The Reticence of God
Leon J. Podles on Signs & Revelation
I will die eventually, perhaps painfully. Yet in many incidents of my life I recognize the preserving hand of God. Once I was driving along a rural road on a mountainside at 60 MPH. I suddenly noticed the beauty of the wildflowers and slowed down to a crawl to admire them. At that moment a tire blew out.
Many Christians have had such experiences, yet they still tend to think of God as an undifferentiated, impersonal blob. One English Methodist, in justifying a new hymnal that addressed God as “Mother” as well as “Father,” explained that it didn’t matter what we called him (or her), because God wasn’t really a person.
The Scriptures reveal a God with a distinct personality. One of the most mysterious traits of his personality is his seeming reluctance to manifest himself. Even in his clearest manifestations, there is great darkness. He is a hidden God, even a hiding God; he is, we might say, reticent. His divine reticence is one of the greatest mysteries of his personality. It is this reticence, perhaps, that some Christians mistake for impersonality.
Nature’s Testimony
Nature testifies to the existence of God, according to Paul, but only in the darkest way. The testimony is not unambiguous, nor is the interpretation easy. Pascal wrote, “I have a hundred times wished that if a God maintains nature, she should testify to him unequivocally, and that, if the signs she gives are deceptive, she should suppress them altogether” (Pensées 229).
Signs of God’s presence and of his beneficent will are certainly present in nature, but how dark the signs are. How can a good God maintain a universe blighted by such evil? In the face of evil, man is tempted to think that either God is not good (in any sense that we can understand), or there is no God. Yet if there is no God, or he is not good, whence come the miracles of goodness in the world? Why is there such beauty?
Even in revelation, God is still a hidden God. He works miracles, but we cannot command him to do so, or even predict when he will work them. Nor does he do them in sufficient number or power to convince the skeptical. Even when he does them, they sometimes harden the hearts of God’s enemies against him. Jesus’ raising of Lazarus did not convince his enemies that he was the Messiah. It convinced them that he must die.
Jesus seems reluctant to reveal his identity as Messiah. He performs miracles quietly, often before a handful of people, in out-of-the-way places. He will not throw himself from the pinnacle of the temple that all may believe. He silences the demons that know his true identity. After the Resurrection the disciples have trouble recognizing him, and he vanishes from their sight as soon as they recognize him. Even among his disciples who see his ascension, some doubt. Jesus does not show himself to his enemies, but only to his disciples and even then in such a way that they are not overpowered into belief.
This reticent God does not like to force himself on people. He wishes to be sought for his own sake, not for the sake of the signs he can do, and therefore reveals himself only a little. As Pascal wrote, “God has set up in the Church visible signs to make himself known to those who should seek him sincerely, and that he has nevertheless so disguised them that he will only be perceived by those who seek him with all their heart” (Pensées 194).
God wants to be sought and to be found; he does not want to impose himself on those who are not interested, much less on those who reject him. Pascal connected this search with the wretchedness and glory of mankind. “If there were no obscurity, man would not be sensible of his corruption; if there were no light, man would not hope for a remedy. Thus, it is not only fair, but advantageous to us, that God be partly hidden and partly revealed; since it is equally dangerous for man to know God without knowing his own wretchedness, as to know his own wretchedness without knowing God” (Pensées 586).
Leon J. Podles holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia, has worked as a teacher and a federal investigator, and is president of the Crossland Foundation. He is the author of The Church Impotent (Spence), Sacrilege (Crossland Press), and Losing the Good Portion: Why Men Are Alienated from Christianity (St. Augustine Press). Dr. Podles and his wife have six children and live in Baltimore, Maryland. He is a senior editor of Touchstone.
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