Can we truly love God whom we cannot begin to conceptualize?

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Robert_Sock

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I feel a great love for people, but when it come to loving God, I’m somewhat dismayed at how to feel love toward a Being we cannot begin to conceptualize. I want to love Him, and I feel great gratitude towards the good things I attribute to Him, and I feel fear Him, but love Him, I just don’t know how.
 
The love that God is looking for from you is not an emotional feeling. It’s simply an act of the will.

When a person comes to appreciate that it’s only because of God that he even has existence and that it’s therefore only right that he live his life the way his Creator intended, he commits himself to obeying God’s commandments and seeking to do the Lord’s will.

He that hath my commandments and keepeth them; he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father: and I will love him and will manifest myself to him. (Jn 14:21, DRV)

For this is the charity of God: That we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not heavy. (1 Jn 5:3)
 
We can’t love God as much as He deserves to be loved as we don’t have that much capacity. And we can’t love what we don’t know. However God has revealed enough about Himself for us to know something of Him and that’s more than enough for us to work on in this life.
 
And along those lines…how did Jesus tell us how we are to love Him?
If you love me you will keep my commandments. John 14:15
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For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. ! John 5:3
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Love requires obedience.
 
Robert_Sock said:
I **feel **a great love for people, but when it come to loving God, I’m somewhat dismayed at how to feel love toward a Being we cannot begin to conceptualize. I want to love Him, and I feel great gratitude towards the good things I attribute to Him, and I feel fear Him, but love Him, I just don’t know how.
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Key word bolded. (and mentioned above in another post)

Love is not an emotion - it’s action. (common misconception)

To love God, is to love people.

The ‘how’ is to serve in the necessary capacity.

Someone might need a blanket, someone might need food, someone might need an ear to listen. Someone might need a hug. Someone might need a prayer.

All require action. God see’s action and recognizes it as loving Him, or not.
 
All the above responses are basically what I was going to say. Following for interest,
 
Robert_Sock said:
I feel a great love for people, but when it come to loving God, I’m somewhat dismayed at how to feel love toward a Being we cannot begin to conceptualize. I want to love Him, and I feel great gratitude towards the good things I attribute to Him, and I feel fear Him, but love Him, I just don’t know how.
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This is why Jesus came to Earth. Perhaps, it would be easier for you to first love Mary His Mother.

Perhaps love the Baby in the Manger.

Perhaps love the Man on the Cross.

Perhaps love the stories that Jesus told.

Perhaps love those around you.

We can not conceptualize God but we can conceptualize the love Mary felt toward Her Son. We can conceptualize a Man dying on a cross. We can conceptualize the father in the story of the Prodigal Son. This is where you can begin.
 
I live in mountain country in Western Colorado. On cold dark winter nights when I gaze at the stars, love is the only emotion I feel when I wonder at the beauty of God’s creation.
 
I would like to add, I certainly believe that we can truly love God, despite being unable to ever fully understand His nature. I would argue that we have no issue loving our best friend, our spouse, our parents, etc. despite not knowing everything there is to know about them.

I agree with others in that we can conceptualize God, with limitations. We can understand aspects of His nature and things that He has revealed, especially through the Incarnation. Love, as others have said, is not about feeling. Love is not a feeling, especially when one is talking about the Church. Love is the direction of one’s will. Direction for the other person is love, against them is something else, be it apathy or hate or what have you. God loves us. He wills our good, and is the source of the love shown to us by those around us. Through my parents’ love for me, God’s love for me is evident. I strive to be that same source of love for those around me, particularly those who do not know God. I understand aspects of God’s nature through those who love me, and like those people in my life, He desires that we love Him in return. My parents would be very hurt if, after providing so much time and affection and money and company and so on for me, I ungratefully ignored them, never called, never visited, refused to hug them, and overall just didn’t share aspects of my life with them in return for their doing the same for me.

Likewise, God wants us to do the same with Him. To share our troubles and joys and flaws and accomplishments, to talk to Him. I do not go to mass every Sunday (and sometimes confession every Saturday) out of duty, or at least entirely out of duty. My motivations are to show to God what limited reciprocation I can of His love for me.

All that said, I think one of the unending joys of Heaven is that, no matter how long we are there, how long we are in God’s presence, we will never reach a point where we fully understand Him, and particularly will never reach a point where we fully grasp the depth of His love for us. Even in eternity, we will not be able to reach a point where God’s love does not overwhelm us. Knowing how much our parents love us is already basically incomprehensible.
 
Love may not be an emotion, depending on how you define it, but rather love is an end state-of-being… a value! Humility is another Catholic value. It too involves a special end state-of-being.
 
Robert_Sock said:
I feel a great love for people, but when it come to loving God, I’m somewhat dismayed at how to feel love toward a Being we cannot begin to conceptualize. I want to love Him, and I feel great gratitude towards the good things I attribute to Him, and I feel fear Him, but love Him, I just don’t know how.
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The more we know God the more we love Him-because we’ve discovered, in Him, a great good, something desirable. And like another poster said, we meet Him first in the Person of Jesus, which, hopefully, leads to ongoing relationship. It’s not simply a matter of the will; like anything else it’s a matter of the will being attracted to that which delights it. But at best we only get a certain taste of that delight here and now, which is intended to develop in us even more trust/faith, more hunger and thirst for Him leading to more love. We’re here to begin to learn that very thing-of our absolute need for God and of His absolute worthiness. It’s a process-known as justification; the greater our justice the more we love, the more we love the greater our justice.
 
fhansen said:
The more we know God the more we love Him-because we’ve discovered, in Him, a great good, something desirable. And like another poster said, we meet Him first in the Person of Jesus, which, hopefully, leads to ongoing relationship. It’s not simply a matter of the will; like anything else it’s a matter of the will being attracted to that which delights it. But at best we only get a certain taste of that delight here and now, which is intended to develop in us even more trust/faith, more hunger and thirst for Him leading to more love. We’re here to begin to learn that very thing-of our absolute need for God and of His absolute worthiness. It’s a process-known as justification; the greater our justice the more we love, the more we love the greater our justice.
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Be careful because you seem to view love instrumentally as opposed to altruistically. Yes, I can love God for the good things He does, But it’s when I try to love God altruistically that I experience great difficulty. I do not feel this with my love of neighbor, and I’m able to love them unconditionally.
 
Robert_Sock said:
Be careful because you seem to view love instrumentally as opposed to altruistically. Yes, I can love God for the good things He does, But it’s when I try to love God altruistically that I experience great difficulty. I do not feel this with my love of neighbor, and I’m able to love them unconditionally.
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It’s to love God for the goodness He is. I’m really not sure what we possibly can do *for *Him anyway, *other *than to love Him. That’s what He covets in us. That’s where our own justice lies-because in that we’ve chosen and bound ourselves to ultimate goodness. The fulfillment it produces in us is almost a side-benefit. In any case, love is love. True love for God overflows into love of neighbor-and altruism results by it’s nature.

And BTW, it’s a fallacy to say that love can be separated from emotion-as if emotion is worthless or weak or childish. Love is a very powerful emotion-that causes us to act.
 
Robert_Sock said:
Love may not be an emotion, depending on how you define it, but rather love is an end state-of-being… a value! Humility is another Catholic value. It too involves a special end state-of-being.
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I kindly disagree.

Love doesn’t wait for each person to define it as they see fit.

It is what it is, action.
 
I often praise and worship God, that’s not a problem, what is a problem is that I feel my true, altruistic love for Him is difficult to feel.
 
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