s most sought-after questions. In this journey of discovery, it dawned on me that the answers to some of the most fundamental questions were already made known to us through childhood catechism. ‘Who made me?’ God made me. ‘Why did God make me?’ God made me to know him, to love him, to serve him and to be happy with him forever in eternity. It was as simple as that. However, somewhere on the search for a concrete answer to the purpose of human existence, these fundamental truths somehow were unconsciously left behind, eventually getting lost under a heap of other intellectual pursuits.

In biblical language, ‘knowing’ is akin to ‘spousal relationship’ – the most intimate relationship that can be envisaged on earth. God himself is an eternal exchange of love… and he has destined us to share in that exchange (CCC 221). God desires us to be partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Interceding to the heavenly Father, Jesus earnestly prayed: That they all shall be one, just as you, my Father, are in me, and I am in you, so that they also shall be one in us (John 17:21). God desires that we be one with him – that we share the most intimate relationship with him – that we ‘know’ him. 

So knowing God is all about experiencing his love, tasting his love, having a personal encounter with him. This personal encounter further leads to deepening and growing in an intimate relationship with him. Jesus’s yearning for souls on the cross: I thirst (John 19:28) echoes ‘God thirsts that we may thirst for him’ (St Augustine).

Secondly, we have been given the commandment to love. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength (Mark 12:29-30; Deuteronomy 6:4-5). You shall love your neighbour as yourself (Mark 12:31). This is a synopsis of the Ten Commandments. Deuteronomy 6:6-9 further encourages us to constantly remind ourselves of our topmost priority and to even diligently teach our children to uphold this in their hearts.

It is said that Alexander the Great made the following three wishes on his dying bed: I want my physicians to carry my body alone because I want people to know that no doctor can cure people’s illnesses, especially when they face death… so don’t take life for granted. I want the path leading to my grave to be strewn with gold, silver, and precious stones… because I want people to know that not even a fraction of gold will come with me. I want my both hands to keep dangling out of my coffin because I want people to know that we came empty-handed in this world and we will go empty-handed. It is also reported that Steve Jobs too, expressed in his deathbed speech: ‘we should pursue other matters that are unrelated to wealth’. 

People vehemently communicate the most important message in the final moments of their life. In his farewell discourse, Jesus too reiterated the new commandment: love one another, as I have loved you (John 13:34; 15:12). If you love me, you will obey my commandment (John 14:15). If you love one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples (John 13:35). Our lives therefore sum up to the measure of love with which we live our lives.

Further we learn more about love from the epistle of St John - the evangelist of love. And by this we may be sure that we know him, if we keep his commandments (1 John 2:3). He who does not love, does not know God (1 John 4:8). So, we see that loving God is a sign of knowing God. They both are inseparable. Whoever claims that he knows him, and yet does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him (1 John 2:4).

Now, we know that the truth (John 14:6) is a person – Jesus Christ – the Word incarnate. Your word is truth (John 17:17). Jesus also taught: If you dwell in my word, you are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (John 8:31-32). If our hearts are filled with the Word of God, our hearts are filled with the truth. And this truth gives us the freedom to choose God and his will. 

Finally, we are called to serve – to put love into action, to fulfil our ministry (cf. 2 Timothy 4:5), to excel in good works (Titus 3:14). For we are called to be not hearers but doers of the Word (cf. Romans 2:13) for faith without works is dead (James 2:26). Our good works are meant to shine like stars (Phil.2:15) so that others may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven (cf. Matthew 5:16).

It is God’s Word dwelling in our hearts that bear the lasting fruits of good works. The unfolding of your word gives light (Psalm 119:130) and enables us to be children of the light (Ephesians 5:8). Let us embrace this secret truth (Romans 16:25) that if we love one another, God abides in us (1 John 4:12).