Does God Multiply?
I say Mass every week in a small chapel over at St. Alexander’s school. It’s on our parish YouTube page, anyone is welcome to see it, the link is on our webpage (https://www.youtube.com/@st.alexanderschurch2390/playlists). In the end, I take some time to ask if they have any questions, and I love the questions they ask. Does God sleep? Where does God live? How old are you? But one of the most common questions often asked in about grade 4, but sometimes younger, is “Who made God.” This was asked once by a class of grade 2 students, my compliments to the teachers for instilling in them a sense of mystery.
I answer it this way, if someone were to make God, what would we call this new and deeper creator? We can’t call him God, because that name’s already taken. “Super God,” someone said. “I like it. But who made “superGod? Well, obviously, super super God.” And when does that end? There is no superGod. Does that make me a super atheist?” It reminds me of the myth about the world being on the back of a turtle. What’s that turtle sitting on? Another turtle. And that one? “Stop asking, it’s turtles all the way down.”
Then one little boy said, “Does God multiply?” I’m not exactly sure what motivated that question, but before then, after almost 24 years of priesthood, I had never been asked that question about God. We know God adds because he created something outside of himself - this world, you and I. And he’s continually creating it. So I took another shot at it: "We know that God is one, right? And we know that the Father is one, the Son is one and the Holy Spirit is one. Multiply all those together and what do you get? One. So even though God can add through creation, God can’t multiply."
The best explanation of the Trinity I have ever heard comes from the soul of someone really little. At the end of the day, what helps me understand the Trinity is that God is basically invisible. And what is invisible can’t be multiplied - it can be added to, I suppose (but aren't we all of God, even the stuff He created?) but not multiplied. But once something becomes visible, then it can be multiplied. That’s what I’m hoping to happen here, the VIDAL SASSOON of evangelization - “I told two friends,” and “I told 2 friends - remember the commercial? If each of you told two friends what a wonderful place this is, very soon we won't be able to contain you.
So our world, the world of multiplication, the multiplication of the loaves, is fundamentally different than the world of God, which is invisible and indivisible and eternal. Paul talks about this in his first Letter to the Corinthians:
What we utter is God’s wisdom: a mysterious, a hidden wisdom. God planned it before all ages for our Glory. None of the rulers of this age knew the mystery; if they had known it they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. Of this wisdom it is written: Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, what Good has prepared for those who love him. Yet God has revealed this wisdom through the Spirit. (1 Cor. 6-9)
And yet, with the eyes of faith, we do see glimpses of that invisible reality. We know it's there from the signs that are expressed:
Creation itself is the visibility of the invisible God.
Your own body is the visibility of your invisible soul.
Our structures, our buildings, our inventions - these are the visibility of the invisible knowledge.
The hand of friendship is the visibility of invisible love.
Jesus is the visibility of an invisible way, a journey to an invisible destination, a journey to eternal life.
Let us honour our belief in the invisible God by taking care of our creation, by taking care of our own bodies, by using our intelligence wisely, by shaking hands and gathering together, and by believing in Jesus Christ, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever beliefs in him might not perish but have eternal life. Louis Armstrong understood this.
I see trees of green, Red roses too
I see them bloom For me and you
And I think to myself What a wonderful world
I see skies of blue And clouds of white
The bright blessed day The dark sacred night
And I think to myself What a wonderful world
The colours of the rainbow are So pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces Of people going by
I see friends shaking hands Saying, "How do you do?”
They're really saying I love you
I hear babies cry I watch them grow
They'll learn much more Than I'll ever know
And I think to myself What a wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself
What a wonderful world Ooh, yes