the presence of God
I remember when we were still high school in the seminary while we were praying in the chapel a power outage occurred, so all of a sudden there were no lights except the lighted candles on the altar. And as it always happens during brownouts everybody gasped, giggled, talked and even teased one another. Then amidst the darkness a booming voice was heard - the absence of light does not diminish the presence of God in this chapel.
Most often we lived a compartmentalized life, marked by boundaries which differentiate our moral actions from one compartment to the other. Like the servant in our gospel today who concluded that since the master is delayed in coming he did what he wanted to do with his fellow servants. God is not yet, so he does what he wants. Little did he know that in the end there a reckoning, an accounting has to take place.
The whole of time, the whole of space, our entire human life, whether public or private, whether spiritual or secular are filled with God’s presence and are therefore to be lived in God’s presence. We cannot compartmentalized time, we cannot compartmentalized space, we cannot leave our Christianity in the church as we go about with our business. We cannot separate our livelihood, our profession, even our recreation from our religion, from what we believe about God. We cannot separate life and belief. Thus the whole of human life is imbued with God’s presence. Darkness does not diminish it a bit.
Today let us practice what the saints call, living in the presence of God - to live our day to day life in God presence. His presence should influence our decisions, our choices, whether we are in church or in our workplaces or in our homes. Wherever we are, God is always there and he is as present there as he is present here among us.
Most often we lived a compartmentalized life, marked by boundaries which differentiate our moral actions from one compartment to the other. Like the servant in our gospel today who concluded that since the master is delayed in coming he did what he wanted to do with his fellow servants. God is not yet, so he does what he wants. Little did he know that in the end there a reckoning, an accounting has to take place.
The whole of time, the whole of space, our entire human life, whether public or private, whether spiritual or secular are filled with God’s presence and are therefore to be lived in God’s presence. We cannot compartmentalized time, we cannot compartmentalized space, we cannot leave our Christianity in the church as we go about with our business. We cannot separate our livelihood, our profession, even our recreation from our religion, from what we believe about God. We cannot separate life and belief. Thus the whole of human life is imbued with God’s presence. Darkness does not diminish it a bit.
Today let us practice what the saints call, living in the presence of God - to live our day to day life in God presence. His presence should influence our decisions, our choices, whether we are in church or in our workplaces or in our homes. Wherever we are, God is always there and he is as present there as he is present here among us.
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