There Am I

August 13, 2008

Wednesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

By Melanie Rigney

[The cherubim] stood at the entrance of the eastern gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was up above them. Then the cherubim lifted their wings, and the wheels went along with them, while up above them was the glory of the God of Israel. (Ezekiel 10:19)

Who is like the Lord, our God, who is enthroned on high, and looks upon the heavens and the earth below? (Psalms 113:5)

... If two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:19-20)

Piety

Lord, open my eyes that I might find you in both the obvious and the hidden places—in my best friend and my cranky boss; in my pastor and my noisy next-door neighbor; and in my group reunion and the homeless, mentally ill, and hungry I encounter each day. Amen.

Study

Today's Readings

Place Me with Your Son

It’s difficult to grasp, this God being everywhere concept. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells us that he is “in the midst” wherever two or three gather in his name. In saying that God “looks upon the heavens and the earth below,” the psalmist almost seems to imply that the Lord operates outside of either realm, much as in the First Reading, when Ezekiel describes God’s glory as being above the cherubim as they rise above the eastern gate of the Lord’s house.

Perhaps you remember the Baltimore Catechism answer: “God is everywhere whole and entire as He is in any one place. This is true and we must believe it, though we cannot understand it.”

Still, many of us are prideful and deluded enough to think we must understand it, at least a little bit. One help resource is Place Me with Your Son: Ignatian Spirituality in Everyday Life by James W. Skehan (Georgetown University Press, 1991). This a guide to St. Ignatius Loyola’s spiritual exercises is arranged as a twenty-four-week “retreat.” Fittingly, week one addresses God’s omnipotence:

God has a thousand eyes, a million or more faces, even though a Spirit. God can be found everywhere if one is prepared to find him. One must know, not so much where to find God but how to do so.

Somehow, that “how” vs. “where” delineation makes all the difference. If we accept God is everywhere, a tenant of our faith, then focusing on how to find him can help us mature in our journey. If we believe this, there has to be some God in torture, in pain, in suffering, in people we don’t understand, in acts we despise. And if we accept God is there, then we can begin to dig within ourselves to find how his presence manifests itself, even within the most despicable situations and people. Accepting that the answer to “where to find God” is “everywhere” lets us open our minds to exploring the “how.”

Action

Where do you have trouble finding God? Talk about this with your group reunion. Resolve to accept God is there, and begin exploring ways in which you can better see the “how” in his presence.