It’s with a heavy heart that I realize the post title would probably be the extent of the response most people these days would be able to muster to the question posed below, compared with the eloquence of St. Cyril of Jerusalem. And yes, I am totally and completely thieving the quote from Mike Aquilina’s A Year With The Church Fathers; I consider it advertising for an eminently worthy work. Yes, yes that should do nicely. In an age like ours that so often attempts to blindly put the past behind us it does us well to look back to find the deep riches of wisdom in the words of our forebears.
But someone might say, “If what God is can never be comprehended, why do you even talk about these things?”
So, then, because I can’t drink up the whole river, am I not even allowed to take in moderation what’s good for me? Because with eyes made like mine I can’t look directly at the sun, am I not even allowed to look at as much of the sunlight as I want? Or if I go into a big garden and can’t eat all the fruits, would you have me go away completely hungry?
I praise and glorify him who made us, for it is a divine command that says, “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!” (Psalm 150:6). Right now I am trying to glorify the Lord, but not to describe him. Although I know I won’t be able to glorify him as he deserves, yet I still think it’s a work of piety even to try at all.
— St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 6, 5
