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! 

Being in Christ Jesus!

In the first line of today's first reading, Romans 8: 1-11,  St. Paul reminds us that "there is no condemnation for  those who are in Christ Jesus."  Let us rewrite that to read:  "Dorothy Ann (insert your name), there is no condemnation for you because, in baptism, you died with Jesus and were raised to new life in Him"  Why such a gift? Because in His assuming of human nature and in His
death and resurrection from the dead, Jesus put sin to death in us and in the world.  Does that mean that you and I do not succumb to sin by being deceived by Satan? No! Like Peter, who sank when he took his eyes off Jesus, we, too, are likely to succumb to sin when we take our eyes off Jesus.  The power of choosing the good over evil, truth over deceit, kindness and love over hatred and jealousy, compassion and mercy over judgment and condemnation come from God's dwelling within us!

By our becoming a member of the Kingdom of Jesus in our baptisms, by being born anew in baptism, we now are empowered to "live according to the spirit"  and to be concerned each day with the things of the spirit: love and justice, peace and harmony with God's holy will and with what is right and just and caring in our relationship with others and ourselves.  As St. Paul says to us:  the concern of the flesh is death, but the concern of the spirit is life and peace. For the concern of the flesh is hostility toward God; it does not submit to the law of God, nor can it; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But," Paul reminds us, " you are in the spirit..."

Thank you, Lord, for being born in the spirit through our baptisms, confirmation, Eucharist, all of the sacraments  and by the love we receive and give to others, by living lives of integrity, honesty
 and fidelity to the ways Jesus taught us and the Scripture embody!

Rooted in God Who Is Love

Today's first reading, 1 John 4: 7-10, presents us with the following invitation and information:  "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.  In this way the love of God was revealed to us:  God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins" and to show us God's overwhelming love for humankind.

You and I were created by God, who is the source of our very beings. God is love and, therefore, we, too, are love, created by Love and for Love. St. Luke, in Acts 17: 28, reminds us that we live and move and have our being in God. Therefore we live and move and have our being in Love!  When we fail to love, are we not failing both ourselves and our God. When we are unloving, uncaring and rejecting of ourselves and others and thus engaged in sinful behavior,  is it not true that we do not truly know ourselves!  St. Paul says in Rom 7: 25 that "[w]hen I act against my will (my will is to love as God loves], then, it is not my true self doing it (my true self is a loving self), but sin which lives in me."

God lives at the core of my being.  From that core self do I not will to desire what God desires and to  love as God loves?

Living in God

During my time of reflection this morning, I was given the image of ourselves living in God as a fish lives in water!  That was followed by imaging me creating a box. On the left, right, back, front and on inside would be written:

          God walks on my left, protecting me and giving me courage!

          God walks on my right, taking my right hand to strengthen me!

          God walks behind me to catch me when I fall!

          God walks in front of me to show me the way and dissipate any fear of what lies ahead!

          God lives within me, directing me and giving me wisdom to follow His Way!

Yes, just as a fish lives in water, so, too, do we live in God!

Today's first reading, 1 Thes 4: 9-11, assures us of God's choices for us, namely, that we "progress" in the knowledge of God and aspire to "live a tranquil life, to mind our own affairs, and to work with your own hands," and, yes, that we "love one another," as God has taught us to do, dissipating any fear of what lies ahead, knowing that God gives us the Wisdom, one day at a time, to follow God's instructions.  He also gives us each day the strength and courage to abide by God's teachings put forth for us in the Scriptures!

These are my beliefs!  What are yours? And what does God teach you as you reflect upon the Scriptures each day? 

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."

Joseph's Intimacy with God

In today's first reading, Gen 49:  29-32; 50: 15-26a, Joseph's brothers are fearful that, given their father's death, that their brother Joseph will seek revenge because of their cruelty towards him.  Living deeply his personal faith in God and being a God-centered person, Joseph says to them when they voice their fears to him: "Have no fear. Can I take the place of God? Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good to achieve his present end, the survival of many people. Therefore have no fear. I will provide for you and your children."

What an example we have in Joseph. He lives in God, with God and for God. God lives in him, works with him and is for him.  God protected Joseph in Egypt. Joseph, in turn, protects his brothers and their families. In his eyes, all is from God. All is about God. All is to be given back to God and others! He lives his life in that way. He relates to his brothers and others in that way as well.

Do my behaviors and attitudes, like Josephs, reveal that I am I living with God, in God and for God? Or do I function here on earth as though I exist apart from God? Am I living as though my life is outside of God? Can a fish live outside of water? Do I act without God? Can a fish act outside of water?

Joseph expresses his intimacy with God in the words: "Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good."  God means everything for good and functions that way in your life and mine, even when you and I are unaware of God's doings in our lives. Yes, my life and yours is from God, for God, with God and in God! May we grow in that awareness and truly live!

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).