“God is faithful, and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (I Corinthians 1:9).
God is faithful. He never gives up on us and continues to invite us to experience a deeper reality of our humanity. Often, we may not feel his presence even though he is always present. This is true because he is the ground, the foundation of our very being. We only have life and exist because God has willed us to be. We are not an accident or a mistake. We are present here and now in this time and place because God has a plan and purpose for our lives.
In our struggles or challenges, and when we pray and see no change, we might believe he does not hear our prayers, or even be tempted by the lie that he does not exist. God is and God hears our prayers because he loves us before we even pray. We and all creation exist because of an outpouring of the excess and infinite expression of his love.
God hears our prayers because he is actually the author of our prayers. Our very desire to pray in the first place is a sensing of the invitation to pray given to us by God. Feeling the closeness of God is a consolation we will receive that God gives as a gift of his grace. We can’t will it though. We can only place ourselves in a posture to receive him and that posture is one of surrender. We open our hearts and minds to God’s will, and he reveals himself to us not our terms but his.
This is not God playing mind games, this is God helping to restore our relationship to what he always intended it to be. We are his beloved children and created to receive and share his love. We are not to grasp at and take his love on our own terms. God is God and we are not. When we get that simple reality in the proper order, we will experience God more.
As Paul wrote, “we are called to fellowship with his Son.” Jesus came to model, guide, and lead us back into right relationship with his Father. He who is God’s Son did not grasp at his divinity as Son, but became human fully, to experience the fullness of our humanity, even our capacity to weep. As we trust Jesus, grow in our relationship with him, we will experience the love of the Holy Spirit and come to know his Father. As we grow in our relationship, we experience the wonderful gift of love that is shared between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
As we then share this wonderful gift with others, our relationship with God grows, we become God through our participation in the life of Jesus and the love of the Holy Spirit. We are transformed and can invite others to be as well, because, as Pope Francis said, “God’s Word consoles and encourages us, it challenges us, frees us from the bondage of our selfishness and summons us to conversion; because it has the power to change lives and to lead us out of darkness into the light.”
The love of God, his invitation to prayer, relationship, and unity is a wonderful gift to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. May we make some time today to be still and thank God for his presence for he has, is, and always will be with us to love and guide us. Let us thank him for what he has done, is doing, and will do for us. Let us breathe, receive, rest, and abide in his love so that we can begin to dwell there more often than not.
Photo: Rosary walk St. Peter Catholic Church Rosary Garden, Jupiter, FL.
Spiritual Stepping Stones 