Sunday Easter VI – A
Act 8:5-8;14-17
1 P 3:15-18
Jn 14:15-21
Where is God? We can think of many answers to this question.
First, we could say God is in heaven. He dwells in the divine world which He Himself is. He is in Himself, for heaven is not a place; it is not in space and time. “I am in my Father”, says Jesus, and the Father is in Him. The divine persons have no other dwelling than the shelter they offer one another. They dwell in one another. They abide in love. That is what we call ‘Heaven’: the world that God is to Himself in love.
But when we think of heaven, we think of the whole invisible world, too. The angels and the souls of the saints are myriads of myriads. They surround the throne of God. They are around God, as it were. God dwells in them, and they dwell in God. They share in the same life, the same light, and the same love. They are one in Him. They, too, offer a shelter and a home to the divine Persons of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. They, too, are welcomed into God and dwell in the Son through whom they have been created.
God, the angels, the saints are a world of perfect unity in love. God’s holiness, the perfect purity of His love is shared by all of them. Each remains who he is, with what makes him different from the others. The Son is not the Father; the angels are not God; the Saints are neither angels nor God. They are one, though, each remaining fully himself.
In another way, God is also everywhere. The whole creation is filled with God’s invisible presence. The Creator is present to all that He has created. Just as the painter is in his painting, or the musician in the music we hear, the Creator is in all things. He gives them life, movement and being. To be, to exist, is to be in God, for, out of God, there exists nothing. The caring and loving presence of the Creator is in all His works.
Moreover, The Saviour is present to all that is happening. God’s Providence governs everything. We normally see only the surface of the events. But we can sometimes glimpse something like the fulfilment of a wider and profounder plan. In and beyond all human actions – bad ones and good ones – God is at work. In the world He created, God is building up His Kingdom. This is the world transformed and transfigured by the energy of the resurrection which was revealed in Christ at Easter.
Finally, and even more essentially, God is present in the souls of the just – all those who are united with Him through faith, hope, and love. God is near us. He is in us. He is nearer to us than we are to ourselves, as St Augustine famously put it. “In that day, you will know that I am in you”.
The work of the Holy Spirit is to awake us to Jesus’ presence in our heart. The Spirit is the inner teacher. Slowly, usually gently, sometimes more forcefully, the Spirit pushes the walls of our heart so that it becomes big enough to welcome God. The Spirit widens the heart so that God’s presence grows in it; there is more light, more love, more life in the heart. Sometimes, even, the Spirit pierces the heart. He breaks the heart, the hardness of our old heart, for only a wounded heart can begin to understand Jesus’ wounded Heart; only a broken heart can connect with God’s presence even on the Cross.
The work of the Holy Spirit is also to build the Church, the Body of Christ, the company of all those who are already one in God, because they share in the same life of grace.
Where is God? He is here and He is there. Turn to Him. Search after Him. Run in the perfume of His ointments. Follow Him on His royal way of love. Walk towards Him and find Him in you – and you in Him.