Are You There, God?

A Reflection on the First Reading for October 2nd, 2022:
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Habakkuk
1.2-3; 2.2-4

“O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not listen?
Or cry to you ‘Violence!’
and you will not save?
Why do you make me see wrongdoing
and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.”

Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so that a runner may read it.
For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
it speaks of the end, and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it;
it will surely come, it will not delay.
Look at the proud person!
Their spirit is not right in them,
but the righteous person lives by their faith.”

Are you there, God? It’s me, Aurea. 

Somedays I wonder: where is God? It’s clear on many days when we turn on the news, listen to the radio, look at a newspaper, even walk out our front door, that the destruction and violence that Habbakuk speaks of is here. And, it appears that God is not. 

Several years ago, as people were researching support for Saint Mother Teresa’s canonization, it was revealed that for much of her ministry she felt very far away from God. She felt that God was not with her. Can you imagine?  She ministered to thousands of poor and destitute. She started a community of religious dedicated to serving the poor. People travelled from all over the world to witness her way of living the faith. She was recognized and awarded for her good works. The assumption of many would be that she of all people felt God near her everyday.  How could she feel so spiritually far from the One who called her to serve? Yet, it is what she felt. And I wonder, if she felt such a deep absence of God in her life and work, then what hope is there for me? 
 
But there is hope. There is always hope, because even when we don’t feel God with us, see His work, hear His voice, feel His touch … God is. And always will be. Saint Mother Teresa was so moved by the people and circumstances of her everyday life that she felt compelled to act. What she saw moved her heart; a heart that God placed in her. However, I think being with the poorest of the poor, day after day and not seeing much change  – only more poverty – would be disheartening, discouraging, and make you question so many things.  But Saint Mother Teresa continued to witness God’s Love even when she did not feel that Love herself. And that is where hope lies. Because when we don’t feel God present, He is. Through us. Another Saint Teresa, of Avila, reminds us that: 

“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.” 

Sitting with saints (and scriptures) is necessary for our spiritual journeys. They remind us that when we are overwhelmed with the people and circumstances of the world around us that we have the ability to, as Saint Mother Teresa said, take small actions with great love. God is made present through His creations – all of us – past, present, and future. And, when we question if God is there? He responds: I am. I am present through you. Go. Share. Love.




Aurea Sadi

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