We long to meet God, but sometimes we look for him, but we can't find him. Perhaps our hearts are not in the right place, or as the Greek Catholic Father Miklós Papp put it, we want to squeeze the Almighty into the perspective dictated by us. However, Jesus promised that the pure in heart would see God.
On the way home last time, I saw God several times. At a bus stop, I saw a teenage girl fall on her girlfriend's shoulder, cry bitterly, and her girlfriend hugged her with such genuine love. Then I saw a mother trudging home tiredly, shopping in big bags, waiting for the evening family shift. It was so nice to see two young people kissing, who are not yet married, and before parting in the evening, they gave each other a pledge for the future with a kiss. I also saw a man on the phone feverishly, he still has work to do, he is still pushing cases, he is responsible for many! I saw an ambulance with a siren, a doctor and a nurse working in it, they gave everything. I also saw the grandmother walking home from church: she provides the prayer background for her active family members.
Yes, I have seen God many times. Because I want to believe his words: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is from God and knows God. ... God is love, and whoever perseveres in love remains in God, and God remains in him." (1 John 4, 7-16). I want to believe in God's promise: where there is sincere love, "the" Love is also present.
I don't want to look for and see God there and in the way I would prescribe him:
how good it would be sometimes for a mystical celestial phenomenon, an extraordinary historical intervention, a holistic scientific insight, or a miracle that fascinates my subjectivity - but God simply promised himself where there is love. We have to search there, we don't want to squeeze into our own dictated point of view. Pope Benedict also begins his encyclical Deus caritas est with this: "We believed in love". You can see God where he promised himself: in every sincere act of love! So, on my way home, I saw God a million times. Anyone who wants to walk like this will see love, not garbage, scrawled buses, intrusive advertisements, or political agitations.
Yes, it takes a pure heart. The pure in heart were promised to see God.
It is not good for our hearts to be filled with many shades of external or internal confusion. Sometimes, like a curtain, you have to pull aside all these inner suspicions, worries, anger, nervousness, passion - and behold, behind the pulled aside curtain you can see God face to face. For the pure of heart.
Featured image: Jacek Dylag / Unsplash
