Can man understand the intimate nature of God?

 "No; it lacks a sense".

Will it ever be given to man to understand the mystery of the Godhead?

 "When his spirit is no longer obscured by matter and, by its perfection, has approached the Divine, then he will see and understand it".

Because of the inferiority of his faculties, man is unable to comprehend the inner nature of God. In the infancy of humanity, he often mistakes Him for the creature, whose imperfections he attributes to Him. But as the moral sense develops in him, his thought penetrates more deeply into the depths of things, and he forms an idea of God that is more just and more in accordance with sound reason, though it is always incomplete.

If we cannot understand the intimate nature of God, can we have an idea of some of his perfections?

"Of some, yes. Man understands them better as he rises above matter; he glimpses them with thought".

When we say that God is eternal, infinite, immutable, immaterial, unique, all-powerful, sovereignly just and good, do we not have a complete picture of his attributes?

"From your point of view, yes, for you believe yourselves to be all-embracing. Yet know that there are things above the intelligence of the most intelligent of men, for which your language, limited to your ideas and sensations, lacks expression. Reason tells you, indeed, that God must have these perfections in a supreme degree, for if He lacked even one of them, or if He did not possess it to an infinite degree, He would not be superior to all, and therefore would not be God. To be above all things, God must suffer no vicissitude, nor have any of the imperfections which the imagination can conceive".

God is eternal. If He had had a beginning, He would have come out of nothing, or else He would have been created by a previous being. Thus, from degree to degree, we go back to infinity and eternity. It is immutable. If it were subject to change, the laws governing the universe would have no stability. It is immaterial. This means that its nature differs from all that we call matter. Otherwise it would not be immutable, for it would be subject to the transformations of matter. It is unique. If there were many Gods there would be no unity of purpose or unity of power in the ordering of the universe. He is all-powerful. Because He is unique. If He did not have sovereign power, there would be something more powerful than Him or as powerful as Him. He would not have made all things, and those that He had not made would be the work of another God. He is sovereignly just and good. The providential wisdom of the divine laws is revealed in the smallest things as well as in the greatest. That wisdom leaves no room for doubt as to its justice and goodness.