The first article in this theology is the existence of a personal God
who, though all-pervading and all-powerful, does not reveal Himself
immediately to the human beings whom He has created to be His
worshippers, and does not so order the world that events shall always
express His will and purpose. He has endowed man with a sinful nature,
and has permitted His universe to be invaded by evil intelligences of
superhuman power and malignancy, who tempt man to destruction and are
bent upon subverting the Divine order of which they form a part. He is
supremely benevolent, and yet He only manifests the full measure of this
quality when His help is invoked by prayer; His goodwill often finds
expression in miracles--that is, in the suspending or reversing of the
general laws which He has Himself laid down for the regulation of the
universe and human destinies. He is inscrutable and incomprehensible;
yet to be deceived as to the nature of His being is the greatest of all
sins against His majesty. The goal of the religious life is personal
communion with Him, the intuitive apprehension and spontaneous
acceptance of His will, the Beatific Vision of His excellencies. But
this state of blessedness cannot be reached by mere self-discipline; the
prayers, the meditations, the good works of the isolated and
uninstructed individual, can only serve to condone a state of
irremediable ignorance. The avenue to knowledge of Him lies through
faith; and faith means the unquestioning acceptance of the twofold
revelation of Himself which He has given in the Scriptures and in the
tradition of the Church. The two revelations are in effect reduced to
one by the statement that only the Church is competent to give an
authoritative exposition of the sacred writings. Upon the Church hangs
the welfare of the individual and the world. Without participation in
her sacraments the individual would be eternally cut off from God;
without her prayers the tide of evil forces would no longer be held in
check by recurring acts of miraculous intervention, but would rise