Knowing God

Confiteor tibi, Domine, Pater caeli et terrae, quia abscondisti haec a sapientibus et prudentibus, et revelasti ea parvulis... Qui sunt sapientes? Antiqui philosophi, et oratores, qui naturali sapientia literarum exercitatione exacuminati, de Dei natura quaerere contendebant, non Deum invenire desiderantes, sed altissima disserere cupientes, victi sunt ingenio, defecerunt sermone: in ultimo nihil se amplius invenire potuisse confessi sunt, nisi quia Deus incognoscibilis est. Et ut quid ergo tantum laborasti, si ignorans es, postquam requisisti, quemadmodum fueras, antequem quaereres? Sicut enim qui innavigabilem oceanum navigare se usurpat, dum non potest eum transire, necesse est, ut per eadem viam revertatur, unde ingressus est: sic et illi ab ignorantia coeperunt, et in ignorantia finierunt. O homo sapiens, magis autem insipiens! Deus invisibilis est, et quis potest videre,nisi ipse se videat? Serva ergo mandata Dei, sanctifica cor tuum, ita ut inhabitet Deus in te, et videas Deum. Magis autem non vides, sed Deus, qui est in te, videt te. Deus incomprehensibilis est. Quis enim potest comprehendere eum, nisi ipse se comprehendat? Serva ergo mandata Dei, sanctifica cor tuum, ita ut Deus habitet in te, et quotidie magis ac magis invenies Deum. Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum, Homilia XXVIII Source: Migne PG 56.776

I confess to you Lord, Father of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to little ones... 1 Who are the wise? The ancient philosophers and orators who with their natural wisdom exerted themselves in the exercise of letters and disputed in the enquiry of the nature of God, not wishing to find God but desiring to speak cleverly of high things, who were by their own minds overthrown, and cast down in their words, for in the end they confessed they were not able to find out anything more than that God was unknowable. And why, therefore, did you labour so greatly, if being ignorant, after you had ceased, you were as you were before you sought? For like a man who has thrust himself forward to navigate the unnavigable ocean which he is not able to cross, and he must return on the same way he went out, so it is that those who have begun from ignorance shall end in ignorance. O wise man, how much more unwise! God cannot be seen, and who can see Him unless He shall see Himself? Therefore keep the commandments of God, sanctify your heart, so that God may dwell in you, and you will see God, or rather you will not see but God who is in you shall see for you. God is unknowable and who is able to know him unless Him who knows Himself? Therefore keep the commandments of God, sanctify your heart, so that God might dwell in you and with every day that passes you will find God more and more. Opus Imperfectum on Matthew, from Homily 28 1 Mt 11.25