It’s one of the oldest and most personal questions anyone can ask: “How can we really know that God exists?” Every believer, at some point, faces this moment of searching — not out of disbelief, but out of a deep longing to understand the One we cannot see. Asking this question is not a sign of weak faith; it’s a sign of a heart that wants truth.
When I talk with people about this, I often begin by saying that faith and reason are not enemies — they walk together. The Church teaches that God’s existence can be known both by faith and by reason. Faith lets us trust what God reveals of Himself; reason allows us to recognize His fingerprints in the world around us. As the Psalmist says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1). Creation itself whispers His presence — the order, beauty, and life of the universe speak of a Mind and a Love behind it all.
Philosophers have long reflected on this truth. Thinkers like St. Thomas Aquinas offered “proofs” for God’s existence — not proofs in the scientific sense, but in the sense of reasoned insight. He spoke of the “First Cause”: everything that begins to exist must have a cause, and tracing that chain of causes leads us to a Source that itself is uncaused — God. Others point to the design of creation, the moral law written in our hearts, and the longing for eternity that no earthly thing can fill. These are not coincidences; they are signs of the Divine Artist who made us.
Yet beyond reason, there is also experience — the quiet conviction that comes when we open our hearts in prayer, when we see forgiveness where hatred once lived, when beauty moves us to tears, or when love lifts us beyond ourselves. These moments speak a language that reason alone cannot. They are the soul’s way of recognizing its Creator. Jesus tells us, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (John 20:29). Faith is not blind; it’s seeing with the eyes of the heart.
So how can we know God exists? We know Him in the harmony of creation, in the moral truth that stirs our conscience, in the hunger of the soul for love that never ends, and in the person of Jesus Christ — the visible face of the invisible God. When we encounter Christ, we no longer believe in an abstract idea of God, but in a living Presence who loves, listens, and walks beside us.
May we never be afraid of our questions, for God is not hidden from the sincere heart.
He reveals Himself in the beauty of the world, the wisdom of truth, and the quiet voice that whispers, “I am with you.”
— Fr. John Matthew, for Christian Way
