Our Quest for God among us

Have you ever been lost or needed some direction? A map is a big help in finding the route to our destination. But a map is only helpful if I know roughly where I am now. Even if I am getting directions from someone else by phone, I still need to know my starting point if the directions the person offers are to be helpful.

As in finding our way on a road, the Gospel reading for this 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Luke 12:32-48) becomes much clearer when we put it into context, that is, where we have been over the past few Sundays in Luke’s Gospel.

Two weeks ago, on the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, we heard Jesus’s disciples ask him to teach them how to pray. In response Jesus gave them what has become our Christian prayer: The Our Father (Luke 11:1-13). Our God is a parent who loves us unconditionally. This prayer acknowledges that we live in a close and loving relationship with God. This is beyond our wildest dreams, for God will never stop loving us. By way of prayer, Jesus calls his disciples to accept that God is our parent – the one who creates, gives and sustains life for all humanity.

On the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time, in Luke’s Gospel (12:13-21) calls on his disciples to set their priorities, not on things, stuff, but on the relationship with this loving God. As well, like any loving parent our relationship with our parent-God is to be reflected in our relationships with others, with one another and with all humanity. With this context we come to a continuation of Luke’s Gospel (Luke 12:32-48).

Luke’s words are a call for readiness and openness to the many encounters we have with God. Jesus uses a story of servants waiting for their master to return. When, after a long wait he does come back, he surprises the servants. The master sits them down and serves them a meal. What a wonderful image, a surprising image of God’s love. God reaches out to us where we are and brings life to us where we are. Our quest is to find God already with us.

More than 1500 years ago, one of our Christian saints wrote an account of his search for God. St. Augustine, a bishop in north Africa described his conversion in what was a spiritual autobiography. In his Confessions X,38 he related not his finding of God, but how God found him. Augustine came to realise that God had always been there with him and for him. These are Augustine’s words: Late have I loved You, O ancient of days, yet ever new! Late I loved You. And behold, You were within me and I was outside. There I searched for You, among things outside…. You were with me, but I was not with You…. You called and burst my deafness. Your light shone and scattered my darkness…. You touched me and I burned for Your peace.

In faith and in community, we discover that our relationship with our loving God leads us to be open to encounters - moments and experiences when God walks into our lives. Such readiness means we are prepared to hear God’s voice in the voices of those around us. We are prepared to see God’s face in the faces of those around us, and to experience God’s loving presence in the creation that surrounds us. Emmanuel – God with us, always.

Jesus reveals our God as not aloof and distant. When we are ready and prepared and open, we can recognize God in the moments of our lives when friends and family show acts and speak words of love and care. We encounter God in the stranger who expresses kindness. We encounter God in the compassion of one human being to another. God enters our lives in the wonder of creation and in the warmth of human love. God’s presence and action in our lives often will be unexpected. As Luke tells us and Augustine discovered: “Be ready, for the Son of Man [expression of God’s presence] is coming at an unexpected hour.”