A God Made of Uncommon Sense

Common sense dictates that a solid is denser than a liquid. Common sense dictates that a molecule made of atoms which are gaseous should also be a gas. Common sense dictates that a substance becomes smaller when freezing.

Well, water doesn’t do any of those things: it is actually denser in liquid form, it is normally a liquid although it is made of two elements which are normally gases (hydrogen and oxygen), and it actually expands when it freezes. Water defies all common sense.

The whole idea of the Trinity defies common sense. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this baffling mystery:

(CCC 266) Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son’s is another, the Holy Spirit’s another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal” (Athanasian Creed: DS 75; ND 16)

It is said that Saint Patrick used a clover to explain the concept of the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to the pagan Irish during the 5th century, as that plant has 3 leaves and they are inseparable. If Saint Patrick had known about atoms, hydrogen bonds, I think he would have probably chosen water for that analogy.

The Holy Spirit is described as a river of life flowing out from the Father and the Son:

Then the angel showed me the river of life-giving water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb,down the middle of its street. On either side of the river grew the tree of life that produces fruit twelve times a year, once each month; the leaves of the trees serve as medicine for the nations (Rev: 22:1-2).

In fact, there are other similarities between water and God:

Both come from the sky like rain.
Both are transparent. For example, there is no “sin” in either God or water.
Both clean everything; Christ washes our sins clean.
Both are vital because without God or water, life is impossible .” For, without Me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Both can mold themselves to anything and thus can reach anywhere.

Isn’t it a strange coincidence that Jesus said in John 7:38:

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him’.

Finally, we believe God is made of three persons: the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and this last one comes from the first two. Well, water is made of two atoms of hydrogen (“Father and Son”), and 1 of oxygen (“Holy Spirit”) which is bonded to each. And, as the Nicene Creed says: “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.”

However, it is in the fact that our God always seems to defy all common sense where we find the best similarity with water. In water, the reason for all that weird behaviour is because water has a “magical trick” called Hydrogen Bond. This basically attracts the hydrogen atom of one molecule to the oxygen atom of the other, creating a “lattice”, a “matrix”, and also all kinds of interesting stuff such as being the reason why DNA is a double helix.

In the case of God, one could say his “Hydrogen Bond” is Divine Love. It bonds people like water bonds “molecules” so they form a lattice called the Mystical Body of Christ.  In many ways, the Church on earth oftentimes leads to things considered “crooked” such as the DNA molecule.

The love of God binds us together as children of, uniting as one Body:

No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us. This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us of his Spirit (1 John 4: 12-13).

Divine Love is such a game-changer, it makes for something so unique, so unexpectable, so out of what would be considered “common sense” that anything can be expected. That is our God. Our water.