Divine omnipresence

What a loving God we belong to. After ascending to heaven as God the Son, He makes sure that He is still with us as God the Holy Spirit. After ascending up, up there, He makes sure that He is also down, down here, and not just limited by His human person, but is everywhere as God the Holy Spirit. As God the Son, Jesus was here and there, from one place to another, to preach the Gospel, perform miracles, and express His love to each and everyone He met. But now, more than that, as God the Holy Spirit, He is everywhere with everyone at the same time. That is how much He loves all of us, His living creation.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I was walking one evening across our third-floor corridor here in our seminary. Suddenly, I looked up at the sky and saw an astonishingly beautiful full moon against the cloudless, blue sky. I found myself just contemplating, with my mind and heart feeling God’s presence no less. God the Holy Spirit. I felt His love within me and all around me. I am sure you have also experienced in other, different ways the presence of the Holy Spirit within you and all around you.

Here was a couple who were already about to separate as a solution to their marital problems when a close friend convinced them to give it a last try by going to a professional marriage counselor. Early on in the process, the counselor guided them through experiencing mutual empathy, where each spouse was led to set aside one’s ego, and place one’s self in the shoes of the spouse, and understand the spouse’s world – where each one is really coming from. To make the long story short, the whole process was psycho-spiritual, but non-denominational. In fact, each spouse belonged to a different religious denomination. After a couple of months of counseling, the couple learned to really love each other again. This time, they experienced what we call a love triangle: Husband, Wife, and God.

All human beings all over the world are our brothers and sisters under the one Creator-God of the whole universe. Institutional religions are not dividers of humankind. All are called to the one and the same law of the one and the same Creator-God: LOVE. This is found in all the four Gospels. Let me quote just one: “There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said, ‘Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘What is written in the law? How do you read it? He said in reply, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’ He replied to him, ‘You have answered correctly; do this and you will live’” (Lk. 10:25-28).

At times, when we pray and want to feel God’s presence, we tend to look up, up there in heaven, so far away from us. But God the Holy Spirit reminds us that He is down, down here with us, not only to us Christians, but to all of mankind. God is asking us to experience universal fraternity. Ecumenical and interfaith. The ascencion of the Risen Christ into heaven is the beginning of God’s omnipresence here on earth. And so as we pray, looking up, up there and down, down here, our ever-loving and compassionate God is with us, responding to us in so many different ways all for our own good and salvation. And the Holy Spirit empowers all of us to proclaim and bear witness to the Gospel all over the world. However, quite a member of us prefer not to listen to the Holy Spirit. And the disastrous results are happening everywhere. But in God’s own time, my faith tells me that more and more people all over the world will open their hearts and minds to the Holy Spirit. It is already happening to people in so many places. Those of us who are already converted by the Holy Spirit are missioned to increase, strengthen, and deepen our fearless love and compassion for our brothers and sisters, whoever and wherever they are.

What a loving and compassionate God we all belong to. Allow me to repeat that those of us who are already experiencing the presence of the Holy Spirit within us and all around us are now missioned by God the Holy Spirit to reach out to those who still need to experience the same. And come to think of it, there are many more fellow human beings who are victims of the ungodly forces and are led to not recognize the presence of God the Holy Spirit. From individuals to couples, families and the political, economic, and social sectors. And yet, God the Holy Spirit is there, all the way to the end of the universe.

I am particularly concerned with our youth, who are hungry for the meaning of life. And so many of them are becoming victims of the social media, which is predominantly materialistic, egocentric, and Godless. Let us continue to support and promote youth organizations in schools, parishes, and homes. And they should be psycho-spiritual in approach, non-denominational, and universal.

To conclude: We very much need a global spiritual conversion for the good of the human race. This is God’s call. And God manifests Himself as Three Persons for us not to miss Him. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Father and Son are up, up there in heaven, waiting for us to join them. But more lovingly and with great compassion: He is also down, down here with us and all around us. God the Holy Spirit. We cannot miss Him, provided we do not turn our backs on Him. His loving, divine omnipresence is no less than our constant companion all the days of our lives. And our problems and crosses in life are precisely given as opportunities for our growth as persons, our greatness as persons, and our Godliness as persons. Godliness in the sense that we become more and more like the person of Christ, who carried his cross for the sake of love, all the way to the crucifixion, only to be followed by the resurrection.  What more do we want! Amen.