God Comes

These are places my mind goes when I think of the expanse of the universe. But I love to think about God as Light, coming to us eternally, and this metaphor is Scriptural. I believe God has left us physical truths that mirror His existence. The Universe as a metaphor for eternity, the Shroud as the evidence of Jesus’ physical reality and resurrection, the Eucharist as evidence of Christ’s promise “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.”


The Judeo-Christian God is the One who comes to us, not the one invented by us, although we have a tendency to ascribe things to God that are very limiting and more reflections of ourselves than actuality. Many writers have spoken of this phenomenon, that God came to us, that we did not discover Him or make Him up. Carlo Carretto’s book, “The God Who Comes,” deals with this reality. God is ever coming, unstoppable, infusing, light shining in darkness, immutable, source of himself, ever existing and ever the truth of existence, that spirit that we do not control. He came, He is coming, He will come again. We imperfect beings, if we knew and could comprehend God‘s nature, would open ourselves so much more readily to this forthcoming God, but we don’t recognize Him in our fallen nature, we are uncomprehending in His light, we cannot see the perfection of the beautific vision. And without that knowledge, we are lost and confused, selfish, power-hungry, murdering, awash with sin. We see that there is something greater than ourselves, as manifested in nature, space, and even the changing seasons and rebirth in spring. We have the natural capacity to recognize there is beauty and mystery in our world, and we can acknowledge them with thankful hearts.
It is the perfection of God that calls us to accountability, because in that perfection, in that omnipresence and omnipotence there is something greater, and something to measure up against. Day-to-day we think ourselves the masters of this world, but that little place of doubt in our hearts, that little place of wonder, of awe, of incompleteness, and of mystery reminds us we are not. The honest person recognizes and accepts this place, and even yearns to fill it, to be complete, to have peace in His soul.

And it is the coming of God himself that brings mercy in the form of the perfect man Jesus and in the bestowal of he Holy Spirit. Jesus is the form God took to come to us and show us the Father, and He is the Spirit that fills us with himself..

The Scripture says, God’s mercy brings repentance. This coming God does not stand in His perfection as someone to be feared, but as a spirit of love. Thus the discovery of God brings relief to the soul. The fear that we live in without Him is completely alleviated when we receive Him. And it never returns, because He abides with us always. This knowledge that God is not like man, who is untrustworthy and capricious, is such a discovery, that the relief and peace it brings and then continues to bring throughout one’s life drops us to our knees in submission and love. Love submits to love.