I appreciate this reminder in some wisdom offered by St. John Damascene, Doctor of the Church, a monk and theologian of late 7th and early 8th century. He wrote On the Orthodox Faith I, I:
"No one has ever seen God. The only Son who is at the Father's side, has revealed him" (Jn 1:18). Divinity is inexpressible and incomprehensible; "No one knows the Father except the Son, and no one knows the Son except the Father" (Mt 11:27) and, similarly, the Holy Spirit knows what is of God.... But following this original, blessed divine knowledge, no one has ever known God except those to whom God has revealed himself...."
Now, some have "seen" Christ in visions, but seeing and knowing are different aspects of divine encounter. Some have "seen" God in essence of some form in death experiences, but our "knowing" God and the Christ and the Holy Spirit come from God's revelation to us, and this revelation comes in many forms and formats.
That St. John Damascene emphasizes that it is God who reveals Himself to us, helps us understand the value of making ourselves available to God. It is so easy to miss recognizing or being aware of God's revealing Himself to us. We must understand that there are ways and means of us making ourselves available to God making Himself known to us, such as being at Mass, before the Tabernacle, in the lectio divina--the personal and holy reading and mediating of His Living Word, the Bible.
We can avail ourselves of God's revelation of Himself to us by being with people of great faith--in person and in reading great writings of holy people who knew God while on earth because God revealed Himself to them. We can make ourselves open to and accessible to the self-revelation of God to us by offering ourselves fully to Him--in the fullest abandonment possible for us at whatever phase of life we are in.
We can repeat our offering of ourselves to God as many times as we desire, for the degree to which we are offering ourselves expands and grows greater with each offering. In faith, we make ourselves available to God in love of God in Himself. We wait, in faith, for His revealing Himself to us with increasing, loving anticipation. Our hearts, minds, and souls desire knowing God; even our bodies yearn for God to make Himself known to us, more and more.
St. John Damascene continues:
"Nevertheless, God does not leave us in total ignorance since each one of us possesses the knowledge (sown by him) that God exists. Creation itself, by its cohesiveness and direction, proclaims the splendor of the divine nature (Rm 1:20). Then the Law and the prophets and, afterwards, his only Son, the Lord, 'our God and Savior Jesus Christ' (2Pt 1:1), have made known the knowledge of God according as we can understand it. That is why we receive and understand and give ourselves to everything handed on to us by the Law and prophets the apostles and evangelists. We fix our devotion on that and do not look beyond it."
Someone emailed of exasperation and righteous indignation at a spouse who asked about buying yet more broken down mopeds to repair (has not repaired even one, to date). The person said no to the spouse; they are out of room in their garage and storage sheds, their house is stock-full of various items all about. The thought comes, the reality is, that the spouse has not a relationship with Christ. The spouse is not open to the faith and has not been.
There is an emptiness within such minds, hearts, and souls of knowing God; rather their minds and hearts and souls have become filled with grasping after earthly items--such as broken mopeds. The emptiness is filled in with a physical representation of our own broken lives, broken by temporal hoarding and gluttony that we hope will fill in what our soul senses is lacking but the mind and emotions cannot admit.
How can God reveal himself to our emptiness when we glut our mortal and spiritual emptiness with items of the world--be they worldly thoughts, images, or tangible items? Yet, sometimes, on occasion, even then the Lord has revealed himself to such souls. I think of St. Paul or a few other saints who were blessed and most fortunate that God chose to reveal himself to them despite their resistance or lack of desire or their ignorance. They are the fortunate few, but what a risk to take!
I reminded the person who wrote of the sad situation of the spouse's choices of filling in with things--yes, the irony that they are broken things--and being staunchly yet resistant to accepting or wanting to know God. It is the knowing of God that God desires and wills for us and why he chooses to reveal himself to us! To know God then, is to love God.
All the person can do, and any of us Christians can do, is to pray that God reveals Himself to us, to ask God to reveal himself to us more and more, and for those resistant and ignorant of the indwelling of God when He reveals Himself to us, is to live as an example to others and to pray for them: Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing."
This additional, inspired thought written by St. John Damascene is one which I find particularly uplifting yet also practical:
"God is good; he sees to it that all is well.... Since he knows everything and provides what is suitable for each, he has revealed to us what we need to know [and have, I add] and kept from us what we cannot bear. Let us be content with that, then, and remain in it."
God bless His Real Presence in us!
May "this day" be one in which I renew my offering of self in full abandonment (as much as I am capable of abandoning of my self in this day) to God. May "this day" be the one in which I pray all the more that the light of Christ shine in me so that I see what is in me to be discarded so as to be yet more open for God to reveal Himself to me; and may the light of Christ shine in me, then, in a way that others might have God reveal Himself to them, through His revelation of Himself in me. Amen!
