8th Sunday after Pentecost 18 July 21 God is close
A recent survey has found: Almost half of US millennials ‘don’t know, believe or care if God exists.’
One could be indifferent to the existence of God only if He were a long way away and very remote from earth’s affairs – and this is what many do think.
Imperfect knowledge of God does begin with very broad concepts, but as our perception of Him improves we come to a very different conclusion – summed up in today’s epistle, that God Himself teaches us to call Him Father! (Rom 8,15)
We go from an impersonal god a million miles away to a God who loves us; who even took on human nature.
People in every age tend to picture God in terms of their own experience of life.
We can sympathise with people who have had very unhappy lives, and who accordingly are cynical about God and life itself.
It is hard for one surrounded by cruelty, deception, betrayal etc to believe in lofty concepts of truth and charity.
Nevertheless the lofty concepts are real and do come from God. The difficulty is penetrating the wall of cynicism.
Even God finds it hard to get through to people who have closed off to Him (given that He will not force them to acknowledge Him).
He is not remote for us, His children and disciples. We learn to distinguish between how things ought to be and how they are.
The fact that the world is full of sin does not diminish God. If the human race had obeyed God from the beginning we would have a very different world now.
It is not too late, even yet, if enough people would repent. The world would start to look like the Kingdom of God, for which we have been praying for so long.
We must be the children of light, referred to in the Gospel. If we are humble, truthful, industrious etc, we will enable God's true nature to be seen in human affairs.
Cynicism will be replaced by Trust.
God does want us to know Him, and to receive the salvation He brings.
He seeks the wellbeing of each person, essentially the soul destined for the next life, and as far as possible the relief of pain and suffering in this life.
And, further still, He wants us to make a response to all this, not just take the blessings and run, but giving thanks to God, remaining close to Him in an ongoing covenant.
This is the fullest of our existence, if we get so far.
God is trying to bring us to see what He is like, and that such things are possible.
He wants to be central to us not just an option or a ceremonial figure; but really have our lives centred on Hm.
This is made more complicated by our own sharing in divine qualities, such as self-awareness, and thus being tempted to form our own ambitions, other than God’s plans for us.
Can we love the real God or do we make ourselves gods? This was the problem for the fallen angels; they fell in love with themselves and rejected the True God.
Many people in every age have done the same thing.
We must follow the good angels and submit to One who is far greater than we are, yet for all His greatness still dwells within us.
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