How real is your God?
When I was participating in a training in Spiritual Accompaniment (Spiritual Direction), during my supervision sessions, at the climax of the session my director was fond of asking the question: “What is your God like?” She would then challenge me to go even deeper as she would continue to ask: “What does God feel like for you? What does He smell like? What does He taste like? What does He look like? What does He sound like for you?”
Initially these questions seemed silly, and even difficult to answer. Eventually they opened up for me a whole new way of perceiving God. I do the same now with people who come to me for Spiritual Accompaniment, and I see them proceed from impossibility to enlightenment. These questions simply make God more real to us.
For instance, if you were to ask me: “What does God smell like for you?” I might say something like this: “He smells like the fragrance of a cool evening in a hilly area after some showers; the air is fresh; there is a limy fragrance in the air; and you just want to take in a deep breath.” This God is real to me! Yes, it is analogical. In fact all our talking about God is analogical. But these images make God real to us.
Today we celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Trinity. The need for the belief in the Trinity in the Christian tradition has been necessitated by the truth that the Christian God is a real and a ‘concrete’ God. He is a God that I can relate to in a personal way. He is three persons in one! Some religions that are not able to have tangible images of God also do not have a belief in Trinity and Incarnation, and their God remains aloof and impersonal.
The Real Father
The first reading of today from the book of Exodus (34:4-6,8-9) describes God in a very concrete way: “Moses called on the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him… And Moses bowed down to the ground at once and worshipped.” It is almost like the scene in the Garden of Eden, though also different (Gen 3:8): “The man and his wife heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from Yahweh God among the trees of the garden.”
There are several such expressions in the Hebrew Scriptures to describe God in very real, tangible and experiential way:
For instance, in Genesis 18:1 – “Yahweh appeared to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre while he was sitting by the entrance of the tent during the hottest part of the day. He looked up, and there he saw three men standing near him.” These three men are described as angels, but later it is as if Abraham is bargaining with God himself about Sodom and Gomorrah.
And in Gen 32:25: “And Jacob was left alone. Then someone wrestled with him until daybreak.” This ‘someone’ is again initially presented as an angel, and finally it is alluded to as God himself.
In Exodus 3:1 “Moses was looking after the flock of his father-in-law …. he led it to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. The angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame blazing from the middle of a bush.”
Prophet Elijah was told (in 1Kings 19: 11): “’Go out and stand on the mountain before Yahweh.’ For at that moment Yahweh was going by. A mighty hurricane split the mountains and shattered the rocks before Yahweh. But Yahweh was not in the hurricane. And after the hurricane, an earthquake. But Yahweh was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, fire. But Yahweh was not in the fire. And after the fire, a light murmuring sound. And when Elijah heard this, he covered his face with his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.”
How many of us talk to God as Abraham did? How many of us have wrestled with God as Jacob did? Have you seen God in the burning bush or the gentle breeze? Is it that God does not appear this way any more, or is it that we have become too rational to recognise God in these images? Or is it because we are waiting to see God in extraordinary phenomena outside ourselves? I tend to think that the wrestling of Jacob, the burning bush of Moses, and the gentle breeze of Elijah are inner processes. I am more than convinced that often God communicates with us in the form of images during deep prayer. These images make God concrete and real! Are we ready to be surprised by this real God of ours?
The Real Son
The Letter to the Hebrews begins with these lines (Heb 1:1-2): “At many moments in the past and by many means, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our time, the final days, he has spoken to us in the person of his Son…”
Johannine literature (the Epistles and the Gospel) is very articulate about asserting the reality of the Son. In 1John 1:1-2: “Something which has existed since the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have watched and touched with our own hands, the Word of life — this is our theme. That life was made visible; we saw it and are giving our testimony….” Yes, “The Word became flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory” (Jn 1:14).
The gospel text of today reiterates the mystery of incarnation: “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son” (Jn 6:16). The mystery of incarnation and the mystery of the Holy Trinity co-exist together. One presupposes the other. Put in a very simplistic manner: when God was in Nazareth in the form of Jesus, who was maintaining the universe? Yes, the Father and the Spirit were in control! That is why even in talking about the resurrection of Jesus the expression used is “the Father raised him up” (Acts 2:33; Gal 1:1).
The Real Spirit
“When Pentecost day came round, they had all met together, when suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a violent wind which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and there appeared to them tongues as of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them” (Acts 2:1-3). Is this description an external event or an internal process? If you take for granted that these are external happenings that took place once upon a time, perhaps you may not experience it. It remains mere history. Whereas, if we understand that they are inner processes then we can experience them even here and now. Yes, God the Spirit is real and tangible. Those who have experienced Him can attest to it.
I experience Him as one who brings me the Good News. I experience Him as one who helps me discern. But I must hurry to add that it only happens when I am focussed on Him. I humbly submit to you one such example from my life. I was in London working on a PhD project. I was a little bit confused about my ministry. After having served in Africa, by then, for 16 years, I missed African youth as I was buried amidst my books in London. My ordination motto (in May 1996) had been: “Good News to Poor” (Lk 4:18). I felt I was isolating myself from the ministry to the ordinary youth of Africa with my PhD degree which will force me to minister to the academicians. I was not at peace. In July 2009, I went to the Divine Retreat Centre, Chalakudi, for the International Youth Retreat – my third retreat there! The question of my future ministry was at the back of my head, but did not worry too much about it. On the Friday morning – the last day of the retreat – at around 4 am… can I say, the Spirit wakes me up and says: “Romans one fourteen ‘B’” (Rom 1:14b). I clearly see a text in my mind as an image; I do not know yet what the text was about; and I am told to read only the second part of that verse. So I take my Bible and read. The text says: “I am obliged… to the educated and the ignorant.”
Yes, the Spirit of God is real. He has a voice. Yes, the Son is real. He has a body. Yes, our God is real!
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor 13:13)!!!