To know God, we do what anyone would want to do to get to know someone before seeing them in person: we stalk God’s Facebook page! God’s Facebook page is the Bible. All through that one book is a treasure-trove of stories that show God’s work, humor, personality, and will for man. God also gave us books full of questions and answers that tell us more about the mind of God: the catechism. Any question one might have about what to do to please God can be answered in the catechism, and just as we are not afraid of researching someone on the internet, we should not be afraid to read about God to know more about Him.

However, to get to know someone, we don’t just read about them, we introduce ourselves and ask questions of them. We go over to their house and visit with them, and we invite them to our homes. It is easy to ask questions to find out about God.  It is as simple as asking your nearest Catholic, or Catholic priest, or even going to that handy dandy catechism. But many attributes of God and other little details are handed down through tradition, and word of mouth, and so should not be dismissed. Just as I would not know that John Smith likes chocolate-covered bananas without asking him and hearing from his mouth that he likes that food, I would never know certain things about God without hearing it from Him. Tradition’s words should be put into account with the words of the Bible and the catechism. You can also simply talk straight to God, and listen for His answer in your heart. There are many ways God reveals Himself to His family, and each way is unique to that person. And as for going over to God’s house, that would be going to Church. And to really get to know Him, go to Mass. He is really and truly present, and really wants to know you, even more than you want to know Him.

When you start an acquaintanceship with someone, you start to like them. Eventually, the acquaintanceship slowly turns into a friendship, and that is a good way to start loving God. When you make friends with someone, you and that person find out each other’s interests, and you learn how to treat each other. God gave us the Ten Commandments to show us how He likes us to treat Him and others. For God said, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”3 God made it even more simple, by summing it all up in the Two Great Commandments. In the same way you would say to your friend, “Please treat my boundaries with respect, and take your shoes off at the door.” God tells us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”4 And “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”5

By following the Two Great Commandments we follow the Ten Commandments. For if we love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, we would never put anything else before God that it becomes the god in our life, we would never take His Divine Name in vain, and we would never fail to attend Holy Mass on Sundays, and Holy Days of Obligation. Furthermore, if we love our neighbor as ourselves, we would never do anything to them that we would not do to ourselves. This means we would never lie to them, rob them, covet their goods, or kill them. By following the Two Great Commandments, we treat God, our friend, well. We also treat others well, and through them we treat God well. In this way, our friendship with God, not to mention anyone we come in contact with, grows.

As we continue getting deeper and deeper into our relationship with others, we find that not only to we like to be with them, but we love them. When we love them, we find it easy to serve them. Buying your friend a birthday present or doing them a favor is serving them, even if we don’t think about it that way. And they will do favors for you in return, even if we don’t expect them to do so. This is the kind of relationship God wants to have with us. When pain or sufferings occur, we should try our best to offer it up to God. It’s like giving God a gift, and one day He will repay you. Following His commandments and offering our lives, full of sufferings and joys as they are, to God is how we serve Him. And as was mentioned before, serving others also serves God.

God gave us simple outlines to know how to know, love, and serve Him. You cannot make it to your destination (Heaven) without first properly preparing to get there. We must prepare ourselves for Heaven, not just say that we have all the grace we need just by believing in God. I can believe in the existence of John Smith, but if I do nothing to know him, love him, or help him out, I’ll never be his friend, and I would never be invited to his house. The same goes for our relationship with God. We must get to know Him more and more deeply, so that His home becomes our home more and more.

We now know the very basic ways to know, love, and serve God. We can know God by reading the Bible, the catechism, and by the traditions handed down through the ages. We can even simply look at nature around us to learn about God, for an Artist always reveals Himself through His masterpieces. When we know God, we know what He asks of us, which very simply put, is to love unconditionally. We must love God above others, we must love others above ourselves, and we must respect and love ourselves as well. And when we love God and others, we can serve God. If we do these things, we will be on a sure path to Heaven.

Works Cited

1 Grey Baltimore Catechism, Lesson 1, question 3. Pg. 9

 2 Ibid; question 4

3  Matthew 25:40

4  Mark 25:30

5 Mark 25:31