“This is eternal life, to know the one true God.”
To our ears, knowledge of God and intimacy with God do not seem so interrelated. We tend to think of knowledge in an intellectual sense, as if referring to something we’ve studied empirically and come to understand. But this is not the biblical meaning of the word knowledge. In Genesis it says, “Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived,” and this word, “to know” is the same word the Bible uses to describe knowledge of God! This suggests a much more intimate knowledge – a great intimacy with God.
While we must be very clear that God is not sexual, it is imperative to our Christian faith that we recoginze our creation as male and female in His image and likeness. This means that our sexuality is a revelation of the mystery of God! One which God intimately entered into at the moment of Mary’s “fiat.” In a profound, transcendent way, Mary (the new Eve) knew God and she conceived a son.
As the intimacy of a husband and bride brings about new life, intimacy with God (knowing God) is truly life giving. And there is no greater intimacy with God than the reception of the holy Eucharist: “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”
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