The eternal God presents himself in time. The prophets of Israel and of Greece, and of other cultures, heard the word of God in their minds, and communicated that word to their people. Sages and mystics through the centuries lovingly opened their hearts and minds to the presence of the eternal God in their souls. Philosophers in ancient Greece discovered the divine intellect moving and radiating into their minds, and they explored the effects of God’s reason in structuring reality around them as they used science to explore the wonders of nature.Through the centuries, lovers of truth have responded to the divine presence both in-yet-beyond the borders of their souls, and as the cause of beauty and order in the world. Those who explore the presence of the divine within are prophets, mystics, philosophers; those who explore the effects of the divine intellect in the cosmos are philosophers and scientists.
God Himself is both ever present and ever beyond the searching mind. What we call God is that which draws us to seek truth, beauty, and goodness beyond our confined selves. To those who seek God, He is both the cause of the seeking and the One being sought, both the One who is utterly and simply present and the One ever beyond our questing. The mystery of God can be discovered by human beings, and has been; but it ever remains beyond any final grasp or comprehension. In the wise words of the Apostle Paul to his disciples, “Now that you have come to know God—or rather, to be known by God…”. The lover of God is ever discovering the face of the Beloved Lover here, there; but the human lover also knows that the Lover sought is still greater than the Lover found. All that one can experience or know of God is as a drop of water in the vast ocean, or as a single sand on the sides of the sea. The true lover of God, and of human being, knows that his or her love “has only just begun,” is ever blossoming into greater loving, further knowing, and ever-deepening joy.
Many have speculated on the coming of God in particular ways, at particular times, and they invariably are disappointed. For God’s comings are never fully expected, nor accurately predicted. For we are human beings, not God. John the Baptist was a lover of God, who expected the just God to appear quickly with blazing wrath to destroy evil and evil-doers. And then came Jesus, and John was puzzled. He sensed the presence of God in Jesus, but Jesus did not fit John’s expectations: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” “Go and tell John what you see,” Jesus declares. “Open your eyes to what God is doing here and now, even in me, and relax your futuristic speculations.” Perhaps in prison John discovered the One he proclaimed, present in Christ, and present in the depths of his soul.“Behold, I am the One whom you are seeking, here and now, moving you in your quest. Be at peace, John, for you are mine, and I will never abandon you. Even when a foolish evil-doer has you beheaded, John, you are mine, and I am yours. I AM ever now.”
The Church in its wisdom presents to us the truth of Christ—the truth of God-with-usand-beyond-us—in many and various ways. In the preaching of the Word and in the gift of the Eucharist, Christ comes. In the silent cries of the needy and oppressed, in the infant in the womb and the elderly man living alone, Christ speaks to us. In the use of our God-given abilities to love and to seek the truth, Christ is at work in us. To the true lover of God, he or she ever hears afresh, "Here AM I, the One you are seeking, the One with you every moment from now into the unknown, unexplored depths of eternity."
