Easter Reflections: May 9, 2018 Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter

by Sr. Rose Anthony Mathews, ASC
I see that you are very religious…
I even discovered an altar…“to an unknown god.”

A few days before Christmas I received a book entitled KNOWING THE UNKNOWABLE GOD written by a student in my first class of 6 year olds (1956).  Needless to say, the title left me more than a bit amazed, curious, mystified.  Alas!  The student had become the teacher.
My initial written response to him was: “Yes, I have also come to know the Unknowable God!  Aren’t we blessed?”  I proceeded to tell him that I had come to know God because I had seen this God in him and in so many folks that I had come to know and work with over the years.  I had seen God as Creator in the beauty of nature and in the uniqueness and creativity invested in humankind in different places in this vast world of ours.  Sometimes the experience was more powerful than at other times, but it was always present if and when I took the time to take notice.
Several years ago I found this quote from the Talmud: “O Thou, who are at home deep in my heart, enable me to join you deep in my heart.”  That enabled me to get deeper in touch with the God within me.  That Presence abides in me whether I am cognizant of it or not.  Awesome and so very humbling!
In hindsight, I have come to more clearly recognize that the God within has truly journeyed with me from day 1!  There were times when I felt I was searching for SOMEONE or the Something more!  Much like the little fish searching for the ocean in one of Anthony de Mello’s stories, I was seeking, questioning the WHY and the HOW and the WHERE of life. The little fish was assured that he was already in the ocean just as I slowly began to recognize that God was within, around, and had encircled me with love beyond measure.
Just as Paul had to alert the Athenians that their God was beyond or more than images of gold.  God was more than their altar, etc.  He was immersed in them because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.   “In Him, we live and move and are!”