Where
to Look for God
Where
is truth? Where is reality? Where is God? In today's Gospel I think
Jesus is showing us where to look. He asked the disciples, "Who
do people say that I am?" He was interested in the perceptions
and feelings in the locality in what we would now call the signs-of-the-times.
They answered that some said he was Elijah, others Jeremiah or one
of the prophets. Then he asked them, "Who do you say that I am?"
He wanted to find out the truth they felt and heard from within. When
Peter professed his faith that Jesus was the Christ, the son of the
living God, Jesus replied, "Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah,
because no mere man revealed this to you but the Father who is in
heaven." Truth and knowledge and experience of God come from
around us, within us and above us. These are not in competition with
one another but complementing one another. To have a perception that
is as balanced and as whole as possible of God, we must be in touch,
as fully as possible, with all of these sources.
The
two questions, "whom do people say that I am?" and "whom
do you say that I am?" and the response that there are other
things that come from above, open up a wider vision of where to find
God. The first question makes us look for truth in history, sociology,
anthropology, culture, in the concerns and aspirations of our times
like feminism and concern for the environment. It opens us up to a
God (and a church) who are to be perceived and responded to in the
world around us. The question, "who do you say that I am?"
opens up the world of psychology and spirituality. It makes us alert
to a God who dwells in the cave of our heart. Finally, the message
that is given from above opens us up to the very necessary world and
Church of theology, institution, scholarship and worship.
Starting from these questions we can identify three ways of being
Church; the communitarian, the mystical and the institutional. If
the church itself is to be healthy these need to be working together
in a balanced harmony.
The
communitarian church relates to the Emmanuel God, the God-with-us.
For this way of being Church the primary place in which to hear God
and to answer God is in people and situations. It is a Church which
empowers us to use our God-given gifts to provide for our wants, and
calls us to make a prophetic stance at times. It is a Basic Ecclesial
Community Church. One of the great happenings of our time is the shift
of focus from the primary location of God in heaven to seeing him
and responding to him in the community, the people of God.
The
mystical church is the church of the Spirit that dwells in our hearts.
It is being in touch with the source of life within - to drink from
one's own well. The relationship with God is immediate, it is not
mediated by ritual or people or situations. It is a relationship which
brings us more and more to transcend wanting and just be and enjoy
and respond to the abundance of God's goodness in the world around
us. It brings us into a nonviolent partnership with God rather than
a self-centered effort to direct him and his work. It releases an
abundance of energy for relevant action in the world. It is a spirit-filled,
rather vague, unstructured church.
The
institutional church relates to a God "out there." It relates
to God and mediates God to us mainly through sacraments, devotion
and ritual. It asks God to intervene in our world and provide for
our wants. It tries to manage the bookkeeping for God. It gives us
a framework of meaning; it provides the security of authority and
continuity of teaching. The institutional model of being church has
been dominant for the centuries leading up to the Second Vatican Council.
When most people thought of God they thought only of the God out there
in heaven; when they thought of the Church they thought only of the
institutional church.
One
of the great insights of Fr. John Main was to see that renewal of
the church would have to be contemplative renewal; a rediscovering
of the Spirit that is within. Not only did he rediscover it but he
gave us a simple way of getting in touch with it - through the twice
daily saying of the mantra or prayer word for 20 to 30 minutes.
The
Spirit within us is more intimate to us than we are to ourselves.
The Spirit within us should be our first place of prayer. It should
be our first but not our only place of prayer.
Our towns have water supplies. Most of these originate in a lake or
reservoir. The water is then pumped to a tank on an elevated place.
After that it is allowed to flow by gravity, bringing this essential
for living to the faucets of taps in our homes, gardens and places
of work. The water in the lake, tank or faucet is the same water.
When on a picnic you may go to the lake and take a pail full of water
directly from it. You may rush, as the fire engine does, to get water
from the tank. Normally, however, for your day to day usage, you will
turn on your tap or faucet right there in your home if you need water.
So,
too, we can and should turn to God our Father/Mother/Creator on whom
we depend for all. This is the main emphasis, but not the exclusive
one, when we go to church and worship. When we read the Scriptures
and reflect on the words and deeds of Jesus Christ, we are principally
but not exclusively growing in relationship with Jesus, the companion
God, who became one of us. But just as we turn to the faucet within
our house for our day to day water needs, so too, our day to day relationship
with God will principally be with the Spirit who dwells within us
and who helps us to express God in and to the world.
Taken
from Sundays
into Silence - A Pathway to Life. Copyright © 1998 by Claretian
Publications
