20260513 FINDING THE UNKNOWN GOD
13 May 2026, Wednesday, 6th Week of Easter
First reading |
Acts 17:15,22-18:1 |
I proclaim the God you already worship without knowing it
Paul’s escort took him as far as Athens, and went back with instructions for Silas and Timothy to rejoin Paul as soon as they could.
So Paul stood before the whole Council of the Areopagus and made this speech:
‘Men of Athens, I have seen for myself how extremely scrupulous you are in all religious matters, because I noticed, as I strolled round admiring your sacred monuments, that you had an altar inscribed: To An Unknown God. Well, the God whom I proclaim is in fact the one whom you already worship without knowing it.
‘Since the God who made the world and everything in it is himself Lord of heaven and earth, he does not make his home in shrines made by human hands. Nor is he dependent on anything that human hands can do for him, since he can never be in need of anything; on the contrary, it is he who gives everything – including life and breath – to everyone. From one single stock he not only created the whole human race so that they could occupy the entire earth, but he decreed how long each nation should flourish and what the boundaries of its territory should be. And he did this so that all nations might seek the deity and, by feeling their way towards him, succeed in finding him. Yet in fact he is not far from any of us, since it is in him that we live, and move, and exist, as indeed some of your own writers have said:
“We are all his children.”
‘Since we are the children of God, we have no excuse for thinking that the deity looks like anything in gold, silver or stone that has been carved and designed by a man.
‘God overlooked that sort of thing when men were ignorant, but now he is telling everyone everywhere that they must repent, because he has fixed a day when the whole world will be judged, and judged in righteousness, and he has appointed a man to be the judge. And God has publicly proved this by raising this man from the dead.’
At this mention of rising from the dead, some of them burst out laughing; others said, ‘We would like to hear you talk about this again.’ After that Paul left them, but there were some who attached themselves to him and became believers, among them Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman called Damaris, and others besides.
After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 148:1-2,11-14 |
Your glory fills all heaven and earth.
or
Alleluia!
Praise the Lord from the heavens,
praise him in the heights.
Praise him, all his angels,
praise him, all his host.
Your glory fills all heaven and earth.
or
Alleluia!
All earth’s kings and peoples,
earth’s princes and rulers,
young men and maidens,
old men together with children.
Your glory fills all heaven and earth.
or
Alleluia!
Let them praise the name of the Lord
for he alone is exalted.
The splendour of his name
reaches beyond heaven and earth.
Your glory fills all heaven and earth.
or
Alleluia!
He exalts the strength of his people.
He is the praise of all his saints,
of the sons of Israel,
of the people to whom he comes close.
Your glory fills all heaven and earth.
or
Alleluia!
Gospel Acclamation | Col3:1 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ,
you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is,
sitting at God’s right hand.
Alleluia!
Or: | Jn14:16 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I shall ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate
to be with you for ever.
Alleluia!
Gospel | John 16:12-15 |
The Spirit of truth will lead you to the complete truth
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘I still have many things to say to you
but they would be too much for you now.
But when the Spirit of truth comes
he will lead you to the complete truth,
since he will not be speaking as from himself
but will say only what he has learnt;
and he will tell you of the things to come.
He will glorify me,
since all he tells you
will be taken from what is mine.
Everything the Father has is mine;
that is why I said:
All he tells you
will be taken from what is mine.’
FINDING THE UNKNOWN GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ACTS 17:15, 17:22-18:1; PS 148:1-2, 11-14; JOHN 16:12-15]
Many people today are seeking the “unknown God” in their lives. They are sincerely looking for God, yet somehow, they remain unfulfilled even though they are doing well in their careers and family life. Something seems to be missing. This was what gave Paul the opportunity in Athens to address the whole Council of the Areopagus: “Men of Athens, I have seen for myself how extremely scrupulous you are in all religious matters, because I noticed, as I strolled round admiring your sacred monuments, that you had an altar inscribed: To An Unknown God.”
The question is: where can we find the true and living God? What does it mean to seek the living God in our lives? It means to seek the fullness of truth, life, and love. Unless we know the Ultimate Reality, this life can feel meaningless. Everything on this Earth we know is transient; it can even be likened to an illusion. Only the Ultimate Reality can fill the hunger of the human heart and quench his thirst. To seek “false gods” instead of the Ultimate Reality is a futile exercise, as it is a search for things that cannot last. These false gods include the worship of money, pleasure, power, and status. Such worldly pursuits cannot bring real and lasting fulfilment. The truth is that we are not merely sensual beings made of matter; we have a soul that seeks the transcendent things of heaven.
With courage – with or without the help of his brothers, in and out of season – St Paul testified to the living God. He said to them, “Well, the God whom I proclaim is in fact the one whom you already worship without knowing it.” In other words, God is already in our midst and present in the lives of those who sincerely seek Him. Those who seek the truth and experience a deep vacuum in their lives already know that they are seeking the Transcendent. However, often they fail to recognise Him because of ignorance. While man, through effort and reason, can come to know certain truths about God as Creator of heaven and earth, we cannot know Him personally or understand His interior life unless He reveals Himself to us.
