Brief Note on Remotion
“Now, because we cannot know what God is, but rather what He is not, we have no means for considering how God is, but rather how He is not. Now it can be shown how God is not, by denying Him whatever is opposed to the idea of Him.” (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae 1, q.3, intro.)
The idea “we cannot know God” is contradicted by Scripture:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." Matt 7:7-8
“No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” Matt 11:27
“For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light.” Luke 8:17
“There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.” Luke 12:2
Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12
“I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.” John 10:14-15
“Whoever walks in the dark does not know where he is going.” John 12:35
“Where [I] am going you know the way.” John 14:4
“I am the way and the truth and the life.” John 14:6
“If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:7
“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” John 14:9
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you." John 14:15-18
Jesus answered and said to him, "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you." John 14:23-26
“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth." John 16:12-13
“Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.” John 17:3
“I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.” John 17:26
God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. 1 John 4:16
Christians are baptized in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – whereas the Unnameable is seemingly unevokable. In the Eucharist, Christ reveals GOD – yet how is it possible for “outward signs” to direct our mind to the Unknowable? Moreover, if we cannot know what GOD is, how can we maintain any accurate “idea of Him” by which to discern what GOD is not? If I am making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, of what use telling me where it is not? Through imitation a child becomes like the parent, yet how can we become like the Father if we cannot know what or how the Father is? How can I love if I know not what love is? Truth images what is, what is not is nothing. I may not be able to stare at the sun yet still know it by its light, heat, and relative motion. Of the whole of the universe I know next to nothing, but I do know, to an extent, the paths of my neighborhood and where they lead and am able to share that information with others. The human soul is finite in that it has a beginning, but does it have an end? Does not Christ call us to eternal life, to union with GOD? Surely then, to be capable to unite with GOD, we must have an innate capacity to know, at some level, WHO GOD IS, WHAT GOD IS, and what is of GOD. Christ leads and lights the way. But is not the way of remotion a groping in the dark?