Who is God?

Who or what is God? Is He even a He? What is he really like? How has fatherhood changed Him sonce the beginning of time?

When we say God, most people think of God, the Father, who Catholics believe is the first person of the Holy Trinity. The Trinity means that God is three persons in one in eternal communion.

Catholics recognize that who God is goes far beyond what we can know or express in human language. In fact, some theologians say that God is so vast that as soon as we think we've defined God, we're already wrong. But that's never stopped us from trying.

What pronouns do we use for God?

The Cathechism of the Catholic Church is clear that God is neither male or female and transcends human terms. It says that Gid is pure spirit, in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. However both Scripture and the Church have traditionally used He and Him to refer to Him.

It has to do with the way language works. In English, the masculine pronouns is gender neutral, which is why you can say all men and include everyone, even grandmother, girls in first grade, and your neighbor who thinks he's descended from dragons. And among other gender options, it would be really weird.

In Scripture, when asked who He is, God says, "I am who I am," which mean personhood and existence itself. Jesus also called God his Father. This carries on from the Old Testament.

God has also been called Creator of Heaven and Earth, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Most high, and more confusingly, I am and YHWH.

The last name YHWH is a tetragrammaton and has traditonally not used because it wasn't said out loud in Jewish tradition, as an expression of the infinite greatness and majesty of God, a practice that continued in Christianity.

What is God like?

Catholics believe God is the Creator of the Universe. Since nothing existed before Him, He transcends time and space, making Him eternal. And He's omnipotent, meaning He has the power to control everything, He holds all things in existence. Which is also why He is omnipresent, meaning He is everywhere all at once.

God is eternal to His creations, present all at once and everything depends on Him.

Catholics believe that God hd no reason for creating the universe or all of us other than love. God only knows why.

Catholic believes that God never ceases to call us to seek Him. And since we're created by God, the desire for Him is an inherent part of us. Which mean only in God that we will attaim true happiness.

If Good is good, why are there so many stories about Him that makes Him seem not?

Stories where God seemed to commancd murder and genocide are definitely tough. The thing to remember, though, is that the Old Testaments is the story of the development of God's relationship woth Israel. And all of the civilization we're talking about we're living in bronze age. Even the concept of metal tools was revolutionary, let alone just having one God.

Sacrificing children to gods wasn"t uncommon, and something evem the Israelites were tempted to do on a few occasions. That's not to say that two child sacrifices make a right. But more like, God had to reveal Himself to humanity gradually shaping and protecting the children of Israel.

When it comes to command to commit genocide, we won't be getting any commands like that, because Christ revealed that God in a completely different way than what people had gotten used to.

While adherence to the law was seen by many as the most important way to serve God. Jesus showed us a Gid that emphasized love, mercy and forgiveness, enought to gibe Himself for us. God didn't change but their ability to perceive God evolved. And Catholics see Jesus as having final word on God seeing as He is, you know, the Word of God.