Searching for God and Finding Him

In today's first reading, Acts 17: 15, 22-18:1, St. Paul enters the center of a pagan culture, the Areopagus.  He does not outright challenge the Athenians for being worshipers of idols.  He walks around looking at all of the shrines in the area and discovered one that said "To an Unknown God."  He then says to them:  "What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.  the God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and death, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives everyone life and breath and everything. He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us us. For 'In him we live and move and have our being....'"  Paul  then goes on to invite the Athenians to repent and speaks to them about Jesus and his resurrection.  Hearing the word "resurrection,"  many of the Athenians walked away, having nothing to do with Paul.

How often are you and I not seeking God but not knowing that we are engaged in that search.  That which we believe will "save" us does not, in fact, and so we increase our obsession and/or our addictive consumption of more and more of that which we think will be the answer to our problems. Our all-consuming search for God-substitutes takes possession of us! We continue looking outside of ourselves for God, not realizing that "in him we live and move and have our being."  Nor do we open up the Scriptures or sit silently in our churches or "drink" in the beauty of nature--a "sacrament" of God's presence--or engage consistently in self-sacrificing love for our spouses, our children, our community members. 

In some cases, persons who misplace their hunger for God onto material things, onto food and drink, onto one relationship after another and another and another also avoid participating regularly in the liturgical celebrations of their parishes, where, at every Mass, at the consecration of the bread and wine,  the Paschal Lamb offers Himself to the Father and gives Himself to us as food in the Holy Eucharist, a food that will truly satisfy our longing to be one with the Lord, will give us a peace that the world cannot give and will save us from falling for Satan's lies that we can be like gods if only we do this or that, secure this or that, possess this or that, acquire this or that and so on and on and on--a lie Adam and Eve fell into!

Lord, you alone are God and there is no other! And, yes, in You I live and move and have my being. You are enough for me.  Without You I can do nothing and am nothing. Without You I would not exist.  May I become comfortable with no-thing-ness and rest in You alone! 

One with Our Creator

In today's first reading, Acts 17: 15, 22-18:1, Paul speaks to us of our origins: In God, Paul tells us,  "we live and move and have our being....[W]e are the offspring of God"!

We spring off of God. God has given "life and breath"  to every member of the human race and has given us the option of dwelling "on the entire surface of the earth."  God also made the entire universe for us: the sun and the stars, the galaxies, each of the seasons--spring, summer, fall and winter.  He set boundaries for each of the seasons, for each of the bodies of water, for all humankind, really, so that we  "might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us,"-- remember that we "live and move and have our being" in God Himself.

WOW! Listen to God say to you personally:

"(Your name)____________, I, your God, made the world for your enjoyment, for your learning about Me.
I, your God, made all that is in the world as a means for you to "grope" for me and "find" Me.
I am not served by any of you because I need nothing from you (See this statement in this passage of Acts).
I serve you, bathe you in grace.
I protect you from the Evil One.
My Son returned to Me on Ascension Day in order to send you the Holy Spirit on Pentecost and He is preparing a place for you in heaven.
I, Your God, am the one who sent My Son to take on human nature. He lives in Me and I in Him. He was sent to show you my love for you by ransoming you from death by His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. By His death and resurrection,  He destroyed death's power over you. So, if you believe in Me, I will see you in heaven, also."

Living, Moving, Existing in God

“… it is God who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.  He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us. For ‘in him we live and move and have our being’” (Acts 17: 25-28).

As I reflect upon the beauty of all of nature coming to life this spring, I stand in awe of God who has given life to all that is blossoming, all  of  that which is producing tiny leaves and buds. Those buds will burst forth into full bloom within a short time. Every living thing is given all that it needs to develop into maturity, to produce fruit, and to reflect the beauty of its creator.  You and I, also, have been given life by our God, who breathes His breath of life into us, gives us all we, too, need to become fully mature human beings reflecting the beauty of our Creator as well. God, St. Paul tells us in this same passage, is not “dependent on anything that human hands can do for him since he can never be in need of anything; on the contrary, it is he who gives everything—including life and breath—to everyone” (Acts.17: 25-26).

God, our provider, needs nothing from us. We, His offspring and all created things, need everything from Him!  What a relationship of love!

And what an awesome God. He "fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions," so that you and I might seek Him, "even perhaps grope for him and find him, 'though indeed he is not far from any one of us. For 'in him we live and move and have our being'" (Acts 17: 26-28).