My brother gave a talk at his church. In it he said:

“I grew up on the East Coast and Midwest amongst parishes, schools, relatives, and holidays that were Catholic as far as the eye could see. It was a loving, if ineffable, God at the center of it all.”

My siblings and I were impressed with his word choice, “ineffable.” Our dad always had an appreciation of a good “word choice.” 

As I reflected on his description of our religious upbringing, I had to agree. We learned who God was through a kind of osmosis. Our parochial education and extended family kept us mainly in circles of people who all believed the same things and held the same world view, as well as the after-life possibilities of heaven and hell.

One thing we knew for sure: God was God. We thanked Him for our food before meals and for our blessings at bedtime. We worshiped Him on Sunday. We knew Jesus died an awful death on the cross for us. We loved His mother and she loved us.

The God that I grew up knowing was more mystery than definable. More known though sacrament and symbol than conversation in prayer. More caretaker than companion. This wasn’t all bad. As my brother said, we grew up believing, trusting and loving a God who loved us.

I looked up the definition of ineffable, “too great or extreme to be expressed in words.” It denotes qualities that transcend human comprehension. I think it is a good thing to believe that God is so holy and has a love for us that is so intense and beautiful it cannot be expressed in words. It signifies the respect we should have for the fundamental gap between the magnitude of the divine and the limits of human expression and comprehension.

Looking back, I do wish we had learned more about Jesus from reading and reflecting on Scripture. I think my relationship with Jesus has flourished more since I have learned this practice. I am grateful as an adult to live every day with an awareness of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, promised to be with me always. I believe the Holy Spirit guides me with gifts of knowledge, understanding, wisdom and courage, given to me at Baptism. I have learned these gifts are available for me to call upon every day.

More than anything, I am grateful that my faith was cultivated as a mystery of unfathomable love. It was a blessing lasting a lifetime. I just hope I have passed it on to those in my care so they will know whatever the question, our God will answer it with love though we may not have the vision to know or see it until we are finally home with our ineffable God.