Rooted in God’s Love

Rooted in God’s Love

“Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” – John 14:8

When I met Bishop Pablo Virgilio “Ambo” David for the first time, I asked him, “What do you want us to do in the Mission Station?” Without blinking an eye, he simply said, “Just be there. Be the presence of God to the poor, and the rest will follow.” His words moved my heart. In Caloocan City where poverty reeks and senseless killings are rampant, presence makes sense. It’s nonsense to many, but for the poor who are struggling in life, the presence of the Church in their midst makes a lot of difference.

My appreciation of the words “presence” or “staying with them” or “laboring with them” grows deeper as I continue to allow God to commune with me in the stillness of my heart. In my sacred space, I am always moved to relish the presence of God in two ways:

First, by meditating on or contemplating the Word of God, I found myself being renewed, healed and transformed. Through my relishing the Word of God, an indescribable joy gently awakens my slumbering spirit. A fresh breath of life. I’m renewed! It reminds me of the disciples’ words at Emmaus, “Were not our hearts burning within us, while he was talking to us on the road …?” (Luke 24:32).

Second, by becoming aware of the present moment, I get in touch with the grace of the here and now. As I relish my meals, the wonders of creation, an inspiring conversation with friends, a cup of coffee in the morning, a cool breeze, raindrops, beautiful flowers, laughter of children, words of encouragement, birds chirping and, most of all, the presence of someone in front of me, I can feel the spirit of joy and gratitude overflowing from within. My relishing of my present experience, whether grand, ordinary or mundane, dispose of me to believe that everything is grace. God is in everything, and everything is in God.

The key to enter into our hearts is to become aware of our presence and God’s presence. We need to stop our doubting and the feeling of unworthiness and believe that God is longing to commune with us. Every moment, like a parent, He is waiting for our coming home (Luke 15:20). He desires our presence as we are. When our presence and God’s presence meet or, shall I say, when our hearts become one with His heart, an explosion of peace, love, and life takes place.

It makes sense why Ignatius of Loyola, in his Spiritual Exercises, would invite us to “taste and relish” the creative movement of the love of God in our inner selves. For it is in the tasting and relishing of God’s presence that we deepen our relationship with the Lord. It is not because God is not intimately close with us, for He is; but He is inviting us intimately to come closer to Him (Revelation 3:20).

Ignatius explicitly said, “For it is not much knowledge that fills and satisfies the soul, but the tasting and relishing interiorly.” (Spiritual Exercises, 2). In our silence or in our prayer, as we taste and relish the Word of God in the comfort of our sacred space, the Scripture becomes alive and speaks to us intimately. And in the stillness of our hearts, as we develop the attitude of becoming aware of the grace of the present moment, we hear His gentle voice, creating ripples of exploding love in our hearts, setting us free and bringing new life to us.

Our daily tasting and relishing of the Word of God, His undying love, and the grace of the moment (Luke 2:19) lead us to see things through God’s own divine eyes. It’s a divine lens that sees life and not death, potentials and not limitations, light and not darkness, inner joy and not mere fun, things that last and not things that fade, hope and not despair, and finally God and not myself. We are blind. Like the two disciples going to Emmaus, we also fail to see Jesus in our daily routines. Let’s beg him to touch our eyes and give us sight. And become like the two disciples, whose eyes were opened in the breaking of bread, in the tasting and relishing (Luke 24:13-35).

Jesus is inviting us to create a sacred space where we can commune with Him. Every day! Little pockets of silence and stillness every day in our hearts! In our prayer, He is gently accompanying us to be in touch with our authentic selves: “That we were created by God in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:27), and He loves us as we are (Jeremiah 31:3). Something that we always tend to forget, deny, and doubt because of busyness, anxieties, and fears.

We need to remind ourselves that everything is grace. But the grace of God will never penetrate our hearts without a right disposition. Saint Ignatius invites us to relish our experience interiorly. We gain much profit when our hearts are touched by the presence of God. And when our hearts are deeply rooted in His love (Ephesians 3:17), we are moved to genuinely love others the way we have experienced His love.

Truly, our PRESENCE is the best gift we can give to one another. The rest is secondary. FOR ANY GOOD WORK DONE WITHOUT LOVE IS EMPTY. As Saint Paul said, “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

Be rooted in God’s love. Be His presence to others. Be an inspiration. The rest will follow.

Reflection: How’s your prayer life? Do you feel God’s loving presence in your prayer? What moves you every time you go to your silence?

• Pitik-Bulag

• Fr. Willy M. Samson, SJ