LIVING AND MOVING IN GOD

WEDNESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTER

Act 17:15,22-18:1; Ps 148:1-2,11-14; Jn 16:12-15

In Him We Live, Move, and Exist

The resurrection of Jesus Christ opened a new way of attending or approaching God. It is a new way and an ancient way at the same time, for God, who made us in his image, intended us to walk the spiritual way of the word of God to the knowledge of God. By the original fall, men turned away from the sacred way to God by disbelieving God and disregarding his word. By the original sin of Adam and Eve, the human race turned away from the way from the beginning and chose the tortious way of death and darkness. “And the Lord God commanded the man saying, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’” With the human race turned away from the path of the word of God, which is a spiritual path, the only way left for us is the physical way, which is fraught with darkness, suffering, pain, and death. The physical way does not offer sure knowledge of God but with admixture of error and falsehood. Our choice compels us to grope our way through darkness to God. Saint Paul’s speech to the Areopagites contains as much. “And he did this so that all nations might seek the deity and, by feeling their way towards him, succeed in finding him. Yet, in fact, he is not far from any of us, since it is in him that we live, move, and exist, as indeed some of your own writers have said: 'We are all his children.'" Because God generated us from the single corrupted stock, we all share in the blindness resulting from Adam and Eve’s choice of the physical way.

Because God made us for himself, that we may be his temple, God living in us through divine knowledge we were supposed to acquire through the spiritual way, he did not abandon his project in man but promised to send his Son through the Woman. In due time, God started preparing the human race for the reception of his Word, which is to repair the spiritual path we abandoned through the choice of our first parents. The incarnation of the Eternal Word fulfilled God's initial plan for man, which is the divine Word dwelling in human flesh. The Son of Man is the prototype of the new humanity and the new spiritual way to God. He is not only the spiritual way to God he is also the sacrament of God; that is, God with us. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Thus, Paul informed the Areopagites that God overlooked men’s ignorance of him before the incarnation of his Son, but no more. “God overlooked that sort of thing when men were ignorant, but now he is telling everyone everywhere that they must repent, because he has fixed a day when the whole world will be judged, and judged in righteousness, and he has appointed a man to be the judge.” The resurrection of Jesus Christ proved that God re-established the spiritual way to communion with him. We not only live, move, and exist in him, but he equally lives in us through our profession of faith in Jesus Christ. We who have made this profession of faith need to journey steadily into the mysteries of Jesus Christ to spiritual communion with God.

Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to ensure the success of this all-important journey through the spiritual way. “I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you. But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come.” The constant presence of the Holy Spirit within us is beyond what was available to man at creation. We possess this divine largesse, the communion of the divine Person, through the redemptive work of the Son of Man. The Holy Spirit leads us along the spiritual way, Jesus Christ, to communion with the Father. We need to solicit from God daily the grace of attentiveness to the Holy Spirit and the grace not to fall into mortal sin. For this reason, we ask for the prayers of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ and our mother, to pray for us now and at the hour of death. We must not forget that the Lord sent the Holy Spirit to walk us through the mysteries of the Son of Man. “He will glorify me, since all he tells you will be taken from what is mine.” These mysteries entail death for everything mortal in us and the constant renewal of spiritual life in us.

Let us pray: Grant, we pray, O Lord, that, as we celebrate in mystery the solemnities of your Son’s Resurrection, so, too, we may be worthy to rejoice at his coming with all the Saints. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.