An eleven-year-old boy in our neighbourhood told me that for today’s eclipse passing through Eastern Ontario, he was going to fill up a big bowl of water and look at the phenomenon in the reflection to protect his eyes. I immediately thought of how we cannot behold God directly but only indirectly due to His grandeur and being totally “Other”.
Saint Paul explains, “We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know I part; but then I shall know even as I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). We see only a small percentage of reality from our human vantage. We are rational animals and so the beginning of knowledge, for us, always begins with the senses.1 Immaterial and metaphysical truths are accessible after reflection.
Since all we know through our senses is change (motion, in the broad sense, in the Thomistic vocabulary), we can’t fathom One who does not change or is unmoved. It is hard to grasp a Being which does not change, so we know God through the light of natural reason by what He is not, namely, for example, that He is unmoved.2