This explains why Christianity is a religion of revelation. It speaks of grace and faith, rather than effort and reason alone. Without divine revelation, no one can claim to know God and His interior life, just as we cannot claim we know someone unless we have lived with them. This is what the Gospel tells us today as well: it is the Spirit of Truth, whom the Father sends in the name of Jesus, who reveals to us the fullness of Truth.
That is why we cannot blame those who do not know Him or who find it difficult to accept our belief in Christ. The truth is that our faith in Christ is not proven by reason or logic alone, but through a personal relationship rooted in faith and in revelation. Thus, the Athenians – who lacked faith and reduced the question of God merely to an intellectual discourse – were unconverted. Indeed, they were sceptical and not yet ready to believe. It is clear that reason alone cannot argue or convince one to faith.
How is the Church so certain that we know who the living God is? It is because of the passion, death, and resurrection of the Lord. When Christ was on Earth, He revealed the Father’s love and mercy through His teachings, and most of all through His works: healings, exorcisms, the forgiveness of sinners, and ultimately, His death on the cross. If His death had been the end of the drama, we could say little more than that Jesus was a good man or a great teacher – perhaps even a misguided one who only thought He was God or the Messiah. But because God raised Him from the dead, Jesus was vindicated as the One, as St Paul says, “to be the judge. And God has publicly proved this by raising this man from the dead.”
So it is only through God’s revelation that we can arrive at the conclusion that Jesus is the Son of the Living God! Through Him, we come to know the Father. Indeed, with the revelation of Jesus as the Son of God, we also come to know that the Living God is a Trinitarian God; for Jesus promised that He would ask the Father to send us the Holy Spirit. As Jesus says in the Gospel: “He will glorify me, since all he tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: All he tells you will be taken from what is mine.”
Hence, we believe that Christ is the fullness of truth. As Dei Verbum (§ 4) teaches us: “Jesus perfected revelation by fulfilling it through his whole work of making Himself present and manifesting Himself: through His words and deeds, His signs and wonders, but especially through His death and glorious resurrection from the dead and final sending of the Spirit of truth. Moreover, He confirmed with divine testimony what revelation proclaimed, that God is with us to free us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to life eternal. The Christian dispensation, therefore, as the new and definitive covenant, will never pass away and we now await no further new public revelation before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ. (see 1 Tim 6:14 and Tit 2:13).”
This does not mean that other religions are false; to make such a judgement would be going too far. Rather, as the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church (Lumen Gentium) tells us: “Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience. Nor does Divine Providence deny the helps necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God and with His grace strive to live a good life. Whatever good or truth is found amongst them is looked upon by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel. (LG, § 16) Gaudium et Spes also says, “All this holds true not only for Christians, but for all men of good will in whose hearts grace works in an unseen way. For, since Christ died for all men, and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with this paschal mystery.” (GS, § 22)
In other words, to an extent they know God, and to that extent they have the Truth. There are different degrees of Truth. Truth is never arrived all at once. Truth is always unfolding itself to us in different ways. This is what Jesus meant in today’s Gospel. Even His disciples could not understand Him when He spoke of His imminent death and resurrection. He told them, “I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now.” Indeed, you cannot teach those who cannot receive or appreciate what you are teaching. Just as one cannot explain profound and difficult things to a little child, revelation is not only an ongoing process, but its receptivity is also dependent on the listener. This is true even for us who are Catholics: to claim that Jesus is the fullness of truth does not mean we have understood everything.
Revelation, although completed in Christ Jesus – since He is the fullness of revelation – must continue to grow in terms of our understanding. Once again, Dei Verbum has this to teach us: “This tradition which comes from the Apostles develop in the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit. For there is a growth in the understanding of the realities and the words which have been handed down. This happens through the contemplation and study made by believers, who treasure these things in their hearts (see Luke, 2:19, 51) through a penetrating understanding of the spiritual realities which they experience, and through the preaching of those who have received through Episcopal succession the sure gift of truth. For as the centuries succeed one another, the Church constantly moves forward toward the fullness of divine truth until the words of God reach their complete fulfilment in her.” (DV, § 8)
For this reason, we need the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Truth – to guide us into the plenitude of truth. Understanding the Word of God is more than just understanding the text; it is about coming to know Jesus. Jesus is the Living Word of God. Therefore, the Holy Bible, as the inspired Word of God, remains the primary means by which we come to understand the person of Jesus. Yet, He is far greater than what any written word could contain, as St John said, “But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”
Only the Holy Spirit – who is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son – can reveal to us who Jesus really is. Our depth of understanding of Jesus depends on how intimately we know Him. The task of the Holy Spirit is to help us to recognise Jesus; for this reason, when we read the Scriptures, we cannot read it like an ordinary textbook. Instead, we must read with faith and love. Most of all, we must ask for the help of the Holy Spirit, as He is the One who leads us to the Truth and to Jesus. Thus, the Holy Spirit is also given to the Church to preserve the deposit of faith. Only through the Holy Spirit’s enduring presence in the Church can the Magisterium teach, without error, the truths as revealed to us.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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