Credo Resources: Existence of God

At some point, every one of us wonders, Why am I here? It’s one of those questions that sneaks up on you in quiet moments—when life feels routine, or when you’ve achieved something you thought would make you happy but somehow… it didn’t. The Church actually has a very direct answer:

“The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to Himself.”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church 27)

In other words, we were made for God. Everything else we chase—success, love, comfort, even good things like family or purpose—only makes sense when they’re connected to Him. St. Augustine said it best: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” Bishop Robert Barron rephrases this truth for our modern ears: “Every desire of the human heart is a desire for God in disguise.” Think about that for a second. The reason we long for love, beauty, truth, and joy is because we were made by Love, Beauty, Truth, and Joy Himself.

Of course, our culture doesn’t really like that answer. Secular society tends to push God aside and tell us that happiness comes from what we can buy, achieve, or control. But when we build our lives around those things, the satisfaction always fades. C.S. Lewis had a sharp insight here:

“We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us.”

The world’s promises are like saltwater—they look refreshing, but the more we drink, the thirstier we become. The only real fulfillment comes from the One who made us.

Before we can talk about having a relationship with God, though, we have to ask a more basic question: how do we even know He’s real? The Church says we can know God in two ways—through reason and through experience.

We can start just by looking around. The order and beauty of creation, the moral law written on our hearts, our longing for justice and goodness—all of these point to something beyond ourselves.

“By natural reason man can know God with certainty, on the basis of His works.”
(CCC 50; see also Romans 1:19–20)

Philosophers like St. Thomas Aquinas showed that everything that exists depends on something else for its being. Trace that chain of causes back far enough, and you arrive at a single, necessary cause: God. Peter Kreeft puts it simply: “Belief in God is not a leap in the dark, but a reasonable step in the light.”

But reason only takes us so far. God doesn’t just want us to know about Him—He wants us to know Him personally. Maybe you’ve felt it: that deep peace during prayer, the forgiveness you didn’t expect, the beauty that suddenly makes your heart ache in a good way. This longing and openness we feel is no accident.

Faith builds on reason, but it also reaches beyond it—into relationship. And faith isn’t just saying “I believe” to a list of doctrines. It’s saying “I trust You” to a personal God.

“Faith is man’s response to God, who reveals Himself and gives Himself to man.”
(CCC 26)

It’s both a gift and a choice. God gives the grace to believe, but we must freely respond. Pope Benedict XVI once wrote, “Faith is not a theory about God; it is a relationship with Him.” Faith is not blind—it’s deeply personal. It means trusting that God knows what He’s doing with your life even when you don’t see the whole picture yet.

Here’s the amazing part: we don’t have to go searching blindly for God. He’s already come looking for us. The Letter to the Hebrews says,

“In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days He has spoken to us by a Son.”
(Hebrews 1:1–2)

God reveals Himself through Scripture, Tradition, and the Church—the living Body of Christ that preserves and proclaims His word. These topics are discussed in depth in the next session but, for now, let’s consider who this God is who has revealed Himself.

At the center of Christianity is not an idea, but a relationship. God is one Being in three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

“The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life.”
(CCC 234)

The Father is the eternal Source of all that is. He is the Creator who brings the universe into being by His Word and sustains it by His love. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father. To "beget" is to "bring forth one's own nature" - in other words, the Son is never created but is eternally of the same nature as the Father. The Son is the Word through whom all things were made, Jesus Christ who took on our humanity to redeem us. The Holy Spirit is the bond of love between the Father and the Son, the very breath of God, who is poured into our hearts to make us holy and draw us into divine life. Each Person is fully God—distinct, yet never divided. As the Church teaches, the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father—but all three are one God, co-equal and co-eternal in a communion of perfect love. Everything they do, they do in perfect unity. 

The Trinity isn’t something we can fully wrap our minds around—it’s something we can enter into. God is love itself (1 John 4:8), and love, by its very nature, exists in relationship. Bishop Barron says it this way: “The Trinity is not a math problem to be solved but a love story to be entered into.” The Father eternally loves the Son. The Son perfectly returns that love to the Father. And the love between them—the Holy Spirit—is so real, so alive, that He is a Divine Person too. Three Persons, one God. Perfect unity in perfect love.

If we’re made in the image of a Trinitarian God, then we’re made for relationship. We’re not meant to live in isolation or self-sufficiency. We are meant for communion—with God and with one another. The community of the Trinity is the model for every human family, friendship, and parish. It shows us that love isn’t self-seeking but self-giving.

This brings us back to our starting question. Why are we here? We’re here to know and love the God who, in His very essence, a Trinity of love, to serve Him faithfully, and to one day be united with Him forever in Heaven.