22. What is the relationship between prayer and conversion?...... 25
20. If God wants me to find him, why does he play hide- and-seek with me?
If man is an enigma unto himself, we should not be surprised that God proves to be even more sublime. "Every man is a stranger in this life, in which you see that we have an unseen heart wrapped with flesh ... In this earthly life's sojourn each one bears his own heart, and every heart is hidden to every other heart."63 The unfathomed depths of our interior are the place where this search for God begins. But simply beginning the search is, to a certain extent, already to have begun to bridge the gap between God and ourselves. It enables us to enter into the mind of God, and from that point of vantage to contemplate God's work and the mysteries of faith. To arrive at this view of reality, the search has to begin, which entails shedding the skin of human wisdom and prudence. These steps in God's direction, the search for him, are what occasion the Holy Spirit's illumination, for, "Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God. And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms. Now the natural person does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it, because it is judged spiritually. The spiritual person, however, can judge everything but is not subject to judgment by anyone. For "who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him?" But we have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:11-16). The search for God, then, has the function of transforming our minds, which, in turn, transforms our hearts."64
21. Is God to be sought even after we have found him?
"Such is the way with incomprehensible things - they must be investigated so that no one believe he has found a mere nothing, when in fact he has been able to find how incomprehensible that is which he was seeking ... And making progress in the search itself, he becomes ever better while seeking so great a good ... For it is both sought in order that in finding it, it may be more sweetly enjoyed, and found that it be all the more zealously sought. The words of Wisdom in the book of Ecclesiasticus may be understood thus: they who eat me will hunger for more, they who drink me will thirst for more (Ecclus. 24:29). For they eat and drink because they find; and yet their search continues, as do their hunger and thirst. Faith seeks, understanding finds; thus the prophet says, Unless you believe, you shall not understand (Isa. 7:9). And yet, again, understanding still seeks him whom it finds; for Yahweh is looking down from heaven at the sons of men, as it is sung in the holy Psalm, to see if any are wise, if a single one is seeking God (Ps. 14:2). And man, therefore, needs understanding that he might seek after God.""