“There’s No Escaping God” by Colleen O’Sullivan

“There’s No Escaping God” by Colleen O’Sullivan

Memorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Where can I go from your spirit?
From your presence where can I flee?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I sink to the nether world, you are present there. (Psalm 139:7-8)

Jesus said, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside, you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing. (Matthew 23:27-28)

Piety

O God, You Search Me (based on Psalm 139)

 Bernadette Farrell

O God, you search me and you know me.
All my thoughts lie open to your gaze.
When I walk or lie down, you are before me,
Ever the maker and keeper of my days.

Study

The good news, according to the psalmist, is that there’s no escaping God. God is everywhere. Even in the places and situations that look pretty godless from the outside. I have to remind myself that God is in every detention facility for would-be immigrants arriving on the Texas/Mexico border. God is also in every place around the country where those men and women’s children have been sent.

God is in each of our homes, even on the days when we’re fighting with our spouses or tearing our hair out over teenage antics, or valiantly trying to make dinner with a baby on one hip and a toddler getting into everything on the other side.

God is with us wherever we are, whatever we’re doing. Are you having a great day? God is right there rejoicing with you. Are you down in the dumps and not sure what to do or where to turn? God has an arm around you, supporting you through whatever.

God was with us even before we were born. God saw our unformed bodies as well as all the days written in our books before even one of them came to pass. (Ps. 139:16) There is nothing about us that God didn’t know before God formed us in our mothers’ wombs.

The bad news, on the other hand, might be that there’s no escaping God. God is everywhere. Even when we’ve got the shiniest exteriors or live in the poshest neighborhoods, nothing keeps God from seeing past all that to our hearts. For the Pharisees, Jesus was addressing in today’s Gospel that wouldn’t have been good news. They looked like upstanding citizens on the outside, but their hearts were full of hypocrisy and evildoing and empty of compassion and mercy toward their brothers and sisters in the faith.

Action

Today we remember Saint Augustine of Hippo. In his Confessions, he wrote, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” He would tell us that God never gives up on us even when we’re living a dissolute life. God is there for us even when we’re not there for God. God was still there when St. Augustine finally opened his eyes to the truth and rested in the Truth.

When you’re praying, ask yourself honestly whether God being everywhere, seeing everything, is good news or bad news for you today. If there’s something in your life that you are trying to hide from God, bring it out into the open. God knows about it anyway. There’s no sin that can’t be forgiven or lifestyle that can’t be changed. God loves us and wants us at one with God.