A 12th Sunday after Pentecost Thought About Living in The Presence of God

Let's talk about living in the Presence of God on this 11th Sunday after Pentecost.

First, do we want to live in God's Presence? The thought may not have occurred to some of us. Or, perhaps, the idea is one we know and acknowledge in a kind of formal sense. But actually living in God's Presence is not a mere formality.

If it's not a formality, then it's something concrete, specific, real, that should guide our every thought, word, and deed from the moment we awake to the moment we retire for the day. Sure, it begins with acknowledgment; but once we know the facts, we need to apply them.

Fortunately, we have some wise words to help us here. Notice that they begin with the longing to live in intimacy with God. If we don't have that longing, perhaps it's time to acquire it. And to do that isn't really so hard or complicated, is it?

We know that God is present everywhere, right? Of course, we who are sinners may find this fact a bit daunting. We may even prefer to make believe we can somehow "hide" from God when we give in to temptation, or indulge ourselves in ways that actively cause us to be mentally or emotionally separated in some fashion from God.

But this is an illusion and a quite dangerous one. Natural for may of us, perhaps. Understandable even. But dangerous.

Now we're not saying it would be easy to minimize, even eliminate this illusion. But we must do that. And that process begins with the will to eliminate it. Our feelings don't matter here. Our will fortunately lives apart from our feelings. We can will it. Simply tell God - sincerely of course - that you will it. Even if you "feel like" you don't really want it, you can still will it.

The good news here is that, imperfect as we may be, it's only with God's grace that we can be effective in following through on our will to live in God's Presence. And we all know - don't we? - that God will always provide grace sufficient for us. 

Since He desires that we live in His Presence, His Grace will surely not be lacking.

So if we're ready, willing - and eventually able - to live in God's Presence, let's dive into this spiritual direction from Father Plus:  

    “How many times have we not heard Christian souls express the longing to live in intimacy with God, to have with Him more than simple, formal and semi-official relations limited to occasional acts of devotion observed more to fulfill a command than to respond to a real need of love! Often one asks: ‘What can I do to attain this intimacy? What is the basis of a life of true union with God?’ Blessed are you if you desire this intimacy! No grace could be more precious for you than this yearning to leave off formalism in order to live intensely our magnificent religion.
    “Never to drive God from one’s soul by grave sin is an essential but a negative task. The true Christian will wish to do more. Having sounded the depths of the gift of God, he sees that it consists not only in the presence of a certain something in his soul, and in the super-elevation of his powers of knowing and loving, but in the intimate presence of Someone, the Great Someone, of the Holy Trinity Itself. From this conviction he will advance to the realization that the logic of love requires him to cultivate this Divine Presence, to honor It, to make the most of It, to surround It with a positive devotion.
    “If among the best Christians many lack an interior spirit, it is because they do not sufficiently fathom the mystery of the Divine Indwelling. They lack faith and motivation.” (Fr. Raoul Plus, S.J., 1941)
 

Happy 11th Sunday after Pentecost!