Seek God.

Today we look at Psalm 63. O God, you are my God Since the dawn of the morning I have been crying out to you, for you my soul longs. Waiting on God is the whole purpose of our Christian life. We have heard about God since childhood. We learned religion, we heard about God in church. We talk to God in our prayers. But can we say that we have found God? St. John the Apostle wrote. No one has ever seen God. The search for God is getting harder and harder. For we are influenced by secular culture. And it has no place for God because it no longer needs him. An explanation has been found for the universe, for the origin of humanity and for society. The natural sciences of sociology have replaced philosophy and theology. In earlier times, we needed God because we knew little about the workings of the human organism, the human brain. About the laws that govern human society. And God seemed to fill in the gaps of our human knowledge. Today, many of these phenomena are explained naturally. The successes of our scientific knowledge fill us with confidence that we will gain knowledge of other phenomena. It then seems as if there is no place left for God. As if he were a relic of a bygone age. And man, not God, becomes the center of our thinking. The Second Vatican Council, in the encyclical Gaudium et Spes, in point 12, acknowledged this reality. Both unbelievers and believers agree that all things in the world are meant for man, who is their center and summit. Religion has ceased to be the center of human society. Religion used to be what united. Today, it is the media that wants to unite this society. But only religion has the power to unite and create an inner bond. The environment of the modern world influences us. We often indulge in worldly affairs. We engage ourselves in various works, we devote ourselves to practical tasks. For example, social problems, but many times God is not in them. We are excellent social workers. But what separates us from unbelieving social workers if we lack a living faith? And then we realize that we cannot give up the presence of God. In the depths of our hearts there remains a longing for the living God. The more we know about our world, the more we learn about the hidden laws of how the human body works, how the universe works, the more we need the God in whom everything is contained and in whom everything is fulfilled. We need God more than people did in the past because our life has become a richer, wider world. But we require the living God. Mere words and doctrines are not enough for us. People are beginning to seek the experience of God, the certainty of his presence, and they cry out with the psalmist Lord show us your face. This is not just the desire of the psalmist, but it is the desire of the whole Christian tradition. And we want to join in this tradition. We also want to say. Lord, show us your face. But what do we really long for when we speak of God. Do we long for God, or do we long for experience. If we seek God, we must empty our full being so that this God can take possession of our entire life. This is the necessity that mystics and saints write about. St. John of the Cross writes that we must pass through the night of the senses, memory, and the will. In order that God may take possession of them, to fill them. If we speak of an experience of God, there is a danger of looking for an experience to fill ourselves, and we will surely fail because the experience becomes more important than God himself. The experience is not to be the goal, but the means of getting to God. Let us seek God with all our heart. Let us allow Him to take possession of our being. Then we will experience God. God is usually encountered in prayer. There are many ways to deepen our prayers. And it’s good to look at how I pray sometimes. To see if there is anything I need to improve in my prayer.There are many people who read about prayer,attend various seminars. All this can be useful, but there is no definite recipe. Everyone has to find his own way. Everybody has to find his own way of prayer. Someone is better when sitting, another needs to stand, another prays better when lying down. Let us stop today with Moses. Moses is a great figure in the Old Testament. Moses is said to have had an encounter with God. He met him in a burning bush. This is where his mission begins. What he experienced, he then passed on to the whole nation. As a child, Moses is saved and then when he became an adult he began to save his nation. But he began in the wrong way. He kills the overseer and then runs away. In the wilderness, he meets God. And God transforms him. In the burning thorn bush Moses recognized God’s presence and this is what we can learn from Moses. To distinguish the human from the divine. There is a lot of the thorny, the human in the church too, but we must not let that prevent us from seeing the divine in it. God commanded Moses to take off his clothes. St. Augustine says, if you think you have understood God, it is not God. God cannot be understood. God calls each of us by our name. And our response can only be as Moses’ was. Here I Take off your shoes, for the ground on which you stand is holy. Why we wear shoes. Shoes allow us to climb mountains, to be faster, to protect us from injury, to enhance our appearance. But before God, we take these shoes off. We have nothing to protect us. Before God, we are what we are. Not something different to hear about God and meet him. We too know God from the catechism, from talking, but have we experienced God’s presence